The wife of a soldier who died from a brain tumor after being exposed to smoke from burn pits in Iraq joined more than a dozen Florida soldiers in a class-action lawsuit.

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... Please use our Iraq War Toxins page for more about burn pits and hexavalent chromium exposure.

-------------------------

Eustis widow joins suit over Iraq burn pits

By Amy C. Rippel
SPECIAL TO THE SENTINEL

EUSTIS — The wife of a local soldier who died from a brain tumor after being exposed to smoke from garbage-burning pits in Iraq joined more than a dozen Florida soldiers in a class-action lawsuit.

Jill Wilkins of Eustis joined 16 Florida soldiers — six from Central Florida — who said they were injured after exposure to the burn pits. The lawsuits against KBR Inc., a government contractor based in Texas, and its former parent company Halliburton have been filed in 16 states, with nearly 200 plaintiffs.

Wilkins' husband, Kevin, an Air Force reservist who served in Iraq, died in April 2008. Before his death, he told doctors he had been exposed to smoke from the burn pits. The other soldiers in the class-action lawsuit said they've suffered physical ailments, including skin and respiratory problems, because the waste was burned in the open with no regard for their health and safety.

"The burn-pit problem is very widespread," said Elizabeth Burke, a Washington attorney who has filed the lawsuits nationwide. "It's outrageous that an American company is using this practice right next to soldiers."

The lawsuit says KBR Inc. and Halliburton are contracted by the U.S. government to dispose of waste in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the trash is burned in open pits. The lawsuit says that the pits are "so large that tractors are used to push waste onto them and the flames shoot hundreds of feet into the sky."

Items burned in the pits include trucks, tires, human bodies, used medical waste and asbestos insulation, to name a few, according to the lawsuit. The Florida class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on June 11, includes soldiers from Orlando, Sanford, St. Cloud, Kissimmee, Deltona and Pierson.

Officials from KBR said in a written statement that "KBR did not operate the burn pit at Balad in Iraq, as has been previously asserted."

"It should also be noted that any burn pit operated in Iraq or Afghanistan is done pursuant to Army guidelines and regulations," the statement said. "The general assertion that KBR knowingly harmed troops is unfounded as the safety and security of all KBR employees and those the company serves remains our top priority."

Officials from Halliburton said the company was improperly named in the lawsuits and should be dismissed from them. In 2007, KBR was split off as a separate public company from Halliburton.

Jill Wilkins said she joined the lawsuit for several reasons, including keeping her husband's memory alive.

Kevin Wilkins, who was a nurse in the ambulatory surgical unit and emergency room at Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, was a member of the 920th Aeromedical Staging Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base. There, he served as a Critical Care Air Transport Teams nurse. He was deployed twice — to Balad from May to August 2006 and then to Qatar from January to April 2007.

He was hospitalized March 26, 2008, with blinding headaches and vomiting, and diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died six days later, on April 1, at age 51. Jill Wilkins said her husband spoke about the thick clouds of smoke from the pits in Iraq.

Since he died, Jill Wilkins has successfully battled to get veterans death benefits for her family. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said approving the benefits had nothing to do with possible burn-pit exposure.

So now her battle continues.

In the past weeks, she paid for an Arkansas soldier and his wife to fly to the nation's capital to attend a news conference about proposed legislation to regulate the use of burn pits. Wilkins said she couldn't go because of other commitments but wanted to make sure a soldier who had burn-pit aftereffects was there.

She said her real goal is to take what happened — her husband's death — and see something positive come out of it. She said she joined the lawsuit because she thinks she has a strong case and it could help others.

"By not joining, I almost feel I would let others down," she said. "I think the bottom line is that it's almost like the harder I work on this to keep this going, the more I can boast about Kevin."

-------------------------

TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Iraq, burn pits