IMPORTANT  INFORMATION
CRITICAL INFO FOR ALL VETS:   

The Veterans Association offers a two day comprehensive physical for free to all veterans. It is called the Gulf
War Exam and we strongly encourage everyone to pass the word about this.

Those suffering from radiation exposure are not manifesting symptoms immediately - the majority of these
victims are veterans who have been home from Iraq for a year or two and do not realize there is a problem until
diagnosis. Had these vets been informed of and taken the Gulf War Exam it is possible that treatment could
have begun prior to the diseases manifesting.

We would like to see it become a mandatory part of their de-briefing to be told of the Gulf War Exam and how
crucial it may be to their health.

At the time of this being written none of the veterans, that we are aware of, suffering from this are/were being
covered by the Veterans Association.


VA RE-OPENS THE BUMPUS CASE
On August 11th, 2008, a short time after Matthew died, Lisa was informed that the Veterans Administration had
decided to re-open the appeal on Matt's case. As much of this information is of interest and important to other
families in similar situations we are going to print some excerpts from the actual appeal. Please see the VA
Appeal page for more information.

COMING SOON!
See our new web page at Operation Matt Bumpus

Witnesses Link Chemical to Ill US Soldiers
Highly toxic substance used at Iraq plant
Published on Saturday, June 21, 2008 by The Boston Globe

by Farah Stockman





















WASHINGTON - US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq’s oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a
Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill.

“These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood,” said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in
2003. “They were sick.”

“Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated” while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard.

Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to
sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause cancer, depress an
individual’s immune system, attack the liver, and cause other ailments.

Yesterday’s hearing - one among several organized to hold contractors accountable for alleged malfeasance in Iraq - was chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota
Democrat. “Hundreds of US troops, who may not even know of their exposure to sodium dichromate that could one day result in a horrible disease, cancers, and death,” he said.

Roughly 250 American soldiers were believed to have come in contact with the chemical, according to Defense Department documents. Sodium dichromate is the same
substance that poisoned residents in Hinkley, Calif., an incident made famous by the movie “Erin Brockovich” in 2000.

In Iraq, the chemical was used as an antirust coating for pipes that supply water to the oil fields. After the 2003 US-led invasion, looters raided the Qarmat Ali facility; afterward, the
chemical was found strewn around the facility and its grounds.

Langford and his former colleagues have said KBR supervisors initially told them the chemical was a “mild irritant.” The company, however, eventually acknowledged that sodium
dichromate was a potentially deadly substance and moved to clean up the site.

KBR has denied any wrongdoing in the matter. The company has insisted the safety of its workers and the troops they work with are its “highest priority.”

After KBR began cleaning up the site, it tested its workers for exposure. The US military also took blood and urine samples from 137 soldiers and civilians who were at the plant.
Ten soldiers declined to be tested, and 14 were unavailable, according to the congressional testimony about the exposure provided by officials from the Department of Defense.

The Pentagon has said that the troops’ exposure to sodium dichloride at the Iraqi facility did not appear to pose any long-term threat.

Last year, Ellen Embrey - deputy assistant defense secretary for Force Pealth Protection and Readiness, an office set up specifically to deal with such long-term health issues -
told a congressional subcommittee that the test results from the soldiers showed “no specific abnormalities” and that “no long-term health effects are expected” from the
exposure.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Deputy Director for Force Health Protection and Readiness, told the Globe in an interview earlier this year that the samples from the soldiers were
brought to the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in Aberdeen, Md., and that 98 percent showed the “normal range” of chromium. Yesterday, Kilpatrick
said physical exams on the soldiers showed “no definitive signs or symptoms . . . that would indicate chromium exposure.”

In yesterday’s hearing, however, Langford described for the first time how soldiers guarding the facility had the same symptoms as those who had dangerous levels of exposure
to the chemical, complaints that are the foundation for the workers’ lawsuit.

“The chromium of Iraq is going to be the same thing as Agent Orange of Vietnam,” Langford said after the hearing. “I want something done for them.”

Edward Blacke, who served as KBR’s health, safety, and environmental coordinator for the Qarmat Ali project, said he saw soldiers with “continuous bloody noses, spitting up of
blood, coughing, irritation of the noses, eyes, throat, and lungs, shortness of breath.”

Max Costa, chairman of the Department of Environmental Medicine at New York University, told the committee that ordinary blood and urine tests would not have detected heavy
levels of sodium dichromate exposure after a few days. He said that the military would have had to conduct a highly specialized red blood cell test within four months of the
exposure to determine the soldiers’ risk of illness.

“Most people don’t get it right,” said Costa, after the hearing. “It is not an established test that medical labs normally do.”

It was not clear yesterday whether the more specialized tests were conducted on the soldiers. The Army lab in Aberdeen is not accredited to conduct those tests, but may have
sent the samples elsewhere, according to Defense officials familiar with the procedures there.

Kilpatrick has said his office is keeping records so that any soldier with medical problems that appear to be related to sodium dichromate exposure could make a case for
receiving free care from a veterans hospital.

But Dorgan said yesterday that the Pentagon has not done enough to monitor the health of the soldiers and ensure that KBR and other contractors are putting safety first.

“It is almost unbelievable,” the senator said during the hearing. “We know that there has been exposure of workers and soldiers to a deadly chemical, and there has been, in my
judgment, lack of accountability by those who caused the exposure and lack of accountability at the Department of Defense, regrettably.”

Dorgan began investigating the workers’ allegations of sodium dichromate exposure after The Boston Globe reported on the case in March.

Photo reprinted with permission of Michael Stravato
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company,  posted with permission        Boston Globe