By Jon Murray
Indystar.com

A federal judge today dismissed a lawsuit accusing a large defense contractor of concealing the risks faced by nearly 140 Indiana National Guard soldiers potentially exposed to a cancer-causing agent in Iraq.

The ruling did not address any of the claims in the lawsuit, which could still be pursued elsewhere by the attorneys for the 47 Indiana Guard soldiers serving as plaintiffs. Chief Judge Richard L. Young ruled that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana lacks “personal jurisdiction” over Texas-based KBR and several related companies.

The dismissal was based in part on a finding that the actions at issue in the suit took place outside Indiana even if the health effects are only being felt now. And the KBR companies’ limited contacts in Indiana — they have no offices here but have held contracts in Indiana — amount to an insufficient business footprint.

Mike Doyle, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said the legal team plans to file a new version of the lawsuit in another jurisdiction as soon as possible, but he did not specify where.

“This development delays but does not deny justice for the Indiana Guardsmen in this case,” Doyle said in a statement. “The truth of what happened at Qarmat Ali will be told, and we believe it will be told in a federal court.”

KBR also issued a statement: “We are pleased with the ruling and believe Judge Young made the right decision regarding jurisdiction in this case. Regarding the general allegations in the litigation, KBR maintains that plaintiffs’ claims are unsupported by the evidence.”

Most of the plaintiffs served with a Tell City, Ind., unit sent to Iraq with the Indiana National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry Regiment, based in Jasper. For three months beginning in May 2003, the unit provided security for KBR employees charged with rebuilding the Qarmat Ali water-pumping plant near Basra.

Restoring the plant was a key step in restoring oil production.

The suit says the site was covered in sodium dichromate, an industrial chemical normally used to remove pipe corrosion. It contained heavy doses of a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium that is known to heighten the risk for cancer of the lungs and respiratory tract.

Some of the Indiana soldiers have developed rashes and other health problems since their return.

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Technorati Tags: guard chemcial exposure, Hexavalent Chromium, Hexavalent Chromium Exposure, KBR Litigation

Ross William Hamilton, The Oregonian | U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden watches as Larry Roberta, an Oregon veteran who suffers breathing and stomach problems from exposure to hexavalent chromium, coughs during a news conference in Portland. "There was no way to get away from it,'' Roberta said. "Our job was to watch KBR's back and make sure they were OK."

Veterans exposed to cancer-causing hexavalent chromium in Iraq — including nearly 300 Oregon soldiers — should be treated as if they’d hit a roadside bomb and receive lifelong medical care and Purple Hearts, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said Thursday.

Ten Oregon Army National Guard veterans who were exposed to the chemical while protecting war contractor KBR’s employees stood with the Oregon Democrat a news conference to acknowledge their “invisible wounds” and to hold the contractor accountable. When one veteran began to cough violently and struggled for breath at the podium, Wyden’s alarm turned to outrage.

“Precautions should have been taken and they were not, that is inexcusable,” Wyden said. “That soldiers have become critically ill and suffer respiratory diseases and skin rashes that, again, is inexcusable.”

The soldiers served at Qarmat Ali, a water treatment plant where fleeing loyalists of Saddam Hussein spilled a corrosion fighter containing hexavalent chromium, which is so toxic that an amount the size of a grain of salt greatly increases the risk of lung, stomach and brain cancer. The Oregonian exposed the widespread health problems in a series of stories last year, which alerted the soldiers to danger.

The men are among 21 soldiers in Oregon, and dozens in other states suing KBR in federal court. Soldiers say they were never told of any danger and were told that their bloody noses and other symptoms were allergies to desert sand. KBR maintains it was not responsible for the chemical at the water treatment plant, that it posted signs warning that the anti-corrosive was toxic and points fingers at Army engineers.

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee passed a bill to extend health care to the Qarmat Ali veterans, but only until 2012. Wyden wants to amend and extend that coverage for life before a final vote. He said he is also taking up the fight headed by retiring Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. and Evan Bayh, D-Ind. Dorgan led 19 hearings into waste, fraud and abuse by war contractors. At one hearing, former KBR employees at Qarmat Ali, themselves suffering lung and skin problems, told senators that soldiers were exposed. Bayh was the first to raise alarm about Oregon soldiers when he noted that Indiana troops followed Oregon troops at Qarmat Ali in 2003.

