Burn pit data worthless, expert says - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Burn pit data worthless, expert says

The airman who first raised health concerns over burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq says the Defense Department data — which officials used to say the burn pits cause no known long-term health effects — is worthless.

And Air Force Lt. Col Darrin Curtis, a bioenvironmental flight commander who retired in November, is the one who created the plan to collect the air specimens near the plume.

“You could only sample so much,” he said Friday. “I think it’s more than difficult; it’s impossible. It would cost as much to bring in incinerators as it would to do an adequate study.”

When they set up the sampling equipment, he said the smoke flew up in a 90-degree plume away from the air collectors. The equipment instead collected much cleaner air.

“The data’s not there,” he said. “With something like this, there’s no way to do it.”

In a December 2006 memo first reported in October 2008, Curtis called the burn pit “an acute health hazard for individuals. There is also the possibility for chemical health hazards associated with the smoke.” Air Force bioenvironmental engineers are experts in occupational and environmental workplace hazards.

According to his memo, the military burned Styrofoam, unexploded ordnance, petroleum products, plastics, rubber, dining facility trash, paint and solvents, and medical waste in the Balad burn pit. The memo said those items could have exposed troops to benzene, an aircraft fuel known to cause leukemia; arsenic; dichlorofluromethane, or Freon; carbon monoxide; ethylbenzene; formaldehyde; hydrogen cyanide; nitrogen dioxide; sulfuric acid; and xylene.

But ever since the memo surfaced, military officials have said there are no known long-term health effects from the pit. They based their statements on the plume air testing.

Officials did not waver from that position until this week, when CNN reported that R. Craig Postlewaite said, “Certain individuals may be more susceptible to the effects of burn-pit smoke because of genetics and pre-existing health conditions, and that some of these personnel may be at risk of more serious health effects following prolonged smoke exposure.” Postlewaite is the acting director, force health protection and readiness programs, office of the assistance secretary of defense for health affairs.

Curtis decided to speak up after the CNN report on Postlewaite. He said he never felt any pressure while he was in the military to not talk about the problems he saw. In fact, he spoke with Military Times by e-mail a year ago.

But he’s frustrated by what happened after his memo came out.

“Why send these people over there if you’re not going to listen to them?” he said, referring to the bioenvironmental personnel.

Curtis said he knew there was a problem as soon as he arrived in Balad.

“I saw a lot of smoke,” he said. “That was as soon as I got off the plane. The burn pit smoke, especially at night, would sink right to the ground. A lot of the time, the smoke was just in my face.”

He knew he needed to test the plume to see if the service members were at risk. But though he and his team used weather data to try to determine the best places to put the testing equipment, keeping in mind where they had power supplies, the weather didn’t cooperate on the collection days, and the plume smoke floated away.

“We really wanted to collect and get the best data we could,” Curtis said. “We thought that was going to be the best shot for helping people.”

But Curtis sees another measure.

“I think some of the cancers and the respiratory things are outside the normal boundaries for a fairly healthy population,” he said. “We can’t do anything about the sand,” he said, referring to the airborne particulate matter common to that area, “but at least the burn pits are something we could have done something about.”

According to the Defense Department, the burn pits at Balad were shut down Oct. 1, but burn pits at other bases throughout Iraq and Afghanistan are still operating. Incinerators can cost millions of dollars.

The next step, Curtis said, is to take care of sick service members.

“The people with health issues — what are we going to do with them?” he said. “You’ve got hundreds and thousands of people who have been stationed over there. I pray every night that I’m wrong, but I don’t think I’m going to be.”