update to the sodium dichromate/military story posted previously

[ensho]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/21/witnesses_link_chemical_to_ill_us_soldiers/


Witnesses link chemical to ill US soldiers


US 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 testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday 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 defense 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.

Yesterday's hearing - one among several organized to hold contractors accountable for alleged malfeasance in Iraq - was chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. "Hundreds of US 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.

-long snip-

"It is almost unbelievable," the senator said during the hearing. "We know that there has been exposure of workers and soldiers to a deadly chemical, and there has been, in my judgment, lack of accountability by those who caused the exposure and lack of accountability at the Department of Defense, regrettably."

Dorgan began investigating the workers' allegations of sodium dichromate exposure after The Boston Globe reported on the case in March.
----------------------------

justice

[malaise]

1. K & R

Murder plain and simple.

[Edweird]

2. KBR=Cheney so expect this to just "go away" and all symptoms to be classified

as some unrelated coincidence.
i.e. Gulf War Syndrome

[pleah]

3. K&R Thanks for the update!

Hope people read this.

[FtWayneBlue]

4. this might be a chemical similar to the one PG&E was

successfully sued for, in the story highlighted in "Erin Brokavitch."

[eppur_se_muova]

5. It's the same. nt

[truedelphi]

6. You got it! n/t