i live in paradise. the largest and southern most island in the marianas archipelago. han is dotted with blush, palm trees, and miles and miles of soft white and surrounded by turquoise squatters of the pacific ocean. but our paradise has the toxic legacy. while i'm shares the history of contamination with many us and overseas military based communities is common knowledge that the us military use is highly toxic substances and we are experiencing contamination of our land and waters when the agent orange. p. fast pcp is petroleum fuels heavy metals, fonts, high organic compounds, all the military war time cocktail. so you can imagine from being carpet bomb during world war 2. we're an island that has been referred to by veterans as one big superfund site. a history of military dumping impacts the health of many families here on our 212 square mile island. it only takes 2 hours to drive from

one end to the other. that's how small we are. and we're inundated with environmental and contamination. in this episode, i'm sharing real stories of community members whose homes are located by known military top 6 dump sites and how their families are among countless others and the communities suffering from clusters of where cancers in chronic illness. while it's difficult to definitively connect their health issues with the environment, the correlation is enough for them to question why their family members are dying. dr. lisa and it's have it on a professor at university of bombs and primary convenor, a big long coalition for peace and justice. sat down to me and shared just how much this topic legacy left by the us military affects us today. when we talk about the impact of the transition on the health of tomorrows of us as an indigenous

population. let me see is that the toxicity that comes from military activities, from war preparation, military exercises. it really is manifested in our physical bodies and we see this in cancer rates, for example. and so one such evidence of this is a study that was done by no vol and had it, which was published in 1997. and in their study, what they did was they looked and surveyed a 25 year period of cancer death certificates and so, and looking at those death certificates they identified and you know, computed what was the incidence of, of death of cancer and go on. and they were able to establish that tomorrow's were the highest risk for cancer and that the incidence of cancer was increasing. and this is after they use different calculations from the world health

organization to standardized that across populations. and the 3rd finding, which for me is, was the most significant was that they were able to glean and 1997. that the villages of santa rita and hugo were the ones with the highest incidence rates. and they, in their article and particularly point out that those are the villages with the largest military base presence. and so you see this, this can grow and see in terms of military activities and the very direct impact on the bodies of tomorrow's. i met up with rudy polco mer municipality at the heart of juan called mama to to might see where he was born and raised. this municipality is commonly known as mtm and m. c. m is home of the largest flatland area, and juan called the have gone you swamp. more than 70 years ago, run off from a navy operated power plant. and milan drained into a portion of the

a gun. yes. swamp. contaminating the residential area. it was totally chlorinated by fennel's or p c. b, which are industrial chemicals thing to cancer, run out from the power plant which ran into the yard of paco's childhood home to the 19 ninety's alco challenge, the federal government to test for p. c. bees. not only on the swamp and surrounding soil and but on residents whose health may have been effected by the chemicals. but all i asked the federal government was to do a physics for the community of mtm nice every quarter. but that never happens. there's a family right over there in that house, every one of those until cancer and look up where they live right across from the parks. i met up with the nurse to speak a little hon. pick her up in the home, directly across the navy power plants. she and 5 of her siblings,

that old nasal french healed cancer. tragically, all 5 passed away of cancer and she is the soul cancer survivor. agents where we refer chiron from care and the government testers, right? but here's some of the sites. so why are here for this case when we were young? i'm sorry we go through this wrong, my dad or this can of the navy risk and. c and go down there and would put in my we put your hands inside, we've got to so many, they're huge and they're very good ink to find that plan. and they're in the area of those to our area in the rent to my dad. and then can find most of that and say

name is my grand kids and my mom to the brothers and sisters leave around the area to they say yeah, missing. there are so from the great there's. uh huh. are sick during those documents for me it's hard because, i mean, i have been directly affected, but i've had to like grow up my whole life. i have these memories watching my grandma, like very her siblings. and that hurts. losing family members is quite okay. i feel like they could have had more years on this earth that my baby brother to. yeah. see, i'm the mother of brittany has, is cancer from laser during your and then she rose and

