Washington  – Senator Evan Bayh made the following statement today at a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing about S. 1779, The Health Care for Veterans Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act of 2009:

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for the invitation to testify today—and for all you’re doing to ensure that the VA has the tools and authority it needs to help our brave men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan nursing the wounds of war.

I am here today to testify about a tragedy that took place in 2003 on the outskirts of Basrah, Iraq.

I’m here on behalf of Lt. Colonel James Gentry and the brave men and women who served under his command in the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry of the Indiana National Guard.

I spoke with Lt. Col. Gentry by phone last week. He is at his home with his wife, Lou Ann, waging a valiant fight against terminal cancer.

The lieutenant colonel was a healthy man when he left for Iraq. Today, he is fighting for his life.

Tragically, many of his men are facing their own bleak prognoses as a result of their exposure to sodium dichromate—one of the most lethal carcinogens in existence.

The chemical is used as an anti-corrosive for pipes. It was strewn all over the water treatment facility guarded by the 152nd Infantry. More than 600 soldiers from Indiana, Oregon, West Virginia and South Carolina were exposed.

One Indiana Guardsman has already died from lung disease. The Army has classified it a service-related death.  Dozens of others have come forward with a range of serious respiratory symptoms.

The DoD Inspector General just launched an investigation into the breakdowns and gaps in our system that allowed this tragic exposure to happen. Neither the Army nor the private contractor KBR performed an environmental risk assessment of the site, so our soldiers were breathing in this chemical and swallowing it for months.

Our country’s reliance on military contractors—and their responsibility to their bottom line vs. our soldiers’ safety—is a topic for another day and another hearing.

Mr. Chairman, today, I would like to tell this committee about S.1779. It is legislation I have written to ensure we provide full and timely medical care to soldiers exposed to hazardous chemicals during wartime military service.

The Health Care for Veterans Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act of 2009 is bipartisan legislation that has been cosponsored by Senators Lugar, Dorgan, Rockefeller, Byrd, Wyden, and Merkley.

My bill is modeled after similar legislation that Congress approved in 1978 following the Agent Orange exposure in the Vietnam conflict.

The bill ensured lifelong VA care for soldiers unwittingly exposed to the cancer-causing herbicide in the jungles of Vietnam.

Some have called toxic industrial hazards the Agent Orange of the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

My legislation would make soldiers eligible for medical examinations, laboratory tests, hospital care and nursing services. It would ensure soldiers receive priority health care at VA facilities. It would recognize a veteran’s own report of exposure and inclusion on a Department of Defense registry as sufficient proof to receive medical care, barring evidence to the contrary.

My legislation will help ensure that we provide the best possible care for American soldiers exposed to environmental hazards during the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. At a bare minimum, my bill will ensure compassionate care so families are spared the added grief of going from doctor to doctor in their loved ones’ final days, searching for a diagnosis.

The 1978 Agent Orange registry only covered one chemical compound. But my bill is broader. It covers all members of the armed forces who have been exposed to any environmental chemical hazard, not just sodium dichromate. It recognizes a new set of risks that soldiers face today throughout the world.

Senate testimony last year identified at least seven serious instances of potential contamination involving different industrial hazards—sulfur fires, ionizing radiation, sarin gas, and depleted uranium, to name a few.

S.1779 ensures that veterans who were exposed to these chemicals will be eligible for hospital care, medical services, and nursing home care.

It allows the Secretary of Defense to identify the hazards of greatest concern that warrant special attention from the VA.

My bill switches the burden of proof from the soldier to the government. Soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals will receive care presumptively, unless the VA can show their illness is not related to their service.

Exposure to toxic chemicals is a threat no service member should have to face. It is our moral obligation to offer access to prompt, quality care. We should cut the red tape for these heroes.

Mr. Chairman, I promised Lt. Col. Gentry that I would fight for his men here in Congress. I promise I would use my position to get them the care they deserve and to make sure we protect our soldiers from preventable risks like this in the future.

This tragedy will be compounded if we do not take the steps to provide the best medical care this country has to offer.

Thank you for this opportunity to offer testimony today. I urge this committee to adopt S. 1779 to honor the sacrifice of Lt. Colonel Gentry and all of our brave men and women doing the hard, dangerous work of keeping America safe.

