British veteran joins W.Va. National Guard lawsuit
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A retired sergeant of the Royal Air Force has joined members of the West Virginia National Guard in a lawsuit alleging that they were exposed to a toxic chemical by a government contractor in Iraq in 2003, becoming the first British veteran to sue over the exposure.
In an amended complaint filed Thursday in federal court in West Virginia's Northern District, Andrew M. Tosh, 44, of Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, maintains that officials with KBR Inc. knew about dangerous levels of sodium dichromate, a potent carcinogen, at the Qarmat Ali water-treatment plant months before they informed American and British troops guarding the facility.
As part of Operation RIO in 2003, members of the West Virginia National Guard's 1092nd Engineer Battalion, Guard units from Indiana and Oregon and British troops helped guard the plant while civilian contractors repaired the facility, which provided water pumped to the oil fields to create the pressure needed to extract oil from the ground.
Sodium chromate, a known carcinogen, was used to keep the pipes from rusting.
KBR, a Texas-based offshoot of Halliburton, was awarded billions of dollars of no-bid contracts in Iraq. The company has denied wrongdoing in the incident.
"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," Tosh said in a prepared statement.
The lawsuit accuses KBR of allowing military and civilian personnel to continue to work at the plant, where the toxic dust was 4 feet deep in places.
In August 2003, KBR personnel noted that almost 60 percent of people were exhibiting symptoms of exposure, according to minutes from an Aug. 8., 2003, KBR meeting attached as an exhibit to the lawsuit.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A retired sergeant of the Royal Air Force has joined members of the West Virginia National Guard in a lawsuit alleging that they were exposed to a toxic chemical by a government contractor in Iraq in 2003, becoming the first British veteran to sue over the exposure.
In an amended complaint filed Thursday in federal court in West Virginia's Northern District, Andrew M. Tosh, 44, of Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, maintains that officials with KBR Inc. knew about dangerous levels of sodium dichromate, a potent carcinogen, at the Qarmat Ali water-treatment plant months before they informed American and British troops guarding the facility.
As part of Operation RIO in 2003, members of the West Virginia National Guard's 1092nd Engineer Battalion, Guard units from Indiana and Oregon and British troops helped guard the plant while civilian contractors repaired the facility, which provided water pumped to the oil fields to create the pressure needed to extract oil from the ground.
Sodium chromate, a known carcinogen, was used to keep the pipes from rusting.
KBR, a Texas-based offshoot of Halliburton, was awarded billions of dollars of no-bid contracts in Iraq. The company has denied wrongdoing in the incident.
"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," Tosh said in a prepared statement.
The lawsuit accuses KBR of allowing military and civilian personnel to continue to work at the plant, where the toxic dust was 4 feet deep in places.
In August 2003, KBR personnel noted that almost 60 percent of people were exhibiting symptoms of exposure, according to minutes from an Aug. 8., 2003, KBR meeting attached as an exhibit to the lawsuit.
"Wind is blowing the product that is lying dry on the ground," the minutes state. "People are potentially exposed to something that may be very dangerous."
KBR officials waited another month to shut down the site, though, according to the lawsuit.
The exposure first became public following a U.S. Senate hearing in June 2008. During that hearing, a military medic testified that his Iraqi interpreter told him that members of the Baath Party probably spread bags of the poisonous chemical all over the plant in order to sabotage the facility.
Half of the roughly 80 veterans involved in sodium dichromate lawsuits still show signs of exposure, from persistent rashes and nose bleeds to severe respiratory impacts such as tumors, said Houston lawyer Michael P. Doyle, one of the lead plaintiffs' attorneys in the cases. 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, 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," he said in a prepared statement.
In October, in response to urging from seven U.S. senators, including Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both D-W.Va., the U.S. Department of Defense's Inspector General launched an investigation into the military's response to the soldiers' exposure.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.
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