Senator Robert C. Byrd announced Thursday that the Department of Defense's Inspector General will investigate the way the United States Army responded to hundreds of U. S. soldiers being exposed to sodium dichromate.

Some West Virginia National Guardsmen were stationed in Basra, Iraq in 2003, and say they were exposed to toxic materials, including the deadly chemical.

Byrd and several others sponsored the "Health Care for Servicemembers Exposed to Chemical Hazards Act" to try to remedy the situation, according a release from the senator's office.

He and some of his colleagues in the Senate sent letters to the Inspector General back in August asking him to look into the matter, the release says, and they've asked him to look at seven areas relating to the exposure and how the Army responded to it.

The Senators are also concerned about the Army's communication with the Department of Veteran Affairs about the exposure and it's potential consequences, according to the release.

"Having such information is vital to proper treatment and even the ability of former soldiers to be treated by the VA for a 'service connected' sickness that could take years after the initial exposure to develop," the release says.

Charles Beardall, the Department of Defense's Deputy Inspector General for Policy and Oversight, sent a letter to the Senators informing them of the investigation, according to the release, and plans to work in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Seven members of the 1092nd Engineer Battalion, based in West Virginia, have filed a federal lawsuit against the company they say exposed them to the sodium dichromate.

Dale Gallaher, Robert Wilson, Russell Powell, Andru Keller, Eric Heid, John Headley, and Bradley Ebert filed the suit in the Northern District of West Virginia against Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. or KBR, Inc.

KBR was restoring the Qarmat Ali water plant in southern Iraq in 2003, according to the suit.

The facility would be used to pump water down into the Iraqi oil wells to allow the oil to flow more consistently, the suit says, and the West Virginia Guardsmen were to provide security for the project.

The men claim that the KBR supervisors knew that they were being exposed to sodium dichromate, which the Guardsmen say contains almost pure hexavalent chromium.

They also say the KBR managers new of the dangers of the chemical, but say they allowed them, along with the British troops and American civilians working on the project, to continue to have direct exposure to the chemical.

The Guardsmen also allege that they complained of nasal excoriation, or bleeding of the nose, to KBR managers, who told them it was "an effect of the 'dry desert air' and they must be 'allergic to sand'".

It wasn't until Congressional Hearings in June 2008 that the former 1092nd members say they learned the extent of knowledge the KBR managers had of the dangers on-site and how those dangers were concealed.

Several of the West Virginia National Guardsmen have started to exhibit respiratory tumors, the suit claims, and others have shown chemical sensitivities and rashes that they say are consistent with the impacts of hexavalent chromium poisoning.

On September 23, 2009, KBR filed a motion to dismiss the suit, claiming that West Virginia did not have personal jurisdiction over the defendants, and saying that the Northern District of West Virginia was not the proper venue for the suit.