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Attached below contains the Original PDF of:
DPC press release of Senatro Byron Dorgan, the Chairman of the Senate DPC
and Letter to the Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of Army, Preston M. Geren, III

Senate DPC Sodium Dichromate Exposure Investigation Press Release

Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Chairmn of theDemocratic Policy Committee New Release

SENATORS CHALLENGE ARMY STUDY’S CONCLUSIONS ON U.S. TROOP EXPOSURE TO DEADLY CARCINOGEN IN IRAQ

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Two U.S. Senators are taking issue with the conclusions of an Army investigation into the exposure in Iraq of hundreds of U.S. soldiers to sodium dichromate, a deadly carcinogen.

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) released a letter Thursday they sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Pete Geren, Secretary of the Army, saying briefings their offices have received on a study they requested have raised additional questions.

Dorgan chaired a hearing in the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in June 2008 on the exposure at the Qarmat Ali water injection facility in Iraq. Bayh represents many of the soldiers, members of the Indiana National Guard, who were exposed.  Soldiers from Oregon, South Carolina and West Virginia were also exposed.

Dorgan and Bayh said the Army’s evidence and their own investigations indicate that exposure of the troops appears to be more severe than the Army and contractor KBR have acknowledged.

They also asked Gates and Geren to explain how the Army could pronounce itself “satisfied” with its oversight of KBR, and the response by KBR and the Army to the exposure, given the following:

• Some soldiers, exposed to the deadly chemical in the spring and summer of 2003, still have not been informed by either the Army or KBR that they were exposed.
• For months, KBR failed to identify the presence of the chemical, even though it was required to conduct an “environmental risk assessment;” and even though it received a United Nations report in the spring of 2003 that stated there was sodium dichromate at the site.
• For months, KBR failed to identify the presence of the chemical, even though it was required to conduct an “environmental risk assessment;” and even though it received a United Nations report in the spring of 2003 that stated there was sodium dichromate at the site.
• Indiana National Guard personnel were not told of the exposure until they saw KBR employees using PPE (personal protective equipment) at the site.

“It looks like conclusions were made, without regard to the facts,” Dorgan said. “We owe our
soldiers much more than that. Given the well documented and serious failures at the site, I don’t understand how the Army can claim KBR acted appropriately.

Senator Evan Bayh said, “I am still unsatisfied with the information provided by the Army about their response to the exposure of U.S. service members to sodium dichromate at the Qarmat Ali water injection facility in Iraq. We are asking again for a complete account of how our service members were exposed to these conditions and what went wrong.  If there’s criminal negligence, people must be held accountable. If there was a lack of oversight by Army Corps of Engineers, people ought to be fired.  I also have many unanswered questions about KBR’s role in the original exposure and contamination and believe the company needs to be held to account for its behavior in this incident. We have a moral obligation to the men and women who were put in harm’s way. We need to make sure to never find ourselves in this situation again.  Most importantly, we have to identify those service members who were exposed to sodium dichromate and other lethal chemicals and make sure they get the kind of long-term care and treatment they deserve.”

– END –

Original PDF of the DPC press release can be download below.

Senate DPC Sodium Dichromate Exposure Investigation Press Release

This article was originally published by Staff Sgr. Jim Greenhill on the Official Homepage of the United States Army website, http://www.army.mil

Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Aug. 4, 2009) — Three former National Guard members told a Senate committee Monday they were exposed to a deadly chemical with long-term health effects while serving in Iraq.

Russell Powell, a former West Virginia Army National Guard staff sergeant; Rocky Bixby, a former Oregon Army National Guard staff sergeant; and Russell Kimberling, a former Indiana Army National Guard infantry company commander, are among hundreds of Guard members who were notified in letters earlier this year that they were exposed to sodium dichromate.

The toxic carcinogen was spread across a ruined water-injection facility in Qarmat Ali, Iraq, when the Soldiers were there in the spring and summer of 2003, they said in testimony before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

Among those who listened to the Soldiers’ testimony Monday was Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader, and senators who represent the states where the Guard members served.

Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, where up to 142 Guard members were affected by the Qarmat Ali exposure, has authored legislation to improve medical care for service members exposed to toxic chemicals during wartime service.

The “Health Care for Members of the Armed Forces Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act of 2009″ is cosponsored by Sens. Robert Byrd, Richard Lugar, John Rockefeller, Byron Dorgan, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden.

For the full article, please go to http://www.army.mil

Senator Evan Bayh testifies at a Senate oversight hearing convened to examine the exposure of American soldiers to a lethal carcinogen during their wartime service in Iraq.