[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL: "US Military Exposed 600, 000 to Toxins in Japan and Micronesia - and Hid It"

[Lenny Siegel]

US Military Exposed 600,000 to Toxins in Japan and Micronesia - and Hid It


by Jon Reinsch
Truthout
March 10, 2021

Most Americans trust the military; a 2020 poll found 72 percent with “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in that institution, edged out only by small business. Many were likely picturing enlisted persons, but their trust often extends to the leadership, both uniformed and civilian. However, those making life-and-death decisions for both U.S. troops and people of other countries — even in the absence of war — deserve our serious scrutiny.

A new book, Poisoning the Pacific, examines the military’s long role in the environmental degradation of East Asia and Pacific islands, severely impacting the health of the region’s people and U.S. personnel stationed there. Author Jon Mitchell is a Tokyo-based journalist, and much of his book focuses on Japan, especially its southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. But he also covers contamination in places like Vietnam, Guam and the Marshall Islands.

The hazards range from nuclear fallout, to the chemical weapons sarin and VX, to PFAS, a class of potentially carcinogenic “forever chemicals” — so called because once in the body or environment, they remain for a long time.

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For the entire article, see
https://truthout.org/articles/us-military-exposed-600000-to-toxins-in-japan-and-micronesia-and-hid-it/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=d1e50615-9edc-4bb8-be76-fdb323c8d8d0

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel at cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org