Burn Pits - A possible solution that seemed to have failed

SGT Ben Keen — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:00:58 -0500

While I'm not a huge fan of FoxNews, this article linked below was published and talks about a project that if it was successful would have saved a lot of us from spending hours standing around an open pit while lord knows what was burned.<div><br></div><div>I try not to complain too much about things that are/were outside of my control but personally, I see burn pits as the Post-9/11's version of what Vietnam Veterans faced and continue to face in regards to the use of Agent Orange.    </div><div class="pta-link-card"><div class="pta-link-card-picture"><img src="http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/Politics/0/0/burnpit_020413.jpg"></div><div class="pta-link-card-content"><div class="pta-link-card-title"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/16/complete-waste-army-corps-flushed-54m-on-unusable-trash-incinerators-probe/">‘Complete waste’: Army Corps flushed $5.4M on ‘unusable’ trash incinerators, probe finds</a></div><div class="pta-link-card-description">The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used, leaving soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option ...</div></div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="pta-box-hide"><i class="icon-remove"></i></div></div>

Response by SFC Rocky Gannon made Dec 16 at 2013 11:03 AM

SFC Rocky Gannon — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 11:03:31 -0500

SGT Keen yea I seen that and posted earlier t total waist of 5 million that will be destroyed now

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 10 at 2015 7:17 AM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 07:17:14 -0500

I remember seeing the incinerators in Iraq in 2006-2007 that were not being used because it was too expensive for KBR to get them working. Those same incinerators weren't working in 2009-2010. When I got to Afghanistan in 2012 my unit gave thousands of gallons of comingled waste fuel to Fluor so that they could get the incinerators at FOB Shank up and running. The started them up with the fuel and then kept the burn pit going, I have no idea what happened to those incinerators.

It's no big deal though, we're just soldiers, it's not like we have to breath.

Response by Simon Abela made Nov 10 at 2015 8:17 AM

Simon Abela — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:17:32 -0500

Iraq, I was always against them, I told my employer KBR this is not the best way to handle waste, the never listened to us, especially senior managers. I end up closing the Baghdad Landfill end of 2011, as URS dragged their field. I would have taken a different approach, and use a different strategy in the future.

Response by SGT Scott Henderson made Nov 10 at 2015 8:26 AM

SGT Scott Henderson — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 08:26:00 -0500

I burned trash in Iraq in 2003-2004 (poo too!), it was still being burned in 2006-2008, and even still in 2009-2010. When I got to Afghanistan in 2011 the COP I was at was remote enough to go back to burning trash (and poo). Now I'm 37 and doctors look at me funny when they read my medical record a see COPD listed. If KBR didn't light the incinerator because it was "too expensive" maybe they should have taken some of that $40/coke they were charging or of their bank account and don't what was right. Of course when has anything associated with politics been right?

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 10 at 2015 10:03 AM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 10:03:54 -0500

I personally watched an Air Force unit dump 11 4 Wheel drive ATV's into the burn pit. They ran and were serviceable. I asked if I could acquire them for use by my unit. They OIC/KBR operators of the burn pit said that once something was brought to the pit, it could never leave again. The Air force guys said they were not going to take them home when they redeployed because they were bought with GWOT money and were considered expendable. What a freaking waste. Tens of thousands of dollars burnt. In fact I saw so much stuff, including medical equipment and medical waste, going into the burn pit while I was there on several occasions. Waste, Waste, and more Waste.

Response by SSG Carlton Givens made Nov 10 at 2015 12:28 PM

SSG Carlton Givens — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 12:28:40 -0500

I was at FOB Sharana in Afghanistan from 11-12 and worked on the airfield where a burn pit was located that burned anything and everything imaginable. Depending upon the direction that the winds blew which 95% of the time at night it blew back on to the FOB and over our airfield. You either breathed it while at work or while sleeping. After returning home I had severe breathing issues. My PT score went down so I decided to go see a civilian pulmonologist. After doing a battery of breathing test the doctor said that he had a patient that was a worker at the WTC after they went down who was having breathing issues and said that my lungs where worse off than his. He told me that whatever I was breathing from that pit has severely damaged my lungs. I am now retired and will have to live with COPD and asthma for the rest of my life however long that may be. I am not looking to be compensated of the sort. I just want our government to pay attention to us vets and do something about this.