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Technorati Tags: British Soldier, British Soldier Sues KBR, Charleston Gazzett, guard chemcial exposure, kbr chemcial exposure, Sodium Dichromate Exposure

First UK Iraq Vet Sues Contractor KBR Over Alleged Toxic Exposure

Contractor also accused of misleading British military

HOUSTON, Feb. 4, 2010 – A retired Royal Air Force sergeant joined more than 80 U.S. veterans in litigation against military contractor KBR, Inc. over alleged toxic exposure at a contaminated site near Basra, Iraq, the Doyle Raizner LLP law firm announced today.

In an amended lawsuit filed today in West Virginia federal court, Andrew M. Tosh claims KBR endangered U.K. and U.S. military personnel by exposing them in 2003 to sodium dichromate – an anticorrosive chemical containing nearly pure hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen – at a water plant they guarded in Qarmat Ali, Iraq. KBR was contracted to restore the water plant to supply water to Iraqi oil wells.

According to the lawsuit, military personnel guarding the site were “unprotected against the hazards of sodium dichromate known to KBR’s managers for months and months.” KBR also is accused of manipulating air and soil testing at Qarmat Ali and of intentionally avoiding blood tests that might have confirmed the presence and extent of hexavalent chromium toxicity in civilian workers showing exposure symptoms.

The lawsuit alleges, “In fact, despite the demonstrated knowledge of elevated chromium levels in the admittedly inadequate blood testing of KBR’s civilian employees, KBR’s managers apparently deliberately told British Forces exactly the opposite.”

Tosh, 44, of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK, was deployed with his squadron to Basra, Iraq in May 2003 on force protection duties. His service at the Qarmat Ali site included numerous 24-hour shifts during a five-month period. A 23-year veteran of the RAF Regiment, he suffered from skin rashes during and after his deployment and prolonged chest infections while in Iraq and on return to the UK.

Tosh said, “We now know that the dusty rust-colored substance at Qarmat Ali was extraordinarily dangerous. Whilst afraid for my own long-term health and that of the numerous other RAF Regiment troops I served with in Iraq, I believe KBR management misled the militaries of the U.S. and the U.K. Too many of the men who served at Qarmat Ali were sick whilst there or became ill later. This cannot be coincidental.”

An internal KBR memo from August 8, 2003 noted that “60 percent” of the company’s civilian contractors at the site were showing symptoms of sodium dichromate exposure. Yet, shortly thereafter, the British military reported that “[b]iological monitoring test results to which we have been given access for contractors and American forces have been within normal limits.” The British report then estimated that the “environmental hazards” would have “no effects” on military personnel guarding Qarmat Ali.

Tosh is represented by Michael P. Doyle, Jeffrey L. Raizner, and Patrick M. Dennis, of Doyle Raizner LLP, of Houston, and Michael G. Simon, of Frankovitch, Anetakis, Colantonio & Simon, of Weirton, W.V. Doyle Raizner LLP and co-counsel represent 81 Iraq veterans in three cases pending in federal courts in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon.

Doyle said about half of the veterans pursuing legal claims still show signs of sodium dichromate exposure, ranging from persistent rashes and nose bleeds to severe respiratory impacts such as tumors. Two cancer deaths – including that of the commanding officer of an Indiana National Guard unit serving at Qarmat Ali, Lt. Col. James Gentry – are attributable in whole or part to the exposure, he said.

“Through this litigation and the Congressional investigation,” Doyle said, “the evidence has begun to show that KBR risked the lives of the U.S. and U.K. military personnel guarding the facility. We allege, contrary to KBR’s dubious claims, that the company continues to conceal the truth about Qarmat Ali.”

The lawsuit seeks medical monitoring costs, future medical costs, and damages related to physical impairment and disfigurement and loss of earning capacity, among other claims.

The Tosh case is “Dale Gallaher, et al., v. KBR, Inc., et al.,” in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, Civil Action No. 5:09-cv-69.

