No Iraqi EPA...
Not only did we have our own burn pit, but we drove by an Iraqi dump/burn pit/landfill quite often. When we did presence patrols in our HMMWVs, we had to constantly drive through the smoke at the outskirts of town where the local dump for a moderate size town existed. This local waste disposal area was constantly on fire and/or smoldering. We would play "Guess that smell". There was also times where we could taste it, too. It was horrible. It actually burned our nostrils. It was like you could smell batteries burning, kinda like the feeling of a 9 volt battery on your tongue. I could go on and on, but you see where I am going. I was exposed to this well over 500 times. (At least twice a day or mounted patrol. Coming and going. The road ran along side it.)
What was even worse was our actual FOB. It contained an oil fired power plant inside our perimeter. I was exposed to this every day. (OFF TOPIC: We had to get our power from two industrial marine-sized generators, not from the power plant we had to guard). There is no EPA over in Iraq and when attacked and the oil lines leaked/caught fire/exploded we had to live in the mess. We walked in oil sludge, breathed oil fumes from the spill covering our FOB as well as the burning oil. Every day. ALSO, when they cleaned out each of the 5 burners and chimneys, there was no EPA to stop unsafe practices. We had burnt oil ash "raining" down onto us coating us and everything else in a half burned, oily "goo".
Off Topic: Yes, there is an American Flag flying, which we were not allowed to do, but it was the Fourth of July and I decided that today this flag was being flown. (I still have the flag) We were not allowed to fly the American Flag at our FOB because we were not "an Army of Occupation, but an Army of Liberation". True story.
And the smoke coming out of the chimneys on this day was considered "very light" pic not taken a clean out day. We figured if we smoked, at least we had a filter, lol. I have some pics somewhere. It would put a haze in the air like the sand storms. Cleaning or relighting the burners was 100x's worse. While the oil burners came up to the correct temp, they spewed "more oily goo". Our COC said "It won't hurt you, quit complaining". When they cleaned out the insides of the plant by burning even more oil at a higher temp, goo & smoke. I have more pics that I cannot find right now. Will edit post later with some WORSE pics. A lot of Soldiers took pictures in case of denial by the government in the future if we all developed cancer.
I guess I should check out this "burn pit registry" thing as I haven't looked into it, but I have pictures... I am almost afraid to find out. I am already 100% T&P/IU for wounds suffered in combat as well as PTSD. Now I have to start researching what I was breathing? While in the hospital they did a chest X-ray for TB and said that they did find two 3 mm non-cancerous "pulmonary nodules" that were not TB. (Had to look at my records for that one.) I asked how they knew it wasn't cancer, and they replied, "Your blood work would show signs". And to "Have it checked on every once in a while". WTF?
As you can tell by the book I wrote, this has been bothering me for quite a while. I am going to start my research, but WTF? Are they doubting that there was stuff in the air that could harm us? Trying to stop us from filing more claims? I should research before I spout off, but I have been in the system long enough to know "Deny, Deny, Deny... They will eventually die". Thanks for listening. I almost hate posting this shit. It took me 5 minutes to hit "post reply".
