Personal Injury Law

Asbestos Lawsuit News Military Defense Contractor Faces Class Action Lawsuit

KBR, formerly Kellogg, Brown, and Root and previously a subsidiary of Halliburton, faces injury lawsuits filed by both military and civilian personnel for burning toxic waste, including asbestos, as a cost-saving means of avoiding proper toxic waste disposal. Since 2003, toxic waste was burned in open-air burn pits that produced thick palls of chemically fetid smoke that, according to the class action lawsuit, endangered or caused long-lasting health problems in a minimum of 100,000 people. (See last month?s TN Injury Law Blog asbestos posting for a local lawsuit involving asbestos exposure through illegal disposal.)

Injuries from the illegal burning include chronic asthma, kidney disease, and cancer. Though various toxic chemicals were burned, including lithium batteries, human corpses, paints and solvents, medical supplies, and plastic water bottles, perhaps most alarming in my view as an asbestos lawyer was the quantities of asbestos insulation thrown into the pyres and reports of lung injury. Burning plastic releases dioxins, a known carcinogen. Asbestos inhalation, of course, is a major cause of mesothelioma.

Also alarming is the report that the burn pits are still in operation at Joint Base Balad (formerly Balad Air Base), the largest base in Iraq.

These KBR-operated burn pits were frequently located near soldiers? and contractors? quarters and were so thick that visibility through the multi-colored smoke was reduced to only a few meters. Smoke was so bad in some instances that it interfered with our troops? military mission, compromising base security.

Full post as published by Tennessee Law Blog on November 14, 2009 (boomark / email).