WASHINGTON, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Five new lawsuits allege that KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) jeopardized the health and safety of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan by burning vast quantities of unsorted waste in enormous open-air burn pits with no safety controls.

Three of the lawsuits were filed Wednesday in federal courts in Kansas, South Carolina, and Utah by the Burke O'Neil LLC law firm and co-counsel on behalf of 25 military veterans and private contractors whose illnesses - which include multiple cancers, respiratory disease, chronic coughing, debilitating headaches, and neurological and skin disorders - were allegedly caused by round-the-clock hazardous emissions from the burn pits. Two more lawsuits were filed today in Ohio and Florida federal courts.

KBR is accused of allowing thick, noxious smoke, coming off of flames sometimes colored blue or green by burning chemicals, to hang over U.S. bases and camps across Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004. In April and May, 21 other current and former military personnel, private contractors and families of men who allegedly died as a result of exposure to toxic emissions from KBR burn pits brought similar claims in courts in nine states.

William O'Neil, Elizabeth M. Burke, and Genevieve McCormack, of Burke O'Neil LLC, in Washington, D.C., and co-counsel in Florida, Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina, and Utah, represent the veterans, KBR employee-contractors and two families of veterans who allegedly died of cancer after prolonged burn pit emission exposure.

According to the complaints, the burn pits are so large that tractors are used to push waste onto them and the flames shoot hundreds of feet into the sky. KBR allegedly burned waste such as biohazard materials including human corpses, medical supplies, paints, solvents, asbestos, items containing pesticides, animal carcasses, tires, lithium batteries, Styrofoam, wood, rubber, medical waste, large amounts of plastics, and even entire trucks.

Attorney Elizabeth M.