Response by SGT Jason Hartnett made Nov 10 at 2015 1:42 PM

SGT Jason Hartnett — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 13:42:12 -0500

I was at FOB Kalsu in '03-'04. We slept right next to the burn pits. We also used JP-8 to burn our own poo. We were at the southern boarder of the Suni triangle, on MSR Tampa. We were self sustaining MP Co. So no KBR for us. I have has some major issues since then.

Response by SGT Joseph Schmalzel made Nov 11 at 2015 4:47 PM

SGT Joseph Schmalzel — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 16:47:02 -0500

I was at Al Asad 03-04 and we burned everything. I mean everything. Up to and including Russian/Iraqi airplanes. Do any of you know what kinds of exotic materials airplanes are made out of? Let me just say its some bad stuff. I have pictures of me at our pit because its my proof latter on down the line. When this fire grows.
Oh and the shit pots. I don't even know what to say about those. We had porta shitters a few months in and people we were still stirring the pots. It made the 1SG happy I guess. Breath easy my Brothers and Sisters.
By the way try to have a good Veterans Day.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 12 at 2015 9:58 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 09:58:48 -0500

Burn Pits for Soldiers and GWOT veterans is the new Gulf War Syndrome and Agent Orange for the ones who came before is. I was at FOB Lagman, Qalat Afghanistan in 2004-2005 and was located right near a Burn pit. In Kandahar, we had to go to the burn pits to get rid of trash and whatever else. On mission, we were told to burn everything so we didn't leave behind anything that could be used against us. We burned trash, bottles, radio batteries. I was at FOB Kalsu Iraq in 08-09, and between FOB Lighting, Gardez and FOB Sharana Afghanistan in 11-12. There was a report released that in Iraq, the dust contained metal shards and that troops were breathing that in, a report in the Army Times stated that trash was being burned at Sharana in direct violation of CENTCOM policy and that incinerators sat there unused. I have registered on the Burn Pit registry while still on Active Duty but it doesn't help much. I now have skin issues on my legs, arms, and eyelids. I feel that my nose is stuffy all the time and Im constantly spitting up mucus and No, I never had allergies as a child either. I have to fight to try and have burn pit exposure annotated in my medical record because no one wants to acknowledge it right now.

Response by PO2 Gm Parada made Dec 14 at 2015 11:46 PM

PO2 Gm Parada — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 23:46:23 -0500

