Nearly every military base contains toxic chemicals and hazardous waste.

Evidence

Regardless of the progress the U.S. military has made in improving its practices, there is no underestimating the profound environmental damage caused by most military bases and the significant risks they pose to humans and the rest of the natural environment. By definition, most bases store large quantities of weapons, explosives, and other inherently dangerous tools of war; nearly all of them contain toxic chemicals and other hazardous waste. Pollution, contamination, and other forms of environmental harm are found at nearly every base. Any town, city, or other large concentration of people causes some degree of environmental harm, but bases magnify those effects, both inadvertently—through toxic leaks, accidental ordnance detonation, and other dangerous accidents—and through the intentional discharge of weapons and other environment damage caused during training. Bases storing nuclear weapons are especially dangerous. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 388

Categorization

• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 388
• XREF: connects to: Unexploded ordnance contaminates thousands of U.S. military sites worldwide. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 394

Broader Connections

• Unexploded ordnance contaminates thousands of U.S. military sites worldwide. #corroborates (0.70) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 394