then you know, they can to these and that's what i'm very fortunate. i think right around the origin of my exercises i guess from, you know, it went like i really selfish to because i'm thankful that my grandma was the one that survived. i like how many, how many times is that you lose or 5 or vice of me around my mom to the brother died before a month. the issues are 5051, and then my sister, my older sister, she has a native and you can transfer. and she had a 5 set of treatment, but she never ran out of it. and then and love to years later,

i have known that uh, native ranger, cancer, the street in ryan same as when when i ran in 1997 doctor was saying that there is no. so cancer is not really the, and as of right, something is not right or there is no age that cancer in the same time for lunch going on around that area, which is, oh, these kinds immunizations less along my dad. fish we, this is a plan and my phone number's not by then,

right? we're not going to, there weren't just pcp use in the nearby waters into yard of victoria low, low younger arrows, childhood home sections of the top. so at this world war 2 dumpsite were found to be contaminated with hazardous levels of mercury, but arsenic pesticides and pc piece. the property was formerly of the location of military supply warehouses and military vehicle base yard and a shooting range. the department of defense did a partial clean up and never came back. oh yes, found that metal fee for this is the metal that we've been selected and this is collecting. so there's even, um, the rest of the day on that i think you here. yeah, some of the metal center that really belong to the military. these are all of my, literally the pipes. so blue cross carts

and is there might be a couple in there, but you know, i just threw them all in there. so i know every time the bus, the guys comedy kind of fly all over the place. yeah. when i was a kid, i would play in this with martha and bully me and i would like to play in the jungle. and then i find like little pieces of metal guns, how her hungry me, the land that i grew up and talked to is my mother's land and she inherited it from her mom. and they started living there after world war 2 and wednesday, and that had belonged to the family and was mostly used for farming before the war . and then after the war for both my grandmother and her brother built hose in the app on the property. and um, it was on and so we had always known that there was a military waste from the war buried in the property because when we were kids we

would thank the playing in the dirt and there was a gun powder or like once my brother found a bon buried in the yard and had to, you know, they had to bring the like bomb squad and everything and it was a bigger deal. but we had been really aware that the property itself had been used as a jump site after the war. but we had never been informed to what extent or what was buried in the property. and so, in 2008, the army corps of engineers had contracted team. they came and they asked permission from our family and from my uncle ben's family, my grand. this brother and his children to sort of take it up and, and really study what was there and that the degree of contamination that had occurred. and so they and said that in 2008 in 2010, they invited our families to love to have somebody say community center and have like

a public sharing just for our families about what they had found. and so it was the site power point and all bullet points, and they were, you know, basically saying that it had been both the water and the soil had been so heavily contaminated that the mediation they suggested was excavation and off site removal . which was only which only happened in cases where the contamination was so severe . their member of the town hall meetings. what that experience was like hearing finally in details about contamination and what was in your property for me, it was kind of a almost a shock because nobody ever said we never had any clean up or anything like that when we didn't even when they were digging for the house, it was your dog and we do it. your house in dallas is right. but um it was kind of scary. this is a factor now i have grandkids and how much pile of dirt do i have to have in the back so that they can be able to pay back there for how much dirt do i have to put

a good cleaned or so that i can plan something back there and need off loud. i'm not cancer because that's not a guarantee for me. the scott bennett, i'm former united states army psychological warfare officer, really served in the state department counterterrorism office under investment bill daily the

the so i wanted to come here to russia in the dawn bass area and to gather the facts to take back to the american people the hold on bass of the front lines and the square, the bombs and the bullets are raging. this is where people are dying. this is where the buildings are exploding the go. i wanted to see 1st hand the scars of war. the,

i think one of the biggest obstacle is we offer you since the lack of accountability and the lack of information. and so i think the 1st thing for our family is like being fully informed. like when we were requesting information about what, what do these particular account last name is, what are some of the houses that are active said, you know, this, this doubled up since combination in the water and soil. and we were never provided that information. but we requested that as a public hearing number, if you have anything for us, the biggest issue is you know, as part of the community of how bad you know how badly it's been contaminated. and then what does that mean for our bodies? what does that mean for overall health and then come in screening it up? don't just about it. you know, what they found in the property was that the soil high levels of lead pcb arsenic and a ton of other chemicals i can not mean. and that even and the water has degrees of

