Dorgan wants answers from Army on troops' exposure to carcinogen: “We know that multiple failures by contractor KBR lead to this exposure"

We really have to get those KBR bastards -- and anyone in the Army or our government who enabled them. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) has been plugging away at this issue for awhile now. It is beyond appalling. From the Democratic Policy Committee's press release:

Dorgan chaired a hearing on August 3, by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC), which looked into the Army’s response to the 2003 exposure at Qarmat Ali in Iraq of hundreds of U.S. soldiers to sodium dichromate, which poses the highest inhalation risk for cancer of any of the 500 substances classified as a carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Senators wrote that they “believe that the conduct and/or inaction of KBR and the Army may have caused hundreds of U.S. troops to be exposed to dangerous levels of sodium dichromate,” and asked the Inspector General to investigate seven separate areas of concern.

“We know that multiple failures by contractor KBR lead to this exposure,” Dorgan said, “but it is also becoming clear that the Army’s multiple failures resulted in soldiers not being warned about the contamination, not being provided personal protective gear, not having t heir symptoms taken seriously, and not being tested in a timely manner.”

At the August 3rd hearing, the 20th hearing on waste, fraud and corruption in Iraq contracting conducted by the DPC since 2003, the Committee heard from four former soldiers who were exposed at Qarmat Ali and are now suffering health difficulties. A 21 year-old soldier from Oregon has already died from the exposure. [background on the August 3rd hearing is here.]

The former soldiers said neither KBR nor the Army took steps to protect soldiers from, or even warn them about, the deadly chemical.

We heard a lot of rhetoric from the Bush administration and GOP members of Congress about supporting the troops. Call me crazy, but I don't think exposing troops to carcinogens is very supportive. But, with Dick Cheney's friends at KBR in the mix, there was no way Bush or the GOP would ever hold KBR accountable.

This is really beyond appalling.