KBR, Halliburton sued over toxic ‘burn pits’

11/11/09: The Boston Herald reports that two Massachusetts veterans, Jeffrey Cox and James Garland, are suing KBR Inc. and Halliburton Co., claiming the companies “poisoned” them and at least 100,000 other soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan by exposing them to toxic smoke and fumes by burning vast quantities of unsorted waste in open-air “burn pits” with no safety controls.  (HT to Intelligence Daily)

04/29/09:  CNN reports that a series of civil lawsuits against defense contractors KBR and its former parent company Halliburton claims the companies endangered the health of US troops and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan by unsafely burning massive amounts of garbage on U.S. bases. Six lawsuits were filed yesterday and three more are scheduled to be filed tomorrow in state courts on behalf of current and former military personnel, private contractors and families of men who allegedly died because of exposure to the fumes from the burning garbage.  The plaintiffs also are seeking to file a class-action suit.

04/24/09:  The Houston Chronicle reports that the U.S. Army is out, but al-Qaida and other insurgent forces may still be in three lawsuits alleging that KBR knowingly sent civilian contractors into an active Iraq battle zone where some were killed and others injured, a judge ruled today.  U.S. District Judge Gray Miller ruled on KBR’s request that it be allowed to bring both the U.S. Army and insurgents into the lawsuit as responsible parties for the jury to consider in a trial scheduled for 2010.

12/03/08:  The Miami Herald reports that sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers have sued defense contractor KBR Inc. alleging that its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq five years ago.  The suit was filed in federal court and alleges the soldiers were exposed to a carcinogen while protecting an Iraqi water pumping plant and that some of the soldiers now have respiratory system tumors associated with hexavalent chromium exposure.  The lawsuit seeks reimbursement for medical costs, monitoring for cancer and other health problems and unspecified monetary damages.

Thread: Cases against Halliburton (Fisher v. Halliburton, Lane v. Halliburton)