contamination that were higher than other areas on the island. and in the public hearing, there were family members from other parts of talk to in monroe who had come because in their properties there was military company, you know, waste that they had found over the years just like we had. but they were told that the public hearing was only dealing with the muncie cavalry, banners properties, because we were like, i guess, considered one of the super fun in the science. and so any other properties in the village, they weren't even going to investigate that. it wasn't on their list and that this was all that they were there to discuss. so like one guy came and was like, you know, i found like tanks buried in my yard were hate and they're like, oh that's, it's not on our list of properties that needed to be cleaned up. so where we can discuss that i had followed up because of that very same

year i had lost my 1st child to a very birth dfacs caught on file a solid square. his intestines had formed outside his body and a sack and so abdominal wall dfacs are pretty rare, but are very common here in guam. and so when i had been doing research, you know, in so that just because i was, as a mother, really trying to understand like, how did this happen? you know, i had found like a connection. i had found an article, a scientific article linking the presence of an invalid ssl, or like high incidences of abdominal wall dfacs in a community that had like rocket fuel in the water. and so i was like, well, if there's like a mean it wasn't directly caught or caused, but there was this correlation rates on like could then this environmental

contamination have impacted my child. and then they did show up a year later with like a construction crew. most of the contamination was in my uncle ben's property, which is right below my mom's property. and so what they had signed ways of, i dug into the soil like these long rectangles and they had filled like shipping container is full of the soil. and then midway through the project, they ran out of money and they buried everything back and they have not shown up sense. so this one is around 2011. and now more than 10 years later they never came to finish the clean up. so they, you know, they investigated what was there, they informed us, what was there, they began to clean up, and then they ran out of money and never finished a job. and my uncle ben's family, you know, my mc norma recently died of cancer. i know that you know,

a couple of his funds have also had cancer and you know, who knows what other health conditions may be connected to this. but you know, a lot of the chemicals on that list are chemicals that are connected to high cancer rates and other communities. but yeah, for me like growing up in psych we were never growing up. we didn't drink water from the time like it was just always been given that the water is not safe to drink period whether or not we knew how the land was contaminated, there is always just this way in which i think we're aware as a community like the fact that we don't have clean drinking water and that it's a risk to drink the water coming out of our job. and then when we finally, you know, heard about our specific property. it was confirmed when a think about what happened to our pop or the think about like

just this idea that we like build our whole lives on the contaminated land and you know, with no accountability from the department of defense or not even like i'm just thinking like there are people who live here sometimes i wonder and say, when you hear about the way guam is depicted to the rest of the world as the military base, it's like no one ever thinks about the people who actually live here. they only see one as a military installation, not as a island nation with such a rich history and families who call this place home and have done so for thousands of years freight and that is really terrifying to only be seen to not be seen as the people because what it means is that our actual health and wellbeing our lives,

they don't matter. and the military mission is what matters. the defense of the continental united states, as what matters and what sacrifice is our own health and well be. i think we need to go back to back to the table and discuss some more. i'm just invite more families in. and even if i don't have a major clean up this way, the test to test the dirt on the ground. because i'm never going to find anything in the back pc, these aren't just a problem. and mtm, presidents in the southern village of reed, so are still being advised to avoid eating fish from the co goes to doing because the level of pcp contamination and sampled fish remains of the federal standards for steve consumption. for it says the closest village should compass island. the farmer site of the us coast star is mon range, navigation for a bar and stations. from 1944 to 1963. cvs,

from electrical equipment use at the coast carts. lauren stations, such as transformers and capacitors for improperly discarded on compass island. and in coast. in 2005 the coast guard or move sources of pcp. contamination in around coco's island. but in 2015 follow up sampling showed some spikes and pcb levels and levels of toxic pesticide d, d t and the water is around kobus island including fish when us. so we just took a boat out to this is cocos island. it's right off the coast of one right back. there is the village of molest due to the military shut down the navigation station in 1965. but we're still feeling the effects of the pcp contamination up until today. these are lasting decades long impacts of historical

