Report cites low health risk from burn pits

[unhappycamper]

Report cites low health risk from burn pits
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 18:13:24 EST

The Army staff sergeant began running long distances when she was 7 years old. A born overachiever, she made E-6 in eight years in her job as a truck driver. She ran six-minute miles and is air-assault qualified.

Then she went to Joint Base Balad in Iraq.

“I got so sick I was medevacked out,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now I can hardly walk without using an inhaler. I’m losing my career to asthma.”

At Balad, she and two other soldiers worked the night shift as convoy supervisors for the KBR contractors who brought garbage to be dumped in the base’s open-air burn pit.

“By midnight, the smoke was so bad you couldn’t see,” she said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/airforce_burnpit_122308/%2e