Bobo sends us a link to the Stars & Stripes which reports that biopsies of six soldiers’ lungs has revealed titanium and other metals deposited there probably;y from dust;
“It matched dust that we have collected from Camp Victory” in Iraq.
The dust is different from dust found elsewhere in that human lungs are unable to dispel it through natural immune-system processes. The Iraq dust comes attached to iron and copper, and it forms polarizable crystals in the lungs, Szema said. The particles — each bit 1/30th the size of a human hair — have sharp edges.
“They’ve inhaled metal,” Szema said. “It’s not a little; it’s a lot.”
The shards of metal are 1/30th the size of a human hair and very pointy according to the article. It may have resulted from the burn pits, or from the first Gulf War “when Iraqi missiles and U.S. bombs melded dust to metal”.
Titanium and iron are both associated with pulmonary fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension in humans, Szema said.
Last month, the Defense Department released its annual relative morbidity report. A USA TODAY analysis of reports dating from 2001 to 2013, as well as Defense Manpower Data, shows that the number of people reporting respiratory and chest symptoms increased from a rate of 406 per 10,000 in 2001 to 744 per 10,000 in 2013.
So, tell me, how, exactly, the Defense Department can justify raising out-of-pocket costs for veterans’ health care? I guess it’s our fault for breathing so much.
I keep telling everybody it is not dust. It is 10,000 years of dried camel shit. See now don’t you feel better.
So aggravating.
My team shared a wall with a burn pit. The COP burn pit was adjacent to our sleeping quarters.
It did not help we lived in an abandoned industrial factory as well. Towards then end of our tour I learned they were barbequeing the few hot meals we were given directly over an open pan of burning diesel. Not wood or charcoal. Just burgers sitting over burning diesel.
There was no way our environment was healthy. Even the Iraqis would not touch the place. All the buildings had been completely abandoned for years.
The buildings remain abandoned and the Iraqis wont touch it not because it is/was nasty but because they have already stripped the buildings for all metals or assumed valuables to be sold.
I get your point though, Iraq was nasty, both time I went.
That was not the case here, Buildings still had all the doors and there was even metal furniture and shelving in them. ‘
There was an apartment building in my district that was 5 stories tall and missing an entire north wall. People lived in that building on the fifth floor with with only a step or slip into open sky.
But they would not touch the part of the factory we live in. Not even to scavenge.
When we dug our piss trench bodies were found so that could have been part of the explanation.
There was also black mold on the walls and a few piles of this white chemical that had been sitting for more than a decade but nothing was growing on it and it did not look like it had dissolved or degraded the entire time.
We were just told to stay out of the room and not to touch it.
Since it was near the Iran border and was destroyed during the Iran-Iraq war where chemical weapons had been used many of us suspected that the site had been targeted by chemical weapons during the Iran Iraq war.
When we inquired about that possibility we were told from division that it was possible but chemical weapons do not persist in the soil for more than a few weeks and since it had been two decades since the war there was nothing to worry about.
I didn’t buy that there was nothing to worry about but my request to have the soil tested was disapproved.
Anybody remember the Saddam Flu. Everyone as soon as they got in country caught it. Nasty bug that had snot, spit and shit coming out non stop. Fun.
We called it the Baghdad Crud, and it was so much fun my body decided to celebrate it twice during the first three months I was in-country…
Similar stuff in Afghanistan – and yes, it was referred to as the “Kabul Krud” by those in Kabul.
Both trips to Iraq I was in the 502nd of the 101st. We called it the Black Heart Plague on account of the black hearts we wore on our helmets. We were still in Baghdad during the invasion for my first go-round with it.I still remember the night it suddenly hit me for the first time, everything about it was sudden.
There’s still some days I won’t trust a fart.
The best part was driving around in that crap, especially as trail vehicle.
Thats nothing, anyone ever hear of Osirak? That ole nuclear reactor the Israelis bombed? That is where some genius decided put 2 companies of the 3/1 CAV as COP Cashe. Alot of guys got full body rashes called the Cashe Rash, which is sad considering the COP was named after SFC Cashe.
There was also the brick factory over by Narawhan and FOB hammer. I’m sure that was healthy for me to breathe for what ended up being close to 3 years…
Does anybody else remember all those little (non NBC) air monitoring devices around their bases? I wonder if OTHA can find any misplaced information from them.
Sorry OSHA not OTHA.
p.s F Bernath that is all.
“So, tell me, how, exactly, the Defense Department can justify raising out-of-pocket costs for veterans’ health care?”
You just gave a shining example. They know, better than you do, what’s coming down the medical pipe that they don’t want to pay for. What nobody planned for were the medical issues that would start cropping up twenty years + later.
No big surprise here… Our environmental health folks over at camp striker had to turn off a warning system on account of PM1 and CEM sigs setting off the alarms all the time and yes Jonn I do find it odd how the DOD has managed to pass on future medical cost to us for doing our job
Lest you think this dismissal of your medical costs is something new, mustard gas form WWI didn’t kill everyone but did damage a lot of the troops who served, never mind that the Spanish Flu was brought home by them.
And during the years of the Dust Bowl, people of all ages – adults and children alike – developed silicosis and died from inhaling the powdery fine dust blown around by the winds. And no one in Washington believed that anything was wrong until the Dust Bowl blew into town in the middle of a congressional session.
You see, if THEY don’t have it or suffer from it, THEY are going to dump the problem off on YOU.
Remember, Agent Orange exposure was supposed to be nothing but a whiny whine from in-country troops who were sprayed with it during operations in Vietnam.
Someone knew about it, an outspoken person addressing a congressional committee. He pulled a crap load of tricks from his sleeve to keep talking and to keep them in session… until the dust reached their area of Washington D.C. Then he utilized the dust to drive his point home and prove his statement. 😀
Yes, and I can’t remember his name, either, but that Hobo fellow can probably dig it up.
I think what I dislike is the way congress critters think they have some kind of shield around themselves, so that nothing bad, Dust Bowl or ME afflections, has anything to do with them.
His name was Hugh Hammond Bennett.
Sorry if I stole the Hobo’s thunder.
And don’t forget all chem weapons we bulldozed under in 1991. Still leaking.
SHHHHH!!!! The war was for oil, remember!!!
😉
:X
OK lets see what my math adds up to/
Desert Shield Strom right on the border before the invasion you could see the day light after we went up cut some pipe lines and dealt with some UXO shit with oil dust raining all over.
Then back to the main site some fucking place near the border. Depending on wind it could be night or day. No problem there!!!
In Greece open junk burn pit inspected by Navy Medical Air Bad. No problem there.
Then Asugi Japan incinerator Navy Medical air bad.. No problem
Iraq 2003 helping blow ammo dumps and digging up dead body’s and next to burn pits were batteries were burned. No problem!!
2004 Fallujah don’t know except open burn pits.
Hurricane Katrina clearing buildings built in the 30’s or before. No problem no asbestos and forget about the Agent Orange that leaked into the ground no may the hurricane would not have brought that shit up!!! No problem
Pakistan Earth quake 2005-06. went INTO Villages and open sewer lines and camp on possible old chemical factory. PM team came in found possible positive HITS. No problem!!!
2010-2011 Camp Victory VBC all over and oh forget we were about 1/8 mile from the VBC Incinerator next to log base sites oh ya forget I said that Log base sites was never there…. No problem there
Then who know’s what was in all the moon dust in AFG!! No Problem there…
Add all that up I’m fucked and the VA won’t give a shit…