Toxic waste blamed for children's death

Many groups called on the U.S. to assist in the clean up of the former U.S. bases in central Philippines, adding that they have caused the death of thousands of residents in the area.

According to the people's task force for bases cleanup, more than 155 individuals, many of them also children, have died of ailments traced to deadly chemicals like asbestos and mercury.

The numbers of affected people increased when the government relocated some displaced families after the Pinatubo eruption in 1991, to the air base command (Cabcom) in Pampanga, central Philippines. It was part of the cavernous former U.S. Clark airbase in Angeles, Pampanga.

The task force Cabcom focuses a study on 1,200 families that once lived on a five-hectare relocation site, adding that the families are saddled by sick children.

Thirty-six are suffering from cerebral palsy, an ailment of the central nervous system, 15 with congenital heart disease, eight with other heart ailments, seven suffering from either kidney tumours or kidney-failure; four with leukaemia, 13 with various blood diseases, 11 with skin diseases, 10 with masses that have required surgery and four with hydrocephalus.

Task force leader Myria Baldonado said most of the ailments have been traced to mercury and asbestos in the former Cabcom motor pool.

A separate report by Safetyforum, another group which tracks victims of U.S. military waste, said the refugees who were placed at the former U.S. airbase were poisoned by insecticides, residues of air force chemicals and other hazardous wastes. Pollutants included mercury, nitrates, propylbenzene (a fuel byproduct), the insecticide dieldrin; lead and coliform bacteria.

Asbestos and industrial waste was buried in landfills. Petroleum had leaked from underground tanks when the U.S. air force used the base, safety forum's report said.

Hundreds of gallons of pollutants were reportedly spilt or dumped, as with lead and other toxic metals in the nearby bay, the report said.

The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) has listed the area as among the 12 most persistent causes of illnesses caused by environmental pollution in the former U.S. base.

The U.S. navy itself identified 56 contaminated sites in the former U.S. Subic naval base in Olongapo, Zambales.

U.S. officials dumped 3.75 million gallons of raw sewage into the bay and poured toxic waste from storage and destruction of excess bombs and ammunition into a local stream or landfill.

And a worker confessed he had poured cyanide into a landfill, on orders of U.S. military officers, said the group's report.