contamination done by the us military that our people are still feeling. and a lot of what activists have been saying all these years is that we can't be building up the, you know, the, the, the military expansion in this region is called the military buildup. and we can't be building up while we're still trying to clean up. there's so much taxes to be still in this area. and so we have to do what we can as a community to continue to raise awareness so that our families are not affected. so that. c we're not suffering from cancer and other chronic illnesses, from the toxicity across our island. and my name is ronna fi, g. uh, talk to melissa uh, born and raised there. i just recently moved up, but my father and all generations before me have all lived in my life with world,

from there and or i live in this, the more northern side on my left. so which is in billy billy be, but we fish there all the time and focus on and try. and so it was a big thing and in municipal, my youngest cousin, my cousin at my age at that time, and in his thirty's, dido cancer and my other cousin who was younger than and his brother died at age of 40. he died of cancer. and all that i think is because of what they would do left in the ocean for us. and luckily i didn't made it a habit to, to go there all the time, but they did because that was whenever there was a party we were sent out to go on and, and nutrition all the time. every time, every day, whenever we needed to, we had to know was the place we went to. so i think the military has not done the due diligence show and if not really help the people to control what,

what is there? i'm sure others feel the same way that the p c b is not, is, is still there. and is that a profession? we think there's a fit to us. i think the federal government needs to continue to do their part not just on the on the ocean, but also to even assist. are people in the village. very, so mir ernest char gloss says the community has been left in the dark about water quality. rather sash do as far as information because i know they did studies online they, they cleared up some other sam. it will show your samples on shar, nurse your nurse on, in atlanta as well as the waters in the immediate area. and then instead of the moon and those studies and then whatever scientific, uh, the things that they were doing in the water were never given the community as far as the research where i wanted to find it for. so to me is the stair step. on the side of their single, our issue may be and of course,

they should call our it with their informations to disseminate the information so that you may know people knowledgeable of what's going on and you keep them updated on your findings are on, on one basis some read so residents whose family has subsisted off the land and waters of the last 2 for generations. charge off express concerned about the health impacts of pcp exposure. i was there. i was there, the trash grab, blank drum and filter. not crap. and i won't let the fish as well. so the fish in the wrong, they are in the dish back to catch the fish on there. so i'm concerned that the, you know, i don't know if i ever, i may have been just it or those that in dollars with the fish that i caught in the area may have been just it. and then a hasn't bearing on their health from shark a loss perspective, the federal government should continue to conduct regular testing and exhaust all

remedies to restore the health of the co goes. because the responsibility should be on the federal government. they're the ones that created library, so those transformers there. and they should know that you don't dispose of it in a properly use of portions on how to dispose of a pcp containing element. so you know, the transformers or anything that has obviously materials, you have to discard them, i'm just partial them accordingly. that's wanting to chime different ways of the vision watching or not appropriately for each function. human, whatever we have face today, is something i truly don't have to worry about tomorrow. fun. who can, that will not be in the, the, to not fun. who do we have to do? not fun. who rooms? he has a book. some time on of

the b and 1492 this evening, christopher columbus read the bahamas and discover the new world for europe. the wealth of america and its fast territories. cosby envy of the europeans, especially the spaniards and the portuguese. they sought, after taking over these lands. however, there lived indigenous peoples with a high culture and their own nation, with their barbaric colonization of america, which went down in history under the name of con deece. that lasted for more than 100 years. in 1521 care design,

cortez is trying to do 2 doors captured and destroyed the capital of the aztec empire. daniels practically massacring the local population. following them, francisco pizarro is gone. keeps the doors destroyed the ink empire as a result of spanish aggression beat ancient maya civilization collapse, suppressing the resistance of the indians. the invaders carried out mass executions . the horrendous genocide was aggravated by the diseases that the europeans had brought to america. the number of the indigenous population decreased at 16 times from 25. so one and a half 1000000 people from keystone became one of the largest demographic disaster fees of mankind and remains an indelible love the same in the history of the european colonial empires. the

. the benjamin netanyahu admit for the 1st time that israel was behind september dead, the patient from attack, and 11, and that killed at least 7 people. silence being defense. we had for renowned jewish academic who was recently arrested out of prose, kind of started. randi, the criticizing as well. it says the west is suppressing if anyone does a game up to 15 to hundreds of millions into those conflicts for them to find out that they cannot win. is annoying them. they don't want to hear it and they're silencing anyone found a ukrainian cloth to see it as best.