Military defense contractor Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) is facing a class-action lawsuit for burning toxic chemicals including asbestos in Iraq and Afghanistan, posing serious health threats to as many as 100,000 U.S. military.
The lawsuit combines 34 separate lawsuits against KBR for allegedly burning toxic waste in open-air pits including: “trucks, tires, lithium batteries, Styrofoam…petroleum-oil-lubricant products, metals, hydraulic fluids, munitions boxes, medical waste, biohazard materials (including human corpses), medical supplies (including those used during smallpox inoculations), paints, solvents, asbestos insulation, items containing pesticides, polyvinyl chloride pipes, animal carcasses, dangerous chemicals and hundreds of thousands of plastic water bottles.”
The burn pits have been in operation outside Middle East military bases since 2003, some as large as 10 acres, according to eyewitnesses. According to the lawsuit, the company operated these burn pits with no safety regulations, ignoring their contractual obligations. KBR’s shoddy contracting has been an issue for years as the company keeps getting new contracts despite poorly built structures, faulty electrical work (that has electrocuted at least twelve military personnel) and poor bookkeeping. The company keeps getting new contracts and performance bonuses from the Department of Defense.
Toxic encounters such as asbestos exposure will not result in health problems for years. Other diseases develop within a matter of months, often exhibiting the symptoms that are similar to those associated with asbestos-caused diseases. Mesothelioma cancer, one form of asbestos malignancy usually has a twenty to forty year latency period. However this latest collection of cases cites some immediate health problems suffered by American servicemen and women alleged to be the result of exposure to the fumes.
Health repercussions being claimed in the latest case as a result of the toxic fumes from burned waste range from shortness of breath to cancer. One paramedic, Russell Keith, developed Parkinson’s disease after exposure to burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq over 15 months. Another plaintiff claims his kidney disease came as a result of exposure to the toxic smoke.
