the rix mix

November 2, 2012 Iraq contractor to pay $85M for toxic exposure 

 PORTLAND, ORE. A jury on Friday ordered an American military contractor to pay $85 million after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen Oregon soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq war. 

After a three-week trial, the jury deliberated for just two days before reaching a decision against the contractor, Kellogg Brown and Root. 

The suit was the first concerning soldiers' exposure to a toxin at a water plant in southern Iraq. The soldiers said they suffer from respiratory ailments after their exposure to sodium dichromate, and they fear that a carcinogen the toxin contains, hexavalent chromium, could cause cancer later in life.

This is just the beginning. There are also suits over poisoning from garbage burn pits in Itaq & Afghanistan. I was thinking about this kind of tragic, long-lasting outcome of the Iraq War before the war began. Why weren't the loudest, most out-spoken pro-war veterans then looking out for these future veterans?

Labels: Iraq, war more war