[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: Oregon troops exposed to chromium in Iraq

[Lenny Siegel]

Oregon troops exposed to toxic chemical in Iraq
At least 48 Guard soldiers were around hexavalent chromium, a known 
cancer risk

JULIE SULLIVAN
The Oregonian
January 9, 2009

Early in the Iraq war, Oregon Army National Guard soldiers say they 
encountered environmental disaster in oil fields. Now it's clear a 
deadly toxin also swirled in the desert air.

At least 48 Oregon soldiers assigned to protect contractors rebuilding a 
water treatment plant near Iraqi oil fields in 2003 were exposed to 
hexavalent chromium. The industrial compound, if inhaled, greatly 
increases the risk of lung cancer.

Last month, 16 Indiana National Guard soldiers sued Houston-based KBR, 
claiming the nation's largest war contractor "disregarded and downplayed 
the extreme danger of wholesale site contamination." The suit claims KBR 
hid its civilian workers' elevated chromium levels and dismissed 
widespread symptoms -- including constant nosebleeds that toxicologists 
call "chrome nose" -- as sand allergies.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/1231480505296720.xml&coll=7

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org