Nearly 100 RAF soldiers were ordered to guard the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in 2003. They didn’t know it was covered in sodium dichromate, a deadly chemical that causes cancer.
Iraq war veteran Andy Tosh points to his nose where he was treated for skin cancer and shows the red marks on his hand.
His health has been permanently damaged – not by the baking heat of the Iraqi desert, he says, but by a toxic chemical at the industrial site he was ordered to guard.
“It’s clear British troops were knowingly exposed,” the 58-year-old former RAF sergeant says.
Sky News can reveal that nearly 100 British troops may have been exposed to sodium dichromate while guarding the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in 2003.
Ten British veterans who guarded the plant have now spoken publicly about their ordeal – and say they feel “betrayed” by the UK government after struggling with a range of health problems, including daily nosebleeds, a brain tumour and three who have been diagnosed with cancer.
Described as a “deadly poison”, sodium dichromate is a known carcinogen. The ground at Qarmat Ali was covered in it, according to the former servicemen.
The Ministry of Defence says it is willing to meet the veterans to work with them going forward – but the former troops say they want answers and accountability.
Before the US took over the site, the water was filtered and treated with sodium dichromate to increase the life of pipelines, pumps, and other equipment.
It’s a type of hexavalent chromium, a group of compounds made famous by the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, which dramatised the contamination of water around a California town.
“I noticed a rash on my forearms,” Mr Tosh said. “I’d operated in other hot tropical countries, I’ve never had a rash like I had on my forearms.
“Other members of our teams had different symptoms but at the time we had no idea why.”
It was a mystery.
That is, until two workers in hazmat suits and respirator masks turned up in August 2003 and put up a sign with a skull and crossbones on it.
“Warning. Chemical hazard. Full protective equipment and chemical respirator required. Sodium dichromate exposure” the sign read.
“We were shocked,” Mr Tosh added. “We’d already been on that site for months, being exposed.
“It was a different type of threat that none of us could really understand.”
US commander’s death linked to sodium dichromate
The plight of US troops who were exposed to sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali is far better documented than their UK counterparts. National guardsmen who visited the site have become ill, leading to a formal inquiry and government support for veterans across the pond.
“While I was at Qarmat Ali, I began suffering from severe nosebleeds,” Russell Powell, an American former medic, told a Senate inquiry.
Within three days of arriving at the plant in April 2003 he developed rashes on his knuckles, hands and forearms, he said. Others in his platoon suffered similar ailments, he added.
Mr Powell said he had questioned a KBR worker about the powder, who said his supervisors had told him not to worry about it.
Speaking at a hearing in 2009 held as part of the inquiry, Mr Powell added: “My symptoms have not changed since my service in Iraq… I cannot take a full breath.” Lieutenant-Colonel James Gentry, of the Indiana National Guard, was stationed at Qarmat Ali in 2003.
“They had this information and didn’t share it,” he said in a deposition video, his face pale as he struggled to breathe. He was referring to contractors KBR.
“I’m dying now because of it.”
Lt Col Gentry died from cancer in 2009. The US Army deemed that his death was “in line of duty for exposure to sodium dichromate”, according to court documents.
Read full article by Michael Drummond on the Sky News website…
*****
Hexavalent Chromium is & was widely used on a regular basis in the Irish Air Corps. It must be noted the Irish Air Corps ignored the chemical provisions of the Safety, Health & Welfare At Work Acts, 1989 & 2005 until the Health & Safety Authority threatened legal action in 2016 to force them to comply. This was after whistleblowing by a serving Air Corps member who was subsequently constructively dismissed.
Hexavalent Chromium and other very hazardous chemicals were used in the past by teenage apprentice technicians who had no chemical handling training, no education on the short or long term chemical exposure risks as well as no PPE.
Furthermore, when the Irish Air Corps discovered contaminated workshops in 1995 they hid this from personnel. When told by state body Forbairt in 1997 to to give all personnel chemical handling training, issue PPE and train personnel in how to use it they ignored this instruction too.
Some examples of chemical products used in Baldonnel that contain hexavalent chromium (chromates or dichromates) are listed below.
Alocrom 1200
- Potassium Dichromate
- Sodium Dichromate
Alodine 600
- Potassium Dichromate
- Sodium Dichromate
Ardrox 666
- Sodium Chromate
Ardrox 670
- Sodium Chromate
- LR4871
- Zinc Chromate
Mastinox 6856H
- Zinc Chromate
Mastinox 6856K
- Barium Chromate
- Strontium Chromate
Mastinox C627B
- Barium Chromate
Mastinox D40
- Barium Chromate
Mastinox JC5A
- Barium Chromate
Metaflex 1001 Wash Primer
- Zinc Potassium Chromate
Metaflex FCR Primer Yellow
- Zinc Chromate
PR-1422A
- Calcium Dichromate
- Magnesium Dichromate
PR-1422B
- Calcium Dichromate
PR-1436GA
- Strontium Chromate
PR-1436GB
- Calcium Dichromate
- Magnesium Dichromate
PR-1436G E2
- Calcium Dichromate
- Sodium Dichromate
PR-1440B
- Calcium Dichromate
- Magnesium Dichromate
PR-1750B
- Calcium Dichromate
- Magnesium Dichromat
PS-870B
- Magnesium Dichromate