Houston Based KBR Accused Of Exposing Soldiers to Toxic Waste

In an article posted at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/military/6844944.html on February 1, 2010, Houston Chronicle reporters Lindsay Wise and Lise Olsen write that Houston-based contractor KBR and other contractors working for the U. S. military have been named in forty-three pending federal lawsuits which allege that workers and soldiers have been exposed to toxic waste from improperly supervised burn pits.  According to the article, Texas Army National Guard troops in Baghdad report witnessing airborne ash flakes and bits of charred trash drifting from a pitch dark sky.  In this regard, the article states that the debris came from an open-air burn pit about 100 yards from the outer walls of a detainee internment facility guarded by soldiers from Houston’s 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.  Operated by Houston-based contractor KBR, the pit consumes 120 tons of garbage a day north of Baghdad, and, as reported in the article, on calm days, noxious smoke billows upward and dissipates into a smog-like haze.  When the wind blows, the acrid-smelling fumes pour into towers and yards where about 800 Texas troops from the 72nd keep watch. 

As reported by Chron.com, soldiers say a fine layer of soot settles on their uniforms and black goop comes out when they blow their noses.  They complain of migraines, breathing problems, coughs, sore throats, irritated eyes and skin rashes.  With respect to the lawsuits, Chron.com states that the cases feature more than 300 plaintiffs all of whom say they were harmed by improper burning of waste by wartime contractors or the military at 20 sites in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.  For its own part, KBR officials told the Houston Chronicle that their company was involved in operating only 10 of the sites named in the lawsuits and that the litigants have failed to prove exposure to burn pits caused the many symptoms they reported suffering.  Consequently, KBR disputes that any burn pit directly harmed the health of soldiers or others.  KBR further contends that it operates burn pits in accordance with guidelines approved by the Army.  In this regard, military officials acknowledge that burn pit smoke causes acute short-term health effects in some people, but the long-term effects are less clear.

One soldier from Portand, Texas quoted in the article complained of health worries increasing the stress of deployment, commenting that “You’re away from your family and friends and everything and then you add this on top of it.”  Another soldier from Humble, Texas was quoted as saying “I go home at night smelling like burned garbage.”