big trouble between KBR & military over sodium dichromate poisoning

[ensho]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/367940_chemical21.html


Witness says U.S. soldiers ill after exposure to chemical
Workers allege contractor knew risks


U.S. soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq's oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses told a Democratic Policy Committee hearing Friday on Capitol Hill.

"These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at 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 the Indiana National Guard.

Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest military contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause cancer, depress an individual's immune system, attack the liver, and cause other ailments.

Friday's hearing -- one among several organized to hold contractors accountable for alleged malfeasance in Iraq -- was chaired by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "Hundreds of U.S. troops, who may not even know of their exposure to sodium dichromate that could one day result in a horrible disease, cancers, and death," he said.

Roughly 250 American soldiers were believed to have come in contact with the chemical, according to Defense Department documents. Sodium dichromate is the same substance that poisoned residents in Hinkley, Calif., an episode made famous by the movie "Erin Brockovich" in 2000.

In Iraq, the chemical was used as an antirust coating for pipes that supply water to the oil fields. After the 2003 U.S. invasion, looters raided the Qarmat-Ali facility; afterward, the chemical was found strewn around the facility and its grounds.

-snip-

Max Costa, chairman of the Department of Environmental Medicine at New York University, told the committee that ordinary blood and urine tests would not have detected heavy levels of sodium dichromate exposure after a few days. He said that the military would have had to conduct a highly specialized red blood cell test within four months of the exposure to determine the soldiers' risk of illness.
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we have turned Iraq and our troops into toxic dumps. walking, talking toxic dumps.

[Submariner]

1. Sodium dichromate

was used as an additive to the once-through cooling system of the Manhattan Project nuclear reactors, to prevent corrosion of the protective metal cladding surrounding the uranium rods in the reactors.

The sodium dichromate nows leaches out of the Hanford site groundwater into the Fall Chinook salmon spawning beds of the Columbia River in the form of highly toxic hexavalent chromium. It 'bathes' the yolk-sac larvae and alevins in hex-chrome contaminated water. The overall impact to the fishery has not been established.

Sodium dichromate is indeed nasty stuff.

[ensho]

3. cripe - from your report and others Salmon must be on their last legs

nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. Supporting the troops...

depleted uranium, sodium dichromate, non potable drinking water, electrocution showers... And the nation buys another HD TeeVee to watch Amurkin Idolatry.

[boobooday]

4. They have so little regard for our soldiers -- treat them as disposable

I can only imagine what we haven't heard, and how much the civilians have been exposed to.

[ColbertWatcher]

5. If any die, will they be counted? n/t

[crickets]

6. ...

[BeHereNow]

7. The Powers That Be view our troops as nothing more than renewable resources- not human beings.

And every graduating high school provides more fodder for the meat grinder
that is the US military which has become nothing more than a tool for the
hegemonic quest of the multi national corporations.

It's a business decision, nothing more, nothing less.

The destruction of our county, economically, educationally
and other wise has been deliberate to assure them a fresh supply
of cannon fodder to act in THEIR interests, not those of
the American people.

They just use us to provide funding and fresh meat.

BHN

[Karenina]

8. Fungible.

[BeHereNow]

10. My brother, and perhaps his son.

My brother recently went through prostate cancer.
He was in the first Bush invasion of Iraq.
Still waiting to see how his son does.

Fuckers. I hate the people who have allowed this
to happen. Especially the Congress pigs eating at the corporate trough
and charging their excess to the lives of our loved ones.

BHN

[Wizard777]

9. And they thought the chemicle attacks would come from Saddam. Nope! KBR

[BeHereNow]

Dupe

Repeat dupe.
BHN

[BeHereNow]

11. I wonder, is there a way to find out the investment holdings of our "representatives?"

I would be fairly certain that they are invested in the companies
that profit from the wholesale murder they have condoned.
If only there was a way to reveal their financial interests in the
continued slaughter that they keep funding... too many
subsidiaries and hidden shell games, but I would BET
they are making money off this FUBAR war.

BHN

[Disturbed]

12. KBR is murdering US Troops.

The Busholini Regime, esp. Cheney must be held accountable.

Will they?

[BeHereNow]

13. Not likely...

Not when there is no over sight.
Congress is a JOKE.
A BIG fucking carnival of Kabuki actors, PRETENDING to
do their publicly funded jobs while they privately profit behind
closed doors.
A few hours watching them on C-Span will quickly
confirm this in the mind of anyone who is even
remotely capable of critical thinking.

99% of our elected representatives need to be shown the door.
Yesterday.

BHN

[sarcasmo]

14. The new Agent Orange?

[BeHereNow]

15. Yes, the comparison has already been made.

By those who pay attention to such things anyway.
The vast majority of the citizens know nothing about either.
Only those directly affected are following the stats.

In that my brother has certainly been affected,
I am following the news on it, what little there is, that is.
BHN