Senators: More soldiers exposed to chemicals? - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Senators: More soldiers exposed to chemicals?

INDIANAPOLIS — Two U.S. senators say more American soldiers than previously reported may have been exposed to a toxic chemical while protecting an Iraqi water pumping plant in 2003.

Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota say there are many unanswered questions about troops’ exposure to hexavalent chromium at the plant in Basra, Iraq.

In a letter dated Tuesday to the Army and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the senators say Houston-based contractor KBR Inc. allowed soldiers to be exposed to the chemical for more than two months even though KBR knew the site was contaminated.

Bayh and Dorgan also say Indiana National Guard troops didn’t learn of their possible exposure until they saw KBR workers wearing special clothing. They also say some Guard troops from Oregon, South Carolina and West Virginia haven’t been told they may have been exposed.