THE US ARMY has rejected Congressional demands that it should stop using
a highly toxic cleaning fluid stored at its bases in Europe and the US.
Decontamination Solution 2, or DS2, eats its way through storage drums and
is a chronic source of toxic pollution, according to investigators from
the General Accounting Office of Congress.
Thomas Ward of the GAO says that almost every US Army facility 鈥� including
hospitals 鈥� stores DS2. At Burton wood near Liverpool in Britain, for example,
the GAO鈥檚 investigators found 795 000 litres of fluid stacked in crowded
and unsafe conditions. Solution that leaks from a single drum will corrode
others. 鈥楨verywhere we looked, the drums were leaking,鈥� said Ward. 鈥榃e never
found any storage sites that didn鈥檛 look bad.鈥�
In wartime, soldiers would use DS2 to clean equipment contaminated by
chemical weapons. In peacetime, troops are not allowed to use it, even for
training purposes. The chemical can cause severe burns, damage to the eyes
and central nervous system, and harm human reproductive systems. According
to the GAO, the fluid is so corrosive that it even damages the equipment
that it is designed to clean.
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The GAO issued an unusually strong warning about DS2 in February, asking
the Army to stop using it. Safer alternatives, such as warm water and bleach,
would work equally well, according to the GAO. But the Army rejected the
advice.
The Army has been selling surplus quantities of the fluid in Europe
and the US to the general public, often without warning how dangerous the
solution is. Civilians used the chemical to clean metal drums, remove grease
from equipment, and kill weeds. The Army has agreed to halt these sales.
