Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes estimated earlier this year that the Iraq war costs $12 billion per month. This translates to $395 million per day or $144 billion per year. They also project that, taken together, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will have cost somewhere between $1.7-$2.7 trillion by 2017

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23551693

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

Posing a deadly threat to human security, large stockpiles of nuclear missiles were pointed at cities during the Cold War. 

There is a need for public health preparedness for the possible use of biological or chemical weapons (CBW) to cause harm. This was highlighted by events of 11 September 2001 in New York and Washington DC and the dissemination of anthrax spores though the United States Postal Service in the fall of 2001. 

AGENT ORANGE

Agent Orange, code name for a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971

Nearly a dozen health conditions are recognized as related to service for Vietnam veterans, based on exposure to herbicides and related materials during the Vietnam War. The VA presumes that Vietnam veterans, with one or more of these conditions, is service-connected and is awarded disability compensation with no further proof needed. Conditions Recognized in Veterans:
1. Chloracne (must occur within 1 year of exposure to Agent Orange)
2. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
3. Soft tissue sarcoma (other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, or
mesothelioma)
4. Hodgkin’s disease
5. Porphyria cutanea tarda (must occur within 1 year of exposure)
6. Multiple myeloma
7. Respiratory cancers, including cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea, and bronchus
8. Prostate cancer
9. Acute and subacute transient peripheral neuropathy (must appear within 1 year of
exposure and resolve within 2 years of date of onset)
10. Type 2 diabetes
11. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia

An estimated 20 million gallons of Agent Orange were deployed in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

LANDMINES

Most landmines last forever and even mines laid during WWII are still killing and maiming.

Landmines lead to environmental damage in the forms of soil degradation, deforestation, pollution of water resources with heavy metals and changing entire species’ populations through degrading habitats and altering food chains.

Worldwide munitions dumps leak toxic wastes into our global environment.

Laos is the most severely contaminated country in the world due to unexploded ordinance (UXO).

According to The International Campaign to Ban Landmines there are tens of millions of landmines in the ground in 78 countries, denying agricultural use of the land they’re buried.

Estimated by The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, 15,000-20,000 people are maimed or killed by landmines annually and that millions more suffer from the agricultural, economic, and psychological impact of the weapon.

UNICEF  estimates that 30 - 40 % of mine victims are children under the age of 15. Mines kill and mutilate 8,000 to 10,000 children each year.

Not including ‘environmental costs’ incurred during production, manufacturing, and use, landmines cost as little as $3 to produce and as much as $1,000 per mine to clear.

The United States has 11 million antipersonnel landmines (APLs) stockpiled, the third largest mine arsenal in the world. 

From 1969 to 1992, the United States exported 4.4 million antipersonnel mines, mostly to Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia, and Vietnam. U.S.-made or supplied APLs have been found in 32 countries, including Afghanistan.

Sudan is one of the ten most landmine-affected countries in the world. The exact number of mines is not known.