Health hazards

Contents

US military bases make bad neighbours. They don't
just house troops and act as stepping-stones to military
action. Many also function as testing grounds
for the vast range of weapons – chemical, biological
and nuclear – which are dreamt up by military
planners. And even when they are just going about
their day-to-day business, they rarely clean up after
themselves.

The effects of this are that US military bases bring
with them a whole range of health hazards.
Dangerous pollutants such as depleted uranium
and nerve gases, along with unexploded mines and
shells, remain on testing grounds such as Vieques
or several Panamanian bases. These prevent the
population from returning to abandoned land and,
in the case of Panama, have caused the numerous
deaths of people who have strayed onto 37,000
acres of former firing ranges, which for long periods
were neither fenced off nor properly marked.
Dangerous chemicals have, on sites such as Clark
air base in Panama, not been properly stored,
allowing them to leak onto land or into groundwater,
causing sickness amongst local people.

Even when toxins are not being released as chemical
or nuclear weapons tests, the health impacts of
military bases can be severe. Tests at the former US
navy base at Subic Bay in the Philippines have
revealed poisonous chemicals such as PCBs, lead
and fuel in groundwater, where it contaminates
domestic water supplies, causing high rates of illness.
Comments by former military personnel state
that “tonnes of toxic chemicals” were dumped into
Subic Bay. The displacement and cultural and economic
degradations meted out by US base authori ties and the host governments which support
them can also result in high levels of mental and
emotional illnesses and suicides, especially
amongst the most marginalised populations like
those expelled from Diego Garcia and Thule in
Greenland.

Guam

The US colony of Guam ( Guåhanin its indigenous
language) has suffered widespread pollution from
massive US military bases. The health impacts of
these are one of the main focuses of campaigns
by the people of Guam against the military bases,
as explained by activist Fanai Castro:

United States colonisation of our islands, from
1898 to the present, has resulted in massive pollution
from military sources. The dangerous substances
released have included Polychlorinated
Biphenyls (PCBs); agents orange, blue, purple
and white; and DDT, to name only a few. We
have also been exposed to heavy metal and
munitions dumping.

Close to one million lbs (almost 450,000 kg) of
mustard gas canisters stored on Guåhan
decades ago have yet to be accounted for,
though containers can still be found in the jungles
or dug up from the ground. The village of
Tanåpag on Sa’ipan was contaminated with
PCBs that were transferred there by the US
defence department, causing high rates of cancer.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the
US Environmental Protection Agency “remedied”
this problem by constructing an incinerator
nearby and cremating the contaminated soil.

In the Cold War race for nuclear armaments
the US detonated more than168 nuclear bombs
in the North Western Pacific, which spread radiation
throughout the region in ocean currents and
trade winds. Lying 1,200 miles west of the
Marshall Islands, our archipelago was contaminated
with nuclear fallout between the years1946
and 1958. In November 1952 an officer discovered
such extreme levels of radioactivity on his
Geiger Counter that he immediately informed his
supervisors, but was ordered ‘to ignore the
radioactivity and keep my mouth shut’. This has
led to high rates of radiation- linked cancers on
Guam.

A conservative estimate shows that 1/3 of our
212 square mile island is dominated by the US
military. This figure, however, is rapidly increasing
as the ‘Global War on Terror’ has found in our
islands and waters a playground for wartime
activity, including military training, war 'games’,
the home porting of aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered
submarines, and a Global Strike Task Force
comprising unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and
air fuel tankers, F/A-22 fighters and bombers. It is
estimated that upwards of 55,000 military personnel,
dependents, and contracted workers will be
relocated to the island by 2014, adding to an
already immense population of about 170,000.
The Navy has already commenced the dredging
of Apra Harbor to accommodate six nuclear submarines.
Again it must be made clear that the
public has not been given any sufficient information
as to how this will affect our environment
and health.

For those of us who live in places of heavy military
build-up, the health of our mind, body, and spirit is
at stake. Involvement in the movement is natural. It
comes from surviving as an indigenous Chamoru in
a colonised homeland. We are interconnected
with our surroundings: toxins that are dumped in
the ocean or buried in the lands deplete and kill
the life that thrives in our environment. This is a
heavy responsibility for those of us who are conscious
of what is going on in the world today. In
the face of such adversity, the greatest struggle is
with our selves, to remain human. There is so
much negativity coming with the build-up, so
many who feel powerless to change what is happening.
We must envision a better future and we
must have the courage to act on this vision, planting
the seeds of diversity with unity.