Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Two soldiers from Tennessee have filed suit against Kellogg, Brown and Root, a Haliburton subsidiary, for the use of burn pits on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers claim that they were exposed to toxic material being burned in those pits and have serious health problems as a result. They are also seeking class action status for the suit to involve other soldiers exposed to those burn pits.
"These for-profit corporations callously exposed and continue to expose soldiers and others to toxic smoke, ash and fumes," says the complaint filed in Nashville on Friday, which asks for damages on behalf of two Tennessee soldiers. "These exposures are causing a host of serious diseases, increased risk of serious diseases in the future, death and increased risk of death."The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, describes "burn pits" at U.S. bases in both military theaters that contain "every type of waste imaginable." Reading like a postmodern version of Jonathan Swift's Description of a City Shower, the catalog of rubbish in the pits includes:
"Tires, lithium batteries, Styrofoam, paper, wood, rubber, petroleum-oil-lubricating 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."
"Flames shoot hundreds of feet into the sky" as the huge pits are set ablaze, the Nashville lawsuit claims.
Noting that "burning plastics emit dioxins, which are known to cause cancer," the complaint accuses the defendants of negligence, battery and inflicting emotional distress. Saying an estimated 100,000 soldiers and contract personnel may have been harmed by the smoke from the pits, the plaintiffs want the court to force KBR and the other companies to cover future medical expenses and pay other compensatory damages.
It also seeks punitive damages "in an amount sufficient to strip defendants of all of the revenue and profits earned from their pattern of constant, wanton and outrageous misconduct and callous disregard and utter indifference to the welfare of Americans serving and working in Iraq and Afghanistan."
KBR responds that they follow all military regulations on what may or may not be burned in those pits, which would shift responsibility to the military. This is one of 22 such suits filed by soldiers around the country, which may well be consolidated into one.
Politics
Comments
The soldiers should stop whining. What's good for Haliburton is good for America.
Posted by: nedlum | November 12, 2009 9:38 AM
Didn't Bush make an executive order or something which absolved all US-based commerce in Iraq from prosecution for their actions there?
Posted by: Gingerbaker | November 12, 2009 9:39 AM
Our soldiers are already in enough danger due to the nature of war. Can't we at least try to provide them with fresh air? This is appalling, but I guess it's not that surprising.
Posted by: catgirl | November 12, 2009 10:28 AM
... biohazard materials (including human corpses)...
?!? Presumably these aren't US troops - but just whose bodies are they?
What kind of crimes is KBR (and the US military) covering up this time?
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | November 12, 2009 10:38 AM
Isn't this the same company that charged millions for providing our troops with tainted water? Now they're poisoning the air too?
Posted by: phantomreader42 | November 12, 2009 11:28 AM
Just tell the Iraqis and Afghans it's "the smell of jobs." Or the smell of Republitarian tax cuts and deregulation...
Posted by: Raging Bee | November 12, 2009 11:39 AM
Halliburton, unless I'm much mistaken. Two L's.
Posted by: chancelikely | November 12, 2009 11:49 AM
Cheney. Two huge balls. No heart, no brain.
Posted by: MikeMa | November 12, 2009 12:44 PM
Seriously? Hello, vaccinia is airborne! And who exactly are they burning? I thought the indigenous cultures didn't go for cremation? Why needs terrorists when you have Halliburton?
Posted by: JustaTech | November 12, 2009 2:54 PM
[b]The soldiers should stop whining. What's good for Haliburton is good for America. [/b]
Exactly, what is the point of going to war if corporations can't make a profit off it? Get with the program folks.
Posted by: Art | November 12, 2009 6:37 PM
Why do the soldiers hate America? Why can't they just love America like Haliburton does and support the troops? Damn terrorist loving soldiers!!!
Posted by: dogmeatib | November 12, 2009 6:43 PM
Next they'll be asking for "armored Hummers", "body armor" or "not being sent to die for a lie". Pussies.
Can we really call ourselves "The Culture of Life" if we don't needlessly put our Great Nation's Best & Brightest in harm's way, even when nobody is shooting at them?
Posted by: Modusoperandi | November 12, 2009 7:44 PM
It brings a whole new meaning to the term someone "got wasted" as a euphemism for being killed, doesn't it?
Posted by: IanW | November 13, 2009 7:37 AM
Aren't these the same people who built the showers of death with the random electrocution function built in?
Posted by: katydid13 | November 15, 2009 1:43 AM