Military Toxics Project
Information Sheet

This fact sheet is excerpted from MTP’s report "Communities in the Line of Fire: The Environmental, Cultural, and Human Health Impacts of Military Munitions and Firing Ranges" (June 2002). Both this fact sheet and the report focus on conventional munitions (those that are not biological, chemical, or nuclear). Materials on non-conventional munitions are available from MTP or other organizations.

The bulk of a conventional munition is the explosive train, which is composed of a sensitive but not very powerful initiating compound or mixture, which detonates a booster compound, which detonates a less sensitive but more powerful explosive compound such as RDX or TNT (see below). The three parts of the explosive train are generally called the fuze, the booster, and the main charge.

The fuze (as distinguished from "fuse") contains the primer/detonator and is the most critical part of a munition. It must be able to arm and detonate at – and only at – the appropriate time. Fuzes may be designed to initiate the detonation on impact, at a specific time, or in proximity to a target. There are twenty-nine families of fuzes, which are generally classified as either mechanical or electrical.

Booster charges, generally consisting of a small amount of moderately sensitive explosive, amplify the force generated by the fuze to ensure complete (or high-order) detonation of the main charge.

The main charge of a munition produces most of the explosive force and requires a large initiating shock to detonate. These explosives are designed to achieve specific effects based on the intended purpose of the munition. Main charges are more stable secondary explosives such as TNT, RDX, C4, and others.

Primary or initiating explosives – those used to initiate the explosive train and detonate a booster charge or main charge – include lead adzide, lead styphnate, and mercury fulminate.

Secondary explosives – more powerful compounds formed to detonate under specific circumstances and therefore used as boosting explosives or main charges – include TNT (trinitrotoluene); RDX (1,3,5-hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitrotriazine, also known as cyclonite, hexogen, royal demolition explosive, or research development explosive); HMX (octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine, also known as octogen or high melting explosive); and tetryl (2,4,6-trinitro-phenylmethylnitramine). According to the Army Corps of Engineers, "TNT and RDX constitute the largest quantity of secondary explosives used in military applications, because they are major ingredients in nearly every munition formulation." These explosive compounds also contain various other substances (such as powdered metals, plasticizing oils, and waxes) used as stabilizers and fillers, and may contain production impurities including various isomers of dinitrotoluene and dinitrobenzene.

The main body of a munition is called the casing, which contains the main explosive charge. Casings are designed to achieve a specific purpose – such as fragmenting to injure or kill personnel, or piercing armor – based on the intended use of the munition.

Propellants are used for propulsion: to move the munition forward. As noted later in this report, propellants are classified as single-based, double-based, or triple-based (or composite) based on their constituents. All the components of small arms ammunition are usually held together by a cartridge case, while in larger types of shells the propellant is packed in separate combustible bags.

Inert, Dummy, Practice, and "Green" Munitions

Although the terms "inert", "dummy", and "practice" or "training" munition (and more recently "green" ammunition) are often used interchangeably, the munitions themselves and their environmental and human health impacts are distinctly different. These munitions may and often do contain explosive, toxic, or hazardous components.

According to a Department of Defense policy on munitions, "wholly inert" ammunition would mean a munition that has never been employed and has never contained reactive materials. Once an item is employed as a component of a military munition, it is no longer considered "wholly inert."

Dummy munitions are reproductions produced from a variety of materials for many purposes, such as display, instruction, or special tests.

In practice or training munitions, the main charge is replaced by an inert filler. Fillers may be either non-toxic or toxic, and include concrete, wax, sand, plaster, antifreeze (to simulate chemical agents), water, and molasses. Practice munitions do usually contain some type of high-explosive spotting charge, as well as fuzes, primers, igniter charges, and propellants – all of which may contain hazardous or toxic components.

The DoD has recently developed so-called "green" ammunition. The new "green" small arms ammunition is based on tungsten rather than lead. Unfortunately, even this ammunition still requires toxic propellants to be fired. An official at U.S. EPA Region 1 concluded that a 2001 study "indicates that small arms firing over time deposits high levels of those propellants."

