Health monitoring and safety measures urged as U.S. denials fly in the face of mounting toxic evidence on island
Last month, Urasoe in Okinawa pledged to conduct a survey of
former base employees to ascertain the extent of environmental
contamination at Camp Kinser, a 2.7-square-kilometer U.S. Marine Corps
supply base located in the city just north of Naha. Urasoe’s director of
planning, Setsuo Shimoji, announced the municipality would work with
prefectural authorities to carry out the investigation, and that the
city would also request funding from the national government.
This is believed to be the first time that such a large-scale survey of former base workers has been launched in Japan.
Triggering Urasoe’s decision were Pentagon documents, obtained by The
Japan Times under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, that revealed
serious contamination at Camp Kinser. According to the reports, military
supplies returned during the Vietnam War leaked substances including
dioxin (aka TCDD), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and insecticides
within the base, killing marine life. Subsequent cleanup attempts were
so ineffective that U.S. authorities worried civilian workers may have
been poisoned in the 1980s, and, as late as 1990, they were concerned
that toxic hot spots remained within the installation.
Following the FOIA release, United States Forces Japan attempted to
allay worries about ongoing contamination at Camp Kinser. Spokesperson
Tiffany Carter told The Japan Times that “levels of contamination pose
no immediate health hazard,” but she declined to provide up-to-date
environmental data to support her assurances.
Asked whether USFJ would cooperate with Urasoe’s survey, Carter
replied that they had not been contacted by city authorities. She also
ruled out health checks for past and present Camp Kinser military
personnel.
Last year, suspicions that Camp Kinser remains contaminated were
heightened when wildlife captured by Japanese scientists near the base
was found to contain high levels of PCBs and the banned insecticide DDT.
Japanese officials are blocked from directly investigating pollution
on U.S. bases because the Japan-U.S. Status Of Forces Agreement does not
authorize them access. Although an amendment to SOFA last September
gave Japanese authorities the right to request inspections following a
toxic spill or imminent return of land, permission remains at the
discretion of the U.S.
Consequently, until now research has been limited to land already
handed back to civilian usage. These checks suggest that the problem of
U.S. military contamination in Okinawa is chronic. In recent years, a
range of toxins exceeding safe levels have been discovered on the
island, such as mercury, lead and cadmium.
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