page_title: Burn pit
section_title: Examples
hierarchical_section_title: Burn pit / Use in Iraq and Afghanistan / Examples
caption_attribution_description: English: Senior Airman Frances Gavalis, 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron equipment manager, tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit, March 10. Military uniform items turned in must be burned to ensure they cannot be used by opposing forces. Airman Gavalis is deployed from Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Julianne Showalter)
context_page_description: A burn pit refers to an area of a deployed military base devoted to open-air combustion of waste. The phrase "burn pit" gained notoriety in the 21st century, especially in U.S. military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, this practice was used well before the War on Terror.
  Proper waste management practices have reduced the spread of infectious diseases that contributed significantly to mortality and morbidity in military populations in based conflicts. According to the US Army field manual, there are four other ways, outside of burn pits, to dispose of nonhazardous solid waste: incinerators, burial, landfills, and tactical burial. Using open-air burning significantly reduces waste, but increase risk of fire and produces noxious fumes. Due to modern waste in deployed environments, there is plastic, shipping materials, electronic waste, and other material that may emit toxic aerial compounds. Burn pits were heavily criticized and resulted in lawsuit by veterans, Department of Defense Civilians, and military contractors. Global environmental consciousness has especially criticized these instances of large-scale burn pit operation.
context_section_description: Joint Base Balad (JBB), the largest U.S. base in Iraq had a burn pit operation as late as the summer of 2008, burning 147 tons of waste per day when the Army Times published a major story about it and about health concerns. The burn pit at JBB was 10-acres and the waste produced by each person assigned to JBB is estimated to be between 3.6-4.5 kg of waste per day.  An Air Force spokesman speaking for the 609th Combined Air and Space Operations Center Southwest Asia vigorously contested allegations of health effects and emphasized mitigation efforts. In Afghanistan, at its peak, more than 400 tons of waste was disposed using burn pits daily.
  According to Leon Russell Keith, a military contractor stationed at Balad who testified at a Senate hearing in 2009, ash was everywhere, including on beds and clothes. He described the thick black smoke was even in the barracks. The ash permanently stain sheets. One soldier described the smoke as thick “like San Francisco fog.” Another called it “pollen dust.” The color of the smoke could be blue and black, or yellow and orange. However, it was mostly black. Everyone inhaled and ingested it. It was absorbed by their skin.
caption: Service member disposing of uniforms.[11]
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