14 DAY TRIAL // One family from Iowa now claims that air pollution caused by a burn pit in Iraq must be held responsible for the fact that 32-year-old Joshua Casteel, who used to serve at a military base in said country, became sick with cancer and died not very long ago, on August 25.
Interestingly enough, Joshua's family is not the first to point their finger at the toxic fumes released by military burn pits and state that the soldiers' exposure to such chemical compounds leads to their developing various medical conditions.
Thus, Stars and Stripes says that, up until now, as many as 200 people spread across 48 states saw fit to file lawsuits against the Texas-based contractor in charge of keeping these burn pits up and running.
Apparently, these burn pits were used to destroy all kinds of things (i.e. plastics, paint, electronics, organic material), which is why it need not come as such a big surprise that the amounts of local air pollution they caused were noteworthy, to say the least.
Commenting on her son's death, Joshua's mother made a case of how, “I don't think any of the soldiers thought twice about it. Most of them, I'm sure, had no idea what they were breathing.”
Backing up her statements, oncologist Dr. Thor Halfdanarson argued that, “Joshua died of lung cancer without having any of the conventional risk factors such as smoking, asbestos exposure or radiation.”
Given the fact that these toxic fumes and harmful chemical compounds usually get washed out of the air with the help of rain and thus make their way into groundwater sources and farming soils, concerns are now raised with respect to how these impact on agricultural practices and public health in Iraq.
Although the military officials have taken care of forbidding the burn of hazardous materials in the open, rumor has is that 88 such major air pollution sources are still operating in Afghanistan.