Witnesses link chemical to ill US soldiers

Tag : sodium chromate

WASHINGTON - US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq'soil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxicchemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic PolicyCommittee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill.
"These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," saidDanny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to workat the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. "They were sick."
"Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated"while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of theIndiana National Guard.
Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the leadcontractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defensecontractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodiumdichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentiallylethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to thechemical can cause cancer, depress an individual's immune system,attack the liver, and cause other ailments.
Yesterday's hearing - one among several organized to holdcontractors accountable for alleged malfeasance in Iraq - was chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. "Hundredsof US troops, who may not even know of their exposure to sodiumdichromate that could one day result in a horrible disease,cancers, and death," he said.
Roughly 250 American soldiers were believed to have come in contactwith the chemical, according to Defense Department documents.Sodium dichromate is the same substance that poisoned residents inHinkley, Calif., an incident made famous by the movie "ErinBrockovich" in 2000.
In Iraq, the chemical was used as an antirust coating for pipesthat supply water to the oil fields. After the 2003 US-ledinvasion, looters raided the Qarmat Ali facility; afterward, thechemical was found strewn around the facility and its grounds.
Langford and his former colleagues have said KBR supervisorsinitially told them the chemical was a "mild irritant." Thecompany, however, eventually acknowledged that sodium dichromatewas a potentially deadly substance and moved to clean up the site.
KBR has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. The company hasinsisted the safety of its workers and the troops they work withare its "highest priority."
After KBR began cleaning up the site, it tested its workers forexposure. The US military also took blood and urine samples from137 soldiers and civilians who were at the plant. Ten soldiersdeclined to be tested, and 14 were unavailable, according to thecongressional testimony about the exposure provided by officialsfrom the Department of Defense.
The Pentagon has said that the troops' exposure to sodiumdichloride at the Iraqi facility did not appear to pose anylong-term threat.
Last year, Ellen Embrey - deputy assistant defense secretary forForce Pealth Protection and Readiness, an office set upspecifically to deal with such long-term health issues - told acongressional subcommittee that the test results from the soldiersshowed "no specific abnormalities" and that "no long-term healtheffects are expected" from the exposure.