I keep seeing those ads on television about victims of mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos, did some googling about the issue. Lo and behold, it has an Iraq and Middle Eastern dimension (as well as implications for US Iraq vets.)
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about some websites on the subject are reporting that US troops faced asbestos exposure in all those ramshackle buildings they were sent into, or ordered to bomb or demolish. You can only imagine how much asbestos they inhaled that way. The recommendation is that they be issued safety gear goggles and masks where this danger is reasonably expected to exist. Not to mention the danger to Iraqis– it is not clear that the country has yet stopped importing the stuff, and it is still used elsewhere in the Middle East, too.
The issue even is related to Dick Cheney, Halliburton and KBR– all of them later involved heavily in Iraq (though I don’t know if they had learned their lesson about asbestos by then). I had known that Cheney’s decision-making contributed to Halliburton’s later bankruptcy filing but hadn’t realized how central asbestos and damage claims arising from its use was to it all.
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Wow that is unfortunate that the troops in Iraq were exposed to asbestos! Just going to be more bad news to come…