More information about the Qarmat Ali litigation is available through Doyle Raizner at www.kbrlitigation.com.

Media Contact: Erin Powers, Powers MediaWorks LLC, for Doyle Raizner LLP, 281.703.6000; info@powersmediaworks.com.

Technorati Tags: British Soldier, British Soldier Sues KBR, guard chemcial exposure, Hexavalent Chromium, Hexavalent Chromium Exposure, kbr chemcial exposure, KBR Lawsuits

Along with members of the US Army National Guard, a large contingent of the British forces deployed in 2003 were also tasked with protecting KBR’s Qarmat Ali project near Basra, Iraq.   Unfortunately, these men, primarily members of the RAF Regiment, were likewise wholly unprotected against the hazards of sodium dichromate-an anticorrosive chemical containing nearly pure hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen- even after its presence and dangers of unprotected exposure were known to KBR’s managers for months and months.

We are proud to represent Andy Tosh, a retired sergeant from the RAF Regiment now living in Lincolnshire,  as he has joined the case of West Virginia veterans suing KBR for knowingly exposing them to the hazards at the site without protection.  What appears clear from documentation provided to the British Forces is that at the same time KBR’s managers were documenting elevated chromium levels in the admittedly inadequate blood testing of KBR’s civilian employees, KBR’s managers apparently deliberately told British Forces exactly the opposite.

Accordingly to an internal KBR memo dated August 8, 2003  “60 percent” of workers showing symptoms” was being found, while the KBR personnel in liason with the British forces were telling them (accordingly to a British Forces fact sheet, “b. Biological monitoring test results to which we have been given access for contractors and American forces have been within normal limits.”).

Andy Tosh and his fellow members of British Forces, part of the Multinational Forces serving in support of  Restoring Iraqi Freedom, were entitled to and did rely on the knowing misrepresentations by KBR’s managers about the hazards they faced at the time of their exposures, as well as the serious health consequences they now face.  It is simply not right that these men serving their country, in this case America’s staunchest allies in the United Kingdom, have the bear the consequences of these deliberate decisions by KBR’s managers.

Sgt Tosh in Iraq, 2003

By LINDSAY WISE and LISE OLSEN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 1, 2010, 12:02AM

Mayra Beltran Chronicle A front-end loader moves trash to a waste-burning pit at Camp Taji, about 100 yards from where soldiers of Houston's 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team are assigned. 

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — One night in mid-January, a shift in the wind sent a sudden flurry of white flakes into a detainee internment facility guarded by soldiers from Houston’s 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

The Texas Army National Guard troops weren’t witnessing a rare Baghdad snowfall. The flakes drifting from the pitch-dark sky were ash and bits of charred trash belched from an open-air burn pit about 100 yards from the outer walls of the internment facility.

Operated by Houston-based contractor KBR, the pit consumes 120 tons of garbage a day here at Camp Taji, a U.S. military base north of Baghdad. On calm days, noxious smoke billows upward and dissipates into a smog-like haze. When the wind blows, the acrid-smelling fumes pour into towers and yards where about 800 Texas troops from the 72nd keep watch.

“It hovers over like a blanket,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Ethier, 36, of Montgomery. “After it rains, you’ll get puddles of stuff. It’s like a yellowish, brackish color. It looks metallic. It’s just disgusting.”

Soldiers say a fine layer of soot settles on their uniforms and black goop comes out when they blow their noses. They complain of migraines, breathing problems, coughs, sore throats, irritated eyes and skin rashes.

The Texas Guard troops aren’t the first to report problems from exposure to burn pits at U.S. military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forty-three pending federal lawsuits allege that KBR and other contractors working for the U.S. military poisoned workers and soldiers alike by incinerating toxic waste in improperly supervised burn pits. The suits have been consolidated in a Maryland federal district court.

Houston-based Halliburton and a Turkish contractor frequently are named as co-defendants, documents show. However, a Halliburton spokeswoman said the company has “no responsibility” for burn pit operations and should be dismissed from the litigation.

