Board: Guardsmen were not overexposed to toxin - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Board: Guardsmen were not overexposed to toxin

WASHINGTON — The Army correctly concluded that Indiana National Guardsmen were not overexposed to a toxin in Iraq, according to an independent review by the Defense Health Board. The review could make it harder for a group of guardsmen to continue their lawsuit against defense contractor KBR of Texas.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who was briefed on the findings Monday, said he still has unanswered questions.

“What did KBR know, when did they know it, and what did they do?” Bayh told CBS News on Monday, according to a transcript of the interview. “Apparently, it was bad enough that the KBR people weren’t going back into the site. The Indiana guardsmen said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not going back in there anymore!’ Something clicked in our guardsmen’s minds that something’s not right here, and if those employees aren’t going in, why should be we going in?”

Bayh had asked the Army for more information after two KBR employees told Senate Democrats in June that workers and soldiers at a water pumping plant in Iraq were exposed to sodium dichromate in 2003.

Sodium dichromate, which was used at the site as an anti-corrosive, contains the carcinogen hexavalent chromium. Members of the Indiana National Guard were among the soldiers providing protection to defense contractors working on the Qarmat Ali Water Injection Facility.

Sixteen Indiana guardsmen filed suit earlier this month against KBR, accusing the contractor of publicly downplaying and privately concealing the health risks.

The company has said it acted appropriately and is fighting the lawsuit.

The site was visibly contaminated by sodium dichromate when secured by U.S. military forces, according to the Army.

But the Defense Health Board, an advisory committee to the secretary of defense that provides independent advice, said none of the 137 soldiers and civilians tested had “substantially elevated” levels of chromium in their blood.

Bayh has expressed concerns about the type of tests conducted on the soldiers and their timeliness.

Because of the results of the tests on the Indiana guardsmen, the Army made the “pragmatic and reasonable” decision not to also test guard units from Oregon and South Carolina who were no longer at the site, the Defense Health Board said.

The board concluded that the Defense Department’s response was “prompt and appropriate” and included testing for health effects within approximately 30 days of the last potential exposure.

The testing did find many reports of respiratory-tract irritation. But that’s similar to what other soldiers serving in the desert have experienced, the board said. Even though the tests did not find excessive levels of chromium the Defense Health Board said it “may have been revealing or reassuring” to know if those with more respiratory problems had different chromium levels,

Bayh is also pushing legislation to help veterans exposed to toxic contaminants during war. The changes would include making at-risk veterans eligible for medical tests, allowing for a scientific review of evidence linking exposure to health problems, and requiring frontline commanders to report hazardous-material exposure.

“The burden of proof should not be on the soldier, many years later, to go back and prove that their health condition was related to that exposure,” Bayh told CBS News, according to the transcript. “That’s virtually impossible. The benefit of the doubt should go to the soldier.”