Everyone expects artillery shells, bombs and missiles to be deadly in war, but conventional munitions are also a threat to public health, the environment, and to the very existence of Indigenous cultures even in peacetime. The production, testing, and disposal of the weapons of war expose the environment, food and drinking water supplies, and people to both explosive and toxic hazards. Military munitions pose environmental and human health dangers at each step of their life cycle. Production sites (such as materials processing facilities and ammunition plants), testing sites (such as labs and proving grounds), firing sites (training ranges and areas of conflict), and disposal sites (including burial pits and open burning/open detonation sites) may all contaminate the environment and threaten public health.

Cultural, spiritual, and historic sites, drinking water, subsistence food supplies, endangered species, and the environment are also damaged or destroyed by military munitions and ranges. Often the communities most impacted – including Indigenous tribes, communities of color, and low-income communities have the least means to protect themselves.

Close to 2,000 Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) are known or suspected to contain unexploded ordnance (UXO). Dangers at all types of sites exist from both unexploded ordnance (UXO), which poses an immediate safety danger, and chemical contamination by munitions constituents, which can pose both acute and long-term dangers to human health.

Up to 25 million acres of land and water at several thousand sites in the U.S. are already contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO), toxic explosive compounds and their byproducts, toxic propellants, and heavy metals. More sites are being identified every year. DOD estimates that about 16 million acres of land already transferred to other agencies or the public are potentially contaminated with UXO and munitions constituents. The Army alone has as many as 2,000 sites contaminated with explosive constituents. Federal facilities contain at least thirty large and medium-sized sites containing over one million yards of soil contaminated with the explosive TNT. An EPA survey of just 266 closed, transferred, and transferring (CTT) and inactive military ranges found that UXO was found on 85% of the ranges. Over 50% of ranges were known or suspected to contain chemical or biological weapons.

Hundreds of billions of dollars will be required to clean up existing contamination on military training ranges. DOD has estimated its liability for cleanup of UXO at over $100 billion, and the cost to cleanup only closed, transferred, and transferring training ranges at $40-$140 billion. A Navy researcher has estimated that clearing UXO at the Navy’s ranges would cost $36 billion, and treating chemical contamination in the soil would cost $33 billion.

As much as 2.9 million tons of excess ammunition will need to be demilitarized. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, "if all known and forecasted excess ammunition were recognized, the demilitarization liability for the Department of Defense could be as much as $3 billion." DOD financial statements do not reflect the cost of this disposal. Funding for demilitarization of munitions has soared from $35 million annually in the early 1990s to $100 million.

Many different locations have been and continue to be contaminated by the production, testing, use, and disposal of conventional military munitions. Several types of sites contaminated with unexploded ordnance and munitions constituents are described below.

Munitions Production – Because DOD and its contractors operated a variety of munitions production facilities for decades before any environmental regulation existed, these facilities are often highly contaminated with munitions constituents and other substances. The persistence of munitions constituents in soil and groundwater for decades and their mobility over several miles is great cause for precaution at any site where munitions are made, fired, or destroyed.

Munitions Testing – Military munitions are tested at various DoD and private labs as well as at military testing ranges, generally called proving grounds. Tens of millions of rounds have been fired over the years at testing ranges. Up to 10% of these rounds may not have exploded and leached contaminants into the environment. Many more rounds may not have exploded completely and also polluted the land and water at these sites.

Munitions Firing and Training – Over two million acres of land in the United States are designated as firing range impact areas. The Army and National Guard operate more than fifty firing ranges in thirty-three states. The Navy has more than 21 major ranges covering 2.4 million acres. The Air Force lists 14 munitions-contaminated ranges on over 3.6 million acres. Shells frequently land not only within but outside of range boundaries in public and private lands and waters.

