|
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
INDIANA GUARD WARNS SOLDIERS OF POSSIBLE
CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IN IRAQ -- Troops may have
consumed water containing sodium dichromate,
a known cancer-causing agent.
For a previous story about sick troops and sodium
dichromate...click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUN08/nf062208-2.htm
Story here...
http://www.chicagotribune.com
/news/chi-ap-in-soldiers-chemical,0,1047646.story
Story below:
-------------------------
Guard warns soldiers of possible chemical
exposure
Associated Press
JASPER, Ind. - The Indiana National Guard is notifying nearly 600 soldiers
who served in Iraq that they may have drunk water tainted with a
carcinogen at an Iraqi treatment plant.
During a U.S. Senate hearing in June, senators learned that sodium
dichromate -- a cancer-causing chemical that can also cause breathing
problems -- was used at the Qarmat Ali water plant near Basra, Iraq.
Guard spokeswoman Lt. Col. Deedra Thombleson told The Herald of Jasper on
Monday that the Guard has sent letters to most of the 140 current and
former soldiers known to have been at that treatment plant between May and
September 2003.
 The
addresses for 18 of those soldiers could not be found to send them letters
notifying them of their possible exposure.
Thombleson said 448 other Guardsmen are also being contacted to determine
if they were ever at the plant. Of the 588 soldiers being sent letters,
she said 138 are back in Iraq.
The letters encourage the soldiers to call a toll-free number to talk to
medical personnel.
"We want to make sure there's someone there that can answer any type of
question a loved one may have or a soldier may have," Thombleson told The
Herald.
According to the testimony heard June 20 by the Senate Democratic Policy
Committee, sodium dichromate was used at the Basra facility as a corrosion
inhibitor in water.
Indiana National Guard officials learned of the potential exposure June
27.
Paul Eckert of Jasper received his notification letter Friday. He served
in the Guard for 10 years and was in Iraq with the Jasper-based 1st
Battalion, 152nd Regiment from February 2003 to February 2004.
During his tour, Eckert went to the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant
several times with a group to pick up water and supplies for their unit.
When he returned to Jasper in 2004, Eckert, 38, said he noticed a change
in his health.
"I never snored or had breathing problems until I got back from Iraq," he
said Monday. "I have a lack of energy, and I didn't know why. I've always
been in top shape."
Eckert also noticed blotches on his skin that burned and itched. When he
got it checked out at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Louisville, Ky., he
said he was given a medicated lotion that didn't help his condition, he
said.
A fact sheet provided by the Guard states that exposure to sodium
dichromate can cause sores in the nose and sores on the skin that tend not
to heal.
Other symptoms include skin irritation, tearing and eye irritation, runny
or bleeding nose as well as sneezing, coughing, wheezing and pain in the
chest when breathing. Fever, nausea, vomiting and upset stomach are other
symptoms.
Long-term exposure to the chemical can cause lung cancer, the Guard's fact
sheet says.
Eckert wonders if his late comrade, David Moore, might have been sickened
by the chemical. Moore, of Dubois, died earlier this year from what
doctors called interstitial lung disease.
While in Iraq, Moore escorted Eckert's group to the water treatment plant
and drank the water the team brought back, Eckert said.
Moore's sister, Beth Pfau, said Monday that her brother had serious
breathing problems after returning home in 2004. He saw specialists at
Indiana University Hospital and elsewhere, but no one could figure out
what was causing the problem.
"His breathing got worse and worse," she said. "He was on oxygen at home
for a while."
Pfau said that in early January her brother checked into the VA hospital
in Louisville, where he was eventually put on a ventilator. He was 42 when
he died at the hospital Feb. 4.
Pfau said her family has not heard from the Guard but they plan to contact
officials.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
email Larry
(go
back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
