burn pits
lborkowski | October 21, 2013This month's issue of EHS Today includes a special section on Bangladesh factory safety, a topic that has continued to attract news coverage following the April collapse of the Rana Plaza building, which killed more than 1100 workers. Sandy Smith's introductory article summarizes some of the international efforts aimed at improving working condition in Bangladesh, including support of the Bangladeshi National Action Plan for Fire and Building Safety and two different retailer initiatives.
Scott Nova critiques existing factory inspection programs for "their abject failure to provide basic…
lborkowski | December 19, 2011J. Freedom du Lac reports in the Washington Post that Army Spec. David Emanuel Hickman, killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on November 14th, was the 4,474th US servicemember to be killed in Iraq. With all the US troops now gone from Iraq, Hickman's death may well be the last servicemember fatality directly attributed to this conflict. The number of Iraqi deaths is much higher and much less precise; the Iraq Body Count website puts it between 104,122 and 113,700. And as a 2009 American Public Health Association policy statement points out, the consequences are greater than death alone. Here'…
lborkowski | August 19, 2011A few of the recent pieces I've liked (or, in the case of the first item, found horribly disturbing but important):
Maryn McKenna at Superbug: Ringing the Warning Bell: Colistin-Resistant Klebsiella
J. Malcolm Garcia in Guernica: Smoke Screen ("In Afghanistan, the U.S. military disposes of garbage--computers, motorbikes, TVs, shoes, even human feces--in open burn pits. Are toxic clouds from these sites making everyone sick?" Bonus: Celeste is quoted in the article.)
The New York Times' Room for Debate: Could Farms Survive Without Illegal Labor?
Helen Branswell at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis…
lborkowski | December 28, 2010Liz and Celeste are on vacation, so we're re-posting some content from our old site.
By Liz Borkowski, originally posted 11/6/09
Earlier today, the Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing on the use of burn pits for trash at military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan - a practice that may be exposing thousands of soldiers and civilians to carcinogens, respiratory irritants, and neurotoxins. A particularly large burn pit at the Balad Air Base in Iraq has been getting a lot of attention, but the use of burn pits seems to be widespread at these military bases.
As DPC Chair Senator Byron…
lborkowski | September 22, 201044-year-old Iraq veteran Tim Wymore suffers from brain lesions, a blood disorder, and other health problems that leave him unable to walk unassisted. His wife, Shanna, quit her job to be his full-time caregiver. Wymore is one of several hundred veterans who've fired lawsuits related to exposure to open-air burn pits at US miliatry installations. Yet he's struggling to get benefits for himself and his family. Phillip O'Connor reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledges that Wymore's health problems are war-related.
But the VA believes his condition…