Munitions Disposal - Several decades of negligent disposal of munitions and propellants has littered the U.S. with UXO and explosives chemical contamination. A study of characterization of explosives contamination in the environment noted that "during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War" munitions wastes were often disposed of in "unlined lagoons, which could not contain species such as munition charges." For decades, troops often buried munitions they could not or did not fire in training areas. These caches of munitions stay under the ground until someone stumbles upon them during cleanup, construction, or other activities. Like all other abandoned munitions, they will eventually decay and release constituents.

Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) – FUDS may be any of the types of sites listed above, or other types. Up to 2,000 FUDS are known or suspected to contain unexploded ordnance. Some FUDS – such as the Spring Valley neighborhood in Washington, DC – contain buried chemical weapons and related contamination. Many FUDS doubtless contain soil and groundwater contamination by explosives and propellant compounds, but for the most part no one has looked.

A full assessment of all sources of environmental contamination, human health impacts, and cultural and economic damage originating from military munitions is well beyond the scope of this report. However, it is possible to identify some major issues. According to a 2002 report by the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), sources of toxic contamination from munitions and their constituents at military testing and training ranges may be divided into several categories.

Small Arms Ammunition – Until very recently, most U.S. small arms ammunition contained lead, which has been found in the environment at various sites. Any of the thousands of small arms ranges scattered across the country is a potential source of lead contamination.

Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) – Five to ten percent of munitions that are fired, launched, or dropped do not explode as designed. These munitions are known as unexploded ordnance or UXO. As noted previously, up to 25 million acres of lands and waters at several thousand sites in the U.S. are contaminated with millions of pieces of UXO. UXO may sit on or just under the surface, several feet underground, on top of boulders, or in trees. UXO poses an extreme safety danger to anyone in the area. Many children and adults both within and outside the U.S. have been injured or killed by U.S. military UXO. UXO will also corrode and release their constituents – including metals and explosive compounds – into the environment.

Explosives and Metals – Explosive compounds and heavy metals can and often do enter the environment when munitions are produced, when they detonate, and if they fail to detonate as designed. According to the CPEO, "when a conventional high-explosive munition detonates, it releases a large variety of chemical compounds and metals into the environment." Low-order detonations (in which the munition does not explode completely) seem to produce greater amounts of explosives contamination than high-order (complete) detonation, which fully combust the explosive compound. Many explosives and their degradation products are very mobile in groundwater and persist in the environment for long periods of time (at least decades). Even when munitions detonate as designed, heavy metals including lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, copper, and barium remain and can contaminate air, soil, and water.

Propellants – The chemicals that move explosives forward are called propellants. Military munitions use several types of propellants, including single-based propellants (such as nitrocellulose; these may also contain 2,4-dinitrotoluene), double-based propellants (containing, for example, nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine), and triple-based (nitrocellulose, nitroglycerine, and nitroguanidine). Propellants may be found near and downwind of firing positions and may also be found in impact areas. Open burning/open detonation of propellant may also be a source of contamination. Surplus artillery propellant bags have been routinely burned at artillery firing positions; the propellants may spread some distance through the air.

Pyrotechnics – Pyrotechnics are intended to produce light, heat, smoke, or noise, and include tracers, flares, incendiaries, photoflash compounds, and smoke generators. Contaminants originating from pyrotechnics include red and white phosphorus; barium and strontium; perchlorates; polyvinyl chloride; titanium tetrachloride; and hexachloroethane and hexachlorobenzene.

Burial Sites – For decades, troops have buried munitions that they can’t or don’t fire in the field. In some place, large numbers of munitions were consciously buried as a disposal method. These caches of munitions stay under the ground until someone stumbles upon them during cleanup, construction, or other activities. Like all other abandoned munitions, they eventually decay and release components into the soil and groundwater.

Open Burning/Open Detonation (OB/OD) Sites – Military munitions – as well as other military wastes – are routinely disposed of through open burning/open detonation or OB/OD. In OB/OD, munitions and other wastes are incinerated at relatively low temperatures with little or no environmental controls. OB/OD sites and the surrounding environment are usually contaminated with munitions constituents, PCBs, dioxins and furans, perchlorate, and other toxic substances.