KBR denies blame

The cases feature more than 300 plaintiffs — and the family members of a dozen dead workers and soldiers — all of whom say they were harmed by improper burning of waste by wartime contractors or the military at 20 sites in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. At least nine people say they were sickened by the burn pit at Camp Taji.

KBR officials told the Houston Chronicle that their company was involved in operating only 10 of the sites named in the lawsuits. Mark Lowes, vice president of litigation for KBR, said the company disputes that any burn pit directly harmed the health of soldiers or others, saying litigants have failed to prove exposure to burn pits caused the many symptoms they later reported suffering.

While KBR continues to operate 12 burn pits in Iraq — including Camp Taji’s — and one in Afghanistan,the company said it does not decide where to locate them or what items to burn.

“KBR operates burn pits in accordance with guidelines approved by the Army,” the company said. “Further, it is the Army that also decides where on base to locate the living and working facilities for base personnel.”

More than 100 people have complained about a massive burn pit a few kilometers north of Taji at Iraq’s Joint Base Balad — including allegations that lithium batteries and human body parts were incinerated there, according to lawsuits filed against KBR and others in Houston, San Antonio and elsewhere. KBR repeatedly has denied operating the pit, though it recently got a multimillion dollar contract to replace pits at Balad with four huge incinerators.

Sgt. 1st Class El “Kevin” Sar, who considers Houston his hometown, said he did two tours of duty at Balad in 2006 and 2007 and developed migraine headaches, shortness of breath and chronic insomnia. Sar said he ended up being evacuated because of a recurring lung infection.

Sar, 41, remains abroad on active duty as a U.S. Army solider, but said he continues to take medication for chronic lung problems doctors have blamed on toxic exposure.

“I can’t run anymore. I still cough and once in a while I feel chest pain and regurgitate mucus,” said Sar, one of 18 Texas-based victims named in a burn pit lawsuit originally filed in San Antonio.

In that case, othersoldiers from San Antonio, San Marcos and smaller cities also complained exposure to burn pits caused them health problems, including acute abdominal pains, chronic respiratory infections, burning sensations in the lungs, a tumor and persistent cold-like symptoms.

David McMenomy of Lampasas and Steve Wayne Palmer of Forney complained of health problems suffered after being stationed at Camp Taji. McMenomy developed a football-size tumor that was removed from his hip.

Soldiers doubtful

Military officials acknowledge that burn pit smoke causes acute short-term health effects in some people — such as irritated eyes and coughing — but the long-term effects are less clear.

A Navy Health Research Center study that evaluated 40,000 service members found a 30 percent increase in complaints immediately after deployments, but no increase in respiratory conditions such as asthma or bronchitis two years later, said Col. Timothy Mallon, a physician assigned to U.S. Forces-Iraq.

Texas soldiers at Taji are reluctant to believe that exposure to the burn pit won’t cause them long-term harm.

“You can’t start your day without a splitting headache,” said Staff Sgt. Charles Bloom, 31, of Sugar Land.

Staff Sgt. Scott Jarvis, 45, of Houston, said he tries not to think about what’s being burned and released into the air.

“I have a very hard time breathing sometimes, and I have a big rash on my face,” Jarvis said.

1st Lt. Sean Lindley, 27, said the air aggravates his throat and eyes. The health worries increase the stress of deployment, he said.

“It sucks being here,” said Lindley, who’s from Portland, Texas. “You’re away from your family and friends and everything and then you add this on top of it.”

Lawsuits specifically allege contractors and others dumped a human arm, other body parts, batteries, tires, asbestos and a variety of toxics into burn pits. Aside from Balad, all of those pits apparently remain in operation, said Susan Burke, one of two chief counsels for plaintiffs in the consolidated cases.

For Full Story Please Visit the Houston Chronicle Website

A recent lawsuit brought by a group of Indiana National Guardsman spotlights a controversial legal doctrine that prevents soldiers on active duty from seeking compensation for injuries sustained in war zones.

