Insights in Public Health: Recognize, Retreat, and Report: Education and Community Partnerships Essential to Injury Prevention from Unexploded Ordnance across Hawaii's WWII Training Grounds

摘要

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) has been a significant problem in the State of Hawai‘i since the Second World War (WWII) when lands throughout the Hawaiian Islands were used to train soldiers for combat in the Pacific theater. As necessary as it was to prepare US troops, a legacy of explosive items and munition remnants from historic target and maneuver areas, impact areas, bombing ranges, and small arms ranges lie scattered, often out of sight, across the state on hillsides, residential areas, shorelines and public lands. This essay examines the problem, the Department of Health's (DOH) limited regulatory authority with respect to ordnance, and the Department's critical role in injury prevention and safe re-use of tens of thousands of acres throughout the Hawaiian Islands.