Military munitions contain dozens if not hundreds of toxic and hazardous components that pose extreme dangers to human health and the environment. These substances may be divided into three basic categories: metals; explosive compounds and their degradation products; and propellants.

A 1998 EPA survey of project managers at 206 closed, transferred, and transferring (CTT) and inactive military ranges found widespread health dangers. The report concluded that:

There is abundant and growing evidence of the damage to human health and the environment caused by military munitions and ranges. The consequences for communities are very real.

At the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod, toxic munitions constituents contaminated the only drinking water supply for 500,000 neighbors of the base, forcing the shutdown of municipal wells. Burning of excess artillery propellant at firing positions was linked to increased lung cancer in people living nearby. Throughout most of the 1980s, women on the Upper Cape near the base were 64% more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than women in the rest of the state.

Since 1940, the U.S. Navy has used three-quarters of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico for bombardment, munitions disposal, and other activities. There is strong evidence that heavy metals and other munitions toxins move in the air from the bombing range to the civilian areas. The toxic explosive compound RDX was found in drinking water supplies in civilian areas in the late 1970s. In 2000, excessive levels of mercury were found in the hair and fingernails of 45% of Vieques residents tested. Vegetables and plants growing in civilian areas are highly contaminated with lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals. From 1985-1989, Vieques children aged 0-9 were 117% more likely to contract cancer than children of the same age on the main island of Puerto Rico. Children aged 10-19 were 256% more likely to contract cancer. A 2001 study found that Vieques residents are 73% more likely to suffer from heart disease than residents of the main island, 64% more likely to develop hypertension, 58% more likely to have diabetes, and 18% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma.

The toxic effects of explosive compounds have not been extensively studied. They are becoming more known because of rapidly increasing evidence of widespread environmental contamination by these substances and the exposure of military neighbors to their effects. Even the existing state of the science presents great cause for alarm, especially when combined with the experiences of communities exposed to these toxins.

The range of health problems in humans and animals associated with exposure to these components of munitions include seizures, nausea and vomiting, decreased body weight, liver and kidney damage, anemia, skin irritation, cataracts, and harmful effects on the immune system. Many of these substances are suspected or proven to cause cancer in humans. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "secondary explosives [those most prevalent on military sites] are considered carcinogenic and mutagenic."

Indigenous communities and their cultural, spiritual, and historic sites are often heavily and uniquely impacted by military munitions.

The Hawai’ian island of Kaho’olawe – 28,000 acres about six miles southwest of Maui – was inhabited for over a thousand years by native Hawai’ians before the U.S. military for target practice at the outset of the Second World War. Kaho’olawe was an important training ground for kahuna (priests) and navigators. Decades of Navy training denied Native Hawai’ians access to the island, which is a wahi pana (sacred place) and a pu’uhonua (place of refuge and spiritual regeneration), destroyed religious and cultural sites, and contaminated the land and water with tens of thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance. After a decades-long struggle led by the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana, the island was formally returned to the State of Hawai’i in 1994 in anticipation of its eventual transfer to a Native Hawai’ian sovereign entity. The ‘Ohana continues to lead the struggle to hold the DoD to its (and Congress’) commitments to cleanup UXO on the island and return it to a state "reasonably safe for human habitation."

The Army has trained in Makua Valley on O’ahu, Hawai’i since the 1940s. DoD appropriated the entire valley when World War II broke out, evicting families, but did not return the land after the war as promised. Makua contains Indigenous Hawai’ian sites and artifacts – including heiau (temples), burial grounds, and fishermen’s shrines – dating back 900 years. Fifty years of training, firing, and munitions disposal have destroyed homes, the local church and Indigenous Hawai’ian temples, and contaminated soil and groundwater. The Army’s occupation of Makua continues to deny the community access to these sacred lands.