The guardsman allege that a mission to help clean up a water treatment plant in southern Iraq left them with what they say are potentially fatal illnesses.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Indiana, the Guardsmen allege that oil company KBR Inc. “disregarded and downplayed” the fact that the site at Qarmat Ali was coated with the hazardous chemical sodium dichromate. They were exposed, they say, to the chemical that is used as an industrial anti-corrosive agent to protect pipes.

As a result, the soldiers suffered “unprotected, unknowing, direct exposure to one of the most potent carcinogens and mutagenic substances known to man,” alleges the suit, which seeks monetary compensation for health problems the soldiers say they have suffered.

KBR has said in court filings that it was carrying out the duties in its contract. It says the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was obligated to provide it with an environmentally safe area for its work. Besides, the company says, Army medical tests have shown no soldiers were harmed. The company also says that once the chemical was discovered, the company worked to make the area safe.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army says it cannot comment on the suit because it is pending.

The suit and similar ones filed separately against KBR highlight the challenges of soldiers seeking compensation from the courts for war-zone incidents. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling known as the “Feres doctrine” bars soldiers in active duty from filing suits against the federal government. The military gives soldiers free medical treatment and stipends in some instances, the reasoning goes, so they are duly compensated for whatever befalls them on the battlefield.

Many of the suits that stem from actions on the battlefield are directed at third parties, specifically contractors whom the military increasingly rely on. But contractors too are immune from suits if they can successfully prove they have lived up to the specifications in their government contracts.

As a general rule, third parties have been successful in warding off big rewards from battlefield litigation. For instance, U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War who said they suffered from symptoms related to the usage of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant the military used in the war, sued the chemical companies that manufactured it. Suits seeking-class action status were first filed in the late 1970s and settled after about six years of legal wrangling. Under the settlement, only a handful of litigants were eligible for relatively meager compensation.

Technorati Tags: guard chemcial exposure, KBR lawsuit, KBR Litigation, Wall Street Journal, WSJ

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National Guardsmen suing KBR for chemical exposure

December 30, 2009 Wednesday
NBC Nightly News 6:30 PM EST NBC

NBC News Transcripts
ANCHORS: BRIAN WILLIAMS
REPORTERS: LISA MYERS

We’re back and we have an NBC News investigation tonight that takes us back to Iraq in 2003, after the combat phase of the war was over. American troops were working alongside contractors from private corporations, racing to get that nation’s oil flowing again, as you’ll recall. Tonight we bring you the story of some Army National Guardsmen who are suing the defense contractor KBR, accusing the company of putting them in a different kind of danger in the war zone. Here is our senior investigative corespondent Lisa Myers.

Mr. LARRY ROBERTA: Independence Hall.

LISA MYERS reporting:

When National Guardsman Larry Roberta went to Iraq, he expected sandstorms, physical hardship, perhaps even combat. What he didn’t expect was this: orange dust all over the place at a plant where his unit was assigned to provide security for contractors working for Kellogg Brown and Root, KBR. The workers were repairing the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant, needed to supply water to Iraqi oil fields.

Mr. ROBERTA: You could taste stuff in the air that–it had a really strange metallic taste.

MYERS: Roberta and others say the dust was throughout the plant and the grounds, and permeated the air during sandstorms.

Mr. ROBERTA: And it blew up in my face and on my chicken patty and my mouth and stuff like that. I didn’t really think a whole lot of it, other than it tasted really bad, and made me throw up and burned.

MYERS: Another Guardsman, Captain Russ Kimberling, says he asked KBR officials what the orange dust was.

Captain RUSS KIMBERLING: And what we got from them was it’s a mild irritant.

MYER: The orange dust actually was a highly toxic chemical, sodium dichromate, which had been used by the Iraqis prior to the war to prevent corrosion in pipes. Scientists have found that the chemical can cause lung cancer in humans. There were hundreds of bags of it at the plant, clearly labeled. Six years later, several Guardsmen who spent time at the site have reported rashes, perforated septums and severe respiratory problems. Former Lieutenant Colonel James Gentry developed a rare lung cancer. First Sergeant David Moore developed lung disease.

Larry Roberta, who hiked up Mount Sinai before he went to Iraq, now struggles to catch his breath when he walks. He has serious stomach and liver issues, migraines and acute respiratory problems.

