Saturday, December 12, 2009
Jim Gentry
If a group of Indiana National Guardsmen win their legal battle against defense contractor KBR Inc., Jim Gentry will not be one to enjoy the victory. Gentry, a former commanding officer and plaintiff in the case, died last week from a rare form of lung cancer, becoming the first known casualty stemming from exposure in Iraq to cancer-causing materials.
As a lieutenant colonel, Gentry commanded more than 600 soldiers in Iraq, including 140 Guardsmen in Indiana’s 152nd Infantry. His unit spent time guarding the Qarmat Ali facility in southern Iraq, where the highly toxic substance hexavalent chromium was left lying around following the retreat of Iraqi soldiers. KBR was hired by the government to restore the water-pumping plant, and allegedly failed to warn military personnel to take precautions against inhaling the carcinogen.
Hexavalent chromium, which can cause liver and kidney damage and has been linked to leukemia and other kinds of cancers, became well-known in the 1990s as a result of the Erin Brockovich story.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Whistle-Blower Details Exposure (by Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier & Press)
Indiana Soldier is First to Die of Toxic Exposure in Iraq (by Daniel Tencer, Raw Story)
The Exposure at Qarmat Ali: Did the Army Fail to Protect U.S. Soldiers Serving in Iraq? (Democratic Policy Committee)
Another Lawsuit Over KBR Iraq Toxic Exposure (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Guardsmen Sue KBR over Chemical Exposure (by Scott Bronstein and Abbie Boudreau, CNN)
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