PLEASE TAKE NOTE PASS IT ALONG ... CONTACT ME WITH ANY QUESTION

Even as military health officials continue to say there are "no known long-term health effects" caused by open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, a team of Army doctors says a soldier's cystic lung disease is "related to the burn pits in Iraq."
A second set of doctors, trying to determine why 56 soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division came back from Iraq short of breath, found each had bronchiolitis that could be diagnosed only with a biopsy.
That disease normally comes with organ transplantation, infection, rheumatoid arthritis or toxic fume inhalation. Because there was no scarring on the soldiers' lungs, doctors decided it must have been toxic inhalation and added a fifth cause of bronchiolitis to their list: "Iraq."
Since Military Times began reporting in October about burn pits in the war zones, 400 troops have contacted Disabled American Veterans to say they have breathing problems or cancers they believe came after exposure to the burn pits.
Many say they have been diagnosed with "asthma-like" or "allergy-like" symptoms when they've complained of shortness of breath, but their doctors can't come up with an exact diagnosis.
Meanwhile, annual cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among service members have risen 82 percent since 2001, to 24,555 last year, while cases of all other respiratory illnesses have risen 37 percent, to 28,276, Defense Department data show.
A dubious honor
The symptoms cited by service members are remarkably similar. But Spc. Edward Adams, 33, may be the first to have "burn pit" marked in his medical records.
Adams, who joined the Army in 2005, served at Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq, from July 2006 to October 2007, where he lived downwind of a burn pit used to eliminate the base's waste.
"At night, it was like stepping into a sewer," he said. "There was a giant black cloud."
Within months of arriving, he found himself short of breath, felt tightness in his chest and had a constant cough. By the end of his deployment, he couldn't keep up on physical training runs.
"They didn't treat me at all," Adams said of medics at the base. "They told me it was … dirt and sand. I thought, ‘When I get home, it should clear up.' But I immediately started getting worse."
No one seemed able to diagnose his problem, and his X-ray looked clear. Then one night after he came home, his lungs shut down, leaving him unable to breathe.
He spent six days in the hospital and was referred to the pulmonary department. A breathing test showed possible asthma, but that didn't match other tests.
His doctor, Army Col. Vincent Grbach, ordered an MRI that showed Adams' lungs were filled with hundreds of tiny black holes — cystic lesions that had spread throughout his lungs.
But unlike the ragged lesions that show up in cases of emphysema, usually in middle-aged smokers, Adams' lesions were smooth. And there was no scar tissue to show infection.
"The doctors said … they hadn't seen these problems until the last few years," Adams said. "They asked me if I was near a burn pit."
Grbach brought up the case at a thoracic conference at Tripler Army Medical Center at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where Adams is stationed, to find a diagnosis.
Grbach, who did not respond to e-mail requests for an interview, typed a diagnosis based on the conference in Adams' file, citing "unanimous agreement" that Adams' pulmonary disease "represents something other than asthma and is probably related to the burn pits in Iraq."
Grbach recommended that Adams be medically retired from the military, calling his disease a "chronic lifelong condition."
In his medical evaluation board, a second doctor determined that Adams' aorta — the body's largest blood vessel, leading out from the heart — had decreased in size by about half.
The doctor, Michael McGriff, chief physician of the MEB at Tripler, attributed that to "toxic exposure," according to Adams' records, because, again, Adams had no other markers for the problem and no one could figure out what caused it.
"He told me, ‘Get life insurance. We don't know if you have one year to live or 50,'" said Adams, the father of a 6-month-old boy.
Not an isolated case
Vanderbilt University Medical Center physician Robert Miller said Adams is not the only one coming home from Iraq with breathing problems that are proving difficult to diagnose.
Miller, assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine, was asked by military physicians to see if he could find out why 56 airborne soldiers back from Iraq were short of breath.
Their pulmonary function tests came back normal, and their X-rays and MRIs showed nothing out of the ordinary.
But only one had had a baseline pulmonary function test before deploying. That test checks how much air a person's lungs can hold, usually by seeing how much he can blow out or inhale.
That soldier scored 115 percent of normal on a pre-deployment test. Post-deployment, he tested at 80 percent. By itself, 80 percent is not considered abnormal — but a 35-point drop is "a huge change," Miller said.
Miller and his research partner, Matthew King, began asking soldiers if they had been exposed to anything in Iraq. Most had been exposed to sulfur dioxide from a sulfur mine fire in Mosul in 2003. The others had been exposed to open burn pits.
Miller biopsied the soldiers' lungs. In each of the 40 soldiers he tested, he found bronchiolitis, an obstruction of the lungs' tiniest airways — including in those soldiers who had not been exposed to the sulfur mine.
The disease should have shown up on the soldiers' X-rays, but it didn't. Miler called that "very unusual."
As more soldiers came in over the years, Miller ordered a lung biopsy on every one who had shortness of breath — not normal procedure for that condition.
"At first, I didn't biopsy them," he said. "But two of my most severe patients had chest X-rays that were completely normal."
One, a former marathon runner who had continued to run while in Iraq, was so debilitated upon her return in 2005 that she is now on oxygen. She had not been exposed to the sulfur mine fire, even though Miller said sulfur dioxide is "the most significant toxin for this lesion."
What else could produce sulfur dioxide? In a memo dated Dec. 20, 2006, Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, former bioenvironmental flight commander for Joint Base Balad, Iraq, which at one time burned 250 tons of trash a day, cited sulfur dioxide as a byproduct of the burn pit.
Miller's patients probably will have breathing problems for the rest of their lives.
He recommends the military require baseline pulmonary function tests for all active-duty service members so there is something to compare with later, if necessary.
Ultimately, Miller said, the military needs to take a serious look at its practice of long-term, open-pit burning of trash. "I believe it's … inhalational exposure," he said of the patients he has seen and continues to see. "I'm concerned about what's out there."
GM