Mr. ROBERTA: You almost feel like you’re–like you’re drowning. Like you want to breath but you just can’t.

MYERS: A KBR spokesman says the company immediately notified the Army as soon as it discovered there was sodium dichromate contamination at the plant. That, the company says, was in late July 2003. But an internal KBR document says a company technician actually identified the chemical at the site in May. Yet another KBR document warns of potential contamination at the site, and suggests testing and cleanup. It’s dated June 21st, more than a month before the Army was alerted. It wasn’t until late August that the Guardsmen became aware of the danger, and then only because they saw images like this, KBR workers wearing white chemical suits.

Capt. KIMBERLING: They were in full protective chemical gear, you know, from head to toe. I kind of looked at one of my men and just said, `This can’t be good, can it?’

MYERS: These and other Guardsmen are now suing KBR, charging that the company knowingly endangered their lives. KBR strongly denies wrongdoing. The company says it was the Army’s responsibility to ensure the site was free of environmental hazards and that tests done by the Army concluded that no soldier encountered a significant inhalation exposure. The company also disputes claims that the chemical made Guardsmen sick. We went to one of the foremost experts on sodium dichromate, Dr. Herman Gibb.

KBR says that there was simply no evidence that soldiers were harmed by exposure to this chemical.

Dr. HERMAN GIBB: I don’t see how they can say there’s no evidence. I mean, they experienced symptoms that are consistent with sodium dichromate exposure. The exposure must have been fairly significant to be associated with these symptoms.

MYERS: Since our interview, Dr. Gibb has been hired by lawyers representing the Guardsmen to review material for their case. Recently the Army acknowledged that 700 soldiers may have been exposed to the chemical at the plant. The Defense Department is now investigating. David Moore died last year at age 42. James Gentry died the day before Thanksgiving. Larry Roberta struggles just to get through each day.

Capt. KIMBERLING: They said it was a mild irritant. That’s what I told my soldiers, and suck it up and drive on with the–with the mission.

Mr. ROBERTA: IF KBR did now…(clears throat)…excuse me—about this before we were there, it should have been rectified.

MYERS: Lisa Myers, NBC News, Washington.

WILLIAMS: When NBC NIGHTLY NEWS continues in just a moment, who do we admire most these days in this country? Some new poll numbers are out tonight.

Technorati Tags: guard chemcial exposure, Hexavalent Chromium, Hexavalent Chromium Exposure, kbr chemcial exposure, Sodium Dichromate Exposure

by Melissa Swan of WHAS-ABC 11 (Louisville, KY)

(WHAS11) – Indiana National Guard troops gathered to say goodbye to one of their commanding officers on Tuesday, Lt. Colonel Jim Gentry. Gentry believed his terminal cancer was directly related to his service in Iraq and even after death the 52-year-old Indiana National Guard commander is continuing a fight for his troops through a lawsuit.

Veterans from several wars held the stars and stripes as members of Jim Gentry’s family, both by blood and by military arrived for a final, formal goodbye.

“He was the type of person that loved the challenge, loved soldiers, loved to work with soldiers,” said Major General Dan Colglazier, a retired member of the Indiana National Guard.

Inside the chapel, were many of Jim Gentry’s soldiers, their patches for the infantry and for Indiana worn proudly on their sleeves.

Gentry entered the Army in 1981 as an infantry man and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was among the first National Guard troops in the country to be deployed to Iraq. There he commanded soldiers throughout the country.

“We always talked about how to take care of the troops and how to fulfill his mission..Never about how he was doing, what kind of condition he was in..It was always his soldiers and the unit and the mission,” added Maj. General Colglazier.

It was during Gentry’s first tour of duty, in 2003, he and other Indiana National Guard soldiers first noticed a yellow substance in the sand near Basra.

They were guarding American contractors restoring the Iraqi oil fields. That yellow substance was later confirmed to be a cancer causing chemical, sodium dichromate.

Gentry would later come to believe that the sodium dichromate led to his terminal cancer.

Before his death, Gentry joined in a federal lawsuit against KBR, the American military contractor restoring the Iraqi oil fields.

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