Military: No link between trash and health

“I have a hard time believing you have no data to back up the fact that the whole base is on Flonase (nasal spray for allergies),” Jennifer Moore countered at the meeting Wednesday night at the support site base in Gricignano.

“I can’t make stuff up. Data is data,” said Navy Capt. Dale Molé, commander of the U.S. Naval Hospital. “I don’t have the data to support what you’re saying.”

Navy officials encouraged residents who are feeling ill to seek medical help instead of “gutting it out,” said Capt. Floyd Hehe, commander of Naval Support Activity Naples. Doing so helps experts build a database and gain a better understanding of health risks associated with living in Naples, he said.

The number of patients treated for respiratory illness at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Naples mirrors database records for sailors and families living at the Navy base in Sigonella, Sicily, the Navy base in Rota, Spain, Army bases in Germany, and some areas in the United States, Molé said.

Hehe also told audience members the Navy would pay relocation costs for those who feel they live in unsafe conditions.

“If any of you are living in a house that’s unhealthy or unsafe, we can get you out of the lease, and we can move you — at our expense, not yours,” Hehe said.

Roughly 130 people attended Wednesday’s town hall meeting, including representatives from various base departments and Mirabella, the private contractor that manages base facilities, including trash collection.

While the recent buildup of uncollected trash was the No. 1 topic, residents addressed related issues, including the much-anticipated testing of air, water and soil by a team of environmental and health experts from the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center.

Their visit to Naples came on the heels of — though not prompted by — yet another garbage crisis that crippled Naples and the Campania region in mid-December, burying areas in tons of uncollected garbage and prompting some U.S. residents to question health risks associated with an assignment to Naples.

Hehe said he has been successful in getting local Italian leaders in areas with a high percentage of American residents, such as the Caserta prefecture, to acquiesce to some Navy requests — such as having the Italian army haul garbage from the support site base. The $936 million annually pumped into the local economy gives him leverage.

But in areas with a smaller number of American residents, closer to the city center, the strength-in-numbers strategy doesn’t exist.

“Naples is a big area … we’re not even a pimple on the big elephant,” Hehe said.

In other developments, an Army veterinarian stationed in Naples increased the number of food inspections conducted on products sold at the base commissary, officials said.

Of the fresh fruits and vegetables sold at the Naples commissary, only three are from the Campania region, Hehe said: hazelnuts, cauliflower and green onions.

Other perishables come from other regions in Italy or Europe, but more than 85 percent of items sold through the commissary comes from the States, he said.