ST. LOUIS • The chief of dental services at the John Cochran VA Medical Center says he welcomes investigations into the handling of dental equipment at the hospital and blamed politics for distorting the controversy.

"I have a lot of information that proves we were doing things correctly," Danny L. Turner said in an interview late Thursday in his office, after he had been put on administrative leave.

More than 1,800 veterans were sent letters this week warning that they may have been exposed to viruses from improperly cleaned dental equipment at Cochran.

The warning touched off an outcry, with at least two investigations planned, Turner being placed on leave, and the Veterans Affairs secretary calling mistakes at Cochran "unacceptable."

The VA has insisted that the risk of infection is minimal.

Turner, 63, who has been at Cochran since 2001, said he wanted a chance to voice his opinion but did not want to go into details until conferring with a lawyer. He defended the dental department at Cochran, saying, "My staff is extremely upset. I have people who have been here 35 years. They all take pride in what they do."

Turner denied a claim made by a former Cochran employee Wednesday that she saw dental instruments with dried blood even after they had gone through the cleaning process. "Our dental instruments are never that way," he said. "I don't know what she was talking about."

And he lamented that politics had clouded the picture.

"Things are done to get votes, and that's a shame," Turner said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that an independent board would launch an investigation into the lapses at Cochran.

Area legislators have not been shy about releasing outraged statements demanding top-notch health care for veterans and calling for investigations.

The House Veterans' Affairs Committee is launching an investigation and plans to hold a hearing in St. Louis, Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., said. Also, two other St. Louis area lawmakers have requested the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee begin its own investigation.

"It is deplorable that any assistance less than the best health care available, along with the possible exposure due to unsterile equipment, is the level of care being offered to our veterans," Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, and Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, wrote in a letter requesting the investigation.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the main investigative committee in the House of Representatives. Luetkemeyer and Clay are both members of the committee.

Carnahan spoke by phone Thursday with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, reiterating his demand that the VA investigate what he described as an "indefensible breach of standard operating procedures."

In a prepared statement, Shinseki said, "The mistakes made at the St. Louis VA Medical Center are unacceptable, and steps have been and continue to be taken to correct this situation and assure the safety of our veterans."

All three area congressmen also questioned why it took the VA months to notify veterans of the possibility of exposure. The veterans were sent letters this week warning them about possible exposure from dental work performed during a 13-month period that ended in March.

The VA is offering free blood testing for the veterans to screen for the hepatitis B virus, the hepatitis C virus and for HIV infection. So far, 184 patients have responded to the letters or scheduled a test, officials said.

The breakdown at Cochran, according to the VA, happened during the prewash of dental instruments. A detergent is supposed to be used during the washing process, before an instrument such as a dental pick is put into a sterilizer. The instruments were rinsed, but no cleanser was used.

The instruments, though, did go through heat sterilization, which is thought to kill all microorganisms, including the viruses in question.

"The detergent would make sure you had washed anything that was on the tool," Dr. Robert Petzel, VA undersecretary for health, said in a conference call with reporters. "Because we weren't using the detergent, this might reduce the efficiency of sterilization. We just don't know."

The lapse was discovered in March in a routine inspection by an infection control team. The VA needed time to review the information, identify patients and study the scope of the problem before it could notify veterans, officials said.

The incubation period for the viruses has passed, so any potential infections would show up in a test, Petzel said. If anyone tests positive for one of the viruses, it may be traceable to the clinic through further testing and investigation, he added.

Petzel said the risk of infection is "infinitesimally small."

Nationally, there have been no reports of hepatitis B transmission from dentists to patients since 1987, and one report of patient-to-patient transmission in 2003, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are no reports of hepatitis C transmission from dentists to patients or patients to patients. There is a case of six HIV-positive patients who had the same HIV-positive dentist, but it's not known how they contracted the virus, according to the CDC.

The average risk of contracting HIV from a single exposure to HIV-infected mucous membranes or blood ranges from 0.1 to 0.3 percent.

Phillip O'Connor of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.