Munitions chemical contamination is insidious. It can work its way into water supplies and into the food chain, poisoning people who eat contaminated plants and animals, drink contaminated water, or even eat plants from gardens watered with contaminated water. Individuals and communities that eat fish that they catch, game that they hunt, and plants that they gather or grow may also be exposed to munitions toxins. Certain toxins and radioactive isotopes accumulate in plant and animal flesh and move up the food chain until they reach human bodies. These substances tend to persist in animal and human tissue for long periods, accumulating to harmful levels over months and years. Indigenous communities and other populations that eat large amounts of fish and other local plants and wildlife are most exposed. Many Indigenous communities depend on wild fish, plants, and game for subsistence and also for the preservation of traditional ways of life. The end of subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering means the end of these communities and their culture.

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) and munitions constituents contaminated – and still contaminate – traditional hunting and fishing grounds on and around Fort Richardson, Alaska. Since 1949, the Army has fired ordnance including high explosives, smokes, and illumination flares into the sensitive estuarine salt marsh of Eagle River Flats, leaving 10,000 pieces of UXO. These munitions continue to leach toxic substances into the environment, and pose a safety danger to hunters and others who enter the area because no physical barriers prevent access. Both UXO and chemical contamination has precluded subsistence hunting and fishing by area tribes.

At the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR) on Cape Cod, decades of munitions firing and disposal contaminated the sole source drinking water aquifer for half a million permanent and seasonal residents of the Upper Cape. A January, 2000 EPA letter to the DoD notes that:

More recently, perchlorate was found in drinking water supply wells in the town of Bourne, forcing the shutdown of several wells. To date, explosives contamination has been found in about half of the 200 monitoring wells installed on Camp Edwards (one part of MMR); contamination in 53 exceeds EPA’s health advisory levels. Because of pollution from MMR, the Upper Cape could face a drinking water shortfall of 11 million gallons a day by 2020.

While military munition impacts on human health are often most reported, damage to plants, wildlife, and the environment is also widespread and equally significant. Damage to air, soil, and water may persist for generations, or in the case of radioactive contamination, for thousands or millions of years. Large areas of land and water in the U.S. contaminated with UXO and toxic substances from military munitions is unsafe for housing, schools, and many other uses, and will be for the foreseeable future. Military munitions contamination adds significantly to the heavy load of toxic contamination already borne by the environment that sustains all life on the planet. Endangered and threatened plant and animal species – already pushed to the brink of extinction by human activities – are in some cases in danger of being pushed over the edge by military munitions.

Makua Valley in Hawai’i is home to over 40 endangered species, including one found nowhere else on earth. Forty years of Army training and disposal operations at Makua have wreaked havoc on these species. Native forest has been destroyed by over 270 fires caused by military activities.

White phosphorus and other toxic munitions constituents contaminated the fragile estuarine salt marsh of Eagle River Flats at Fort Richardson, Alaska. As noted above, subsistence fishing grounds have been rendered unusable by the Native Alaskans who have historically used these resources. Munitions contamination also killed thousands of waterfowl every year for two decades before the Army released even a draft cleanup plan.

Regulation of military munitions and ranges occurs primarily under two laws: the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, known as the Superfund law); and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). CERCLA provides for cleanup of contaminated sites and accidents, spills, or other releases of hazardous substances to the environment. RCRA governs solid waste, including hazardous waste, from cradle to grave. Either or both of these laws – in addition to others – may be applied to munitions contamination depending on the circumstances. A variety of other laws, regulations, and both formal and informal agreements may be invoked depending on the circumstances. A plethora of agencies and authorities are involved in some aspect of regulation of military munitions and ranges, including: EPA (both headquarters and the regions); DoD (including the Secretary of Defense, the Defense Environmental Restoration Program, the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board, and the armed services); other federal agencies; tribes; states; and the public (through various public participation programs, citizen suits, and political action).

In May, 2002, the DoD began lobbying Congress for special exemptions from federal environmental and public health laws that would effectively remove any outside oversight of munitions contamination at military ranges, production and storage facilities, munitions destruction centers, and many other sites. Under DoD’s proposals, states and the EPA would be stripped of most authority to compel DoD to act to protect public health from munitions contamination. DoD has said it will continue to lobby for passage of these exemptions even if it takes several years.

Click here to view the complete "Communities in the Line of Fire" report.