U.S. Army Burn Pit Victim Dies after Battle with Leukemia
Monday, March 22, 2010
Danielle Nienajadlo
More than 500 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have reported illnesses that they blame on the open-pit burning of toxic waste by the military and defense contractors. The numbers were compiled by Disabled American Veterans, a national nonprofit supporting former soldiers, that received the reports over a 17-month period.
The military and contractors like former Halliburton subsidiary KBR have dumped “hundreds of tons of refuse into giant open-air trenches, doused the piles with fuel, and left them to burn,” according to Mother Jones. “The trash includes plastic, metal, asbestos, batteries, tires, unexploded ordnance, medical waste, even entire trucks.”
One such victim was 31-year-old Staff Sergeant Danielle Nienajadlo, who died on Saturday, March 20. Nienajadlo deployed to Iraq in excellent shape, but became terribly ill in just a matter of weeks after breathing fumes from a pit at Balad Air Base. She began experiencing prolonged headaches, bruises all over her body, an open sore on her back that wouldn’t heal, vomiting and weight loss. After being sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Nienajadlo was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. She died at the University of Washington cancer center.
Veterans groups are calling for the Department of Veterans Affairs to take cases like Nienajadlo’s seriously and not delay as it did with soldiers returning home from Vietnam. “We don’t want another Agent Orange,” says John Wilson, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans. “Silence does not do any good.”
Multiple class-action lawsuits have been filed by veterans against Halliburton and KBR over their open-pit burning of garbage in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
“They Helped Kill My Daughter” (by Lindsay Wiedman, Travelling Soldier)
Another Gulf War Syndrome? (by Beth Hawkins, Mother Jones)
U.S. Soldiers Sue Halliburton/KBR over Garbage Burning Illness and Death (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
- Top Stories
- Unusual News
- Where is the Money Going?
- Controversies
- U.S. and the World
- Appointments and Resignations
- Latest News
- Americans are Unhappy with the Direction of the Country…What’s New?
- Can Biden Murder Trump and Get Away With it?
- Electoral Advice for the Democratic and Republican Parties
- U.S. Ambassador to Greece: Who is George Tsunis?
- Henry Kissinger: A Pre-Obituary
Comments