Ruta,
Thank you for bringing up this topic, the impact of which -- despite the class action suits that have been going on for years, everywhere -- is routinely dismissed and denied, in whatever circumstance, wherever. Not only by the Federal government, but also by state, county and city officials.
Why should we be surprised, then, that the official US military "testing" of Fort Balad came out "clean enough" when, for example, the citizens of Manhattan and adjacent boroughs were told, after 9/11, that the building materials released in that cloud did not represent any significant health hazard?
http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_091203_911_asbestos.htm
Of course we knew that could not be true. But the thought of being exposed to lethal toxins, and the liability for same, is apparently so frightening that it is easier to deny it than to do something about it.
I'm sorry to say to those who have never personally experienced it that downplaying the environmental and health hazards that toxic burn clouds cause are not restricted to the owners of factories and the poobahs of military bases abroad.
On the contrary, one of the most frightening aspects of any natural disaster -- hurricane, flood, tornado, earthquake, etc. -- is that clean-up crews are given carte blanche to gut and often demolish damaged buildings with heavy equipment that sends up clouds of comingled toxins that are so dense they become visible to the eye, even in daylight. From the neighborhoods, when it is too late for them to be sorted, they are then carried in open truckbeds to designated burn sites like the ones in Iraq, where materials are burned, at night, until the sky for miles turns red and orange and gray, dense with metallic-tasting particles of god knows what. This goes on for months, endangering everyone, not only within a given mile radius, but also everyone who lives within prevailing wind patterns, hundreds of miles away.
The toxic cloud carnage created after the Gulf Coast hurricane in 2004 was something I personally saw, and tasted and breathed night after night for four months.
NO ONE INVOLVED IN THESE CLEAN-UP, WHETHER FEMA, THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY, PRIVATE CONTRACTORS, OR EVEN MOST BUSINESS AND HOMEOWNERS, GIVES A DAMN.

If you want to see another aspect of the surreal quality of this issue, track down the bill presented by KBR to the US for services rendered in disposing of these materials, (bulldoze into pit, douse with gas, torch, walk away). I love the Cayman subsidiaries aspect of the prosecution's case. Thanks for this report rootie.

Thanks for doing the research on this, Rootie. Here's a pretty vivid account of the conditions, etc., from the NYTimes:

On some days, Russell Keith could simply look up at the sky to gauge how busy his day would be as a paramedic at the largest U.S. base in Iraq.

Dark green smoke meant the contractor could count on a 30 to 40 percent spike in his patient load, he told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee last week during a hearing on contractor oversight.

Keith never knew which substance -- medical waste, body fluids, batteries, plastic or tires -- that would sometimes be set alight with jet fuel and cause the dark, acrid smoke pouring from the sprawling, 10-acre burn pit to turn green. But he did know that patients complaining of burning throats, eyes and painful breathing would fill the infirmary on those days.

Jet fuel. U.S. citizens have funded the burn pits for years with tax dollars and wasted jet fuel.

Rick Lamberth, a former KBR employee, came to work in Iraq and Afghanistan for periods between summer 2004 and July 2009. He estimates there are currently at least 100 burn pits in Iraq and 30 in Afghanistan. The U.S. Central Command keeps no official tallies on the number of burn pits, and the Multi-National Corps-Iraq did not respond to requests for comment.

About the bases: They are not makeshift creations. The Iraq base where Lamberth spent most of his time, Camp Speicher, is a small city with driving ranges, a Pizza Hut, a KFC, swimming pools, a 10,000-square-foot store the base members nicknamed "Wal-Mart" -- and six burn pits. One of the pits was 25 feet by 25 feet and about 50 feet deep, he said, and was upwind from living quarters as close as a quarter-mile away. So the smoke was unavoidable -- it constantly wafted down to the soldiers' housing, he testified. And it would cover every surface -- like pollen.

"From as close as 10 feet away, I saw nuclear, biological and medical waste, including bloody cotton gauze, plastics, tires, petroleum cans, oils and lubricants thrown into burn pits," Lamberth testified, saying he witnessed such activities at six large camps in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. "Vermin, wild dogs and jackals would roam the pits, carrying off debris," he added.

"The ash that came from the pits looked like burned notebook paper and fell like a black, sooty snowfall," he said. "Soot from the pits would cover your clothes and stick to the walls of buildings."

I thought that Russell Keith guy at the beginning of the article sounded smart, right? So what's he up to these days, I wondered.

He is currently unemployed and medically disqualified from returning to Iraq because of neurological damage and signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease his doctors say are associated with toxin exposure.

I also found it interesting that Rick Lamberth, a former KBR employee, would testify before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

When Lamberth complained to superiors about the burn pits, he said, he was told to "stop making waves" and was threatened with lawsuits and the loss of his job. Lamberth said one superior told him that even if the company did get caught, it had already made more than enough money to pay any fines and still turn a profit.

Still turn a profit.

The obvious was stated at the hearing:

Senator Dorgan emphasized – and other Senators echoed – that Congress has so far failed in its responsibility to oversee work by KBR and other military contractors. Such a lack of oversight not only costs taxpayers money; more importantly, it also has implications for the health of thousands of servicemembers and civilians stationed at military bases. The DPC lacks the authority to conduct such oversight, so Senator Dorgan recommends the creation of a body similar to the Truman Commission.

And while Congress dicks around forming commissions:

Rick Lamberth has “suffered from shortness of breath, spit up bloody mucus, skin rashes, and … been diagnosed with a non-organic sleeping order” since returning from Iraq and has sought treatment from the VA – but the VA has claimed that his conditions existed prior to service, even though a pre-deployment physical found no health problems.