Nine class-action lawsuits have been filed in nine states on behalf of service members and government civilians who say they were sickened by the open-air burn pits on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The suits were filed April 28 and 29 against contractor KBR Inc. and its former parent company, Halliburton.

Military Times, a sister publication of Federal Times, reported last October that the burn pit at Joint Base Balad, the biggest U.S. base in Iraq, burned everything from petroleum products to dioxin-releasing plastic water bottles to amputated limbs.

After that report appeared, more than 150 people contacted Military Times with similar sets of symptoms, including leukemia, lymphoma and respiratory issues. Kerry Baker, associate national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, put out a call to all who believed they had been sickened by the burn pits so that DAV could decide whether to push for automatic service-connected disability benefits for veterans who had been exposed, just as is done with Vietnam vets who were exposed to Agent Orange.

Baker worked with attorney Elizabeth Burke of Burke O'Neill LLC to connect veterans who wanted to be included in the class-action suits. The suits, filed in Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina and Wyoming, name 21 initial plaintiffs.

"KBR knew or should have known that operating vast open-air burn pits jeopardized the health and safety of thousands of Americans," Burke said in a statement. "KBR showed an utter disregard for the safety of the troops when they chose to use open-air burn pits and failed to use incinerators and other safer methods of waste disposal."

The Defense Department contracted out waste disposal to KBR. However, service members operate some of the burn pits at smaller bases, and military field manuals offer guidance about how to operate those burn pits, calling them a "short-term" solution in a war zone.

In an interview, Burke said environmental health experts who looked at possible chemical exposures were astonished by how the symptoms matched up.

"These for-profit corporations callously exposed and continue to expose soldiers and others to toxic smoke, ash and fumes," the lawsuits state.

Several families of service members who have died since returning from Iraq believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to burn pit smoke.

The lawsuits accuse the defendants of negligence, battery, nuisance, emotional distress and willful and wanton conduct, among other things. In two cases, the suits allege wrongful death.

The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages for physical injuries, lost wages, emotional distress, pain and suffering. The suits also ask that KBR lose all revenue and profits it gained in the waste-disposal contract.

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