Latest Study Finds Chemicals Sickened Gulf War Veterans

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Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:46:52 -0400

Subject:Latest Study Finds Chemicals Sickened Gulf War Veterans

 

 

Latest Study Finds Chemicals Sickened Gulf War Veterans

 

 

October 15, 2004

By SCOTT SHANE

 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 - A federal panel of medical experts studying

illnesses among veterans of the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf has

broken with several earlier studies and concluded that many suffer

from neurological damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals,

rejecting past findings that the ailments resulted mostly from wartime

stress.

 

Citing new scientific research on the effects of exposure to low

levels of neurotoxins, the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War

Veterans' Illnesses concludes in its draft report that " a substantial

proportion of Gulf War veterans are ill with multisymptom conditions

not explained by wartime stress or psychiatric illness. "

 

It says a growing body of research suggests that many veterans'

symptoms have a neurological cause and that there is a " probable link "

to exposure to neurotoxins.

 

The report says possible sources include sarin, a nerve gas, from an

Iraqi weapons depot blown up by American forces in 1991; a drug,

pyridostigmine bromide, given to troops to protect against nerve gas;

and pesticides used to protect soldiers in the region.

 

Dr. Joyce C. Lashof , the chairwoman of a presidential advisory group

that reported in 1996 that there was no causal link between toxic

exposure and the veterans' symptoms, said Thursday that she had not

seen the new report.

But Dr. Lashof said she was open to changing her views if the findings

were based on solid new research and not advocacy by veterans' groups.

 

" We certainly weren't sure that our report was the definitive answer, "

Dr. Lashof, professor emerita of public health at the University of

California at Berkeley, said. " It was based on the best evidence

available at the time. "

 

All the chemicals cited in the new study belong to a group called

acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which can cause a range of symptoms

including pain, fatigue, diarrhea and cognitive impairment. Committee

members said there might be minor changes in the report, a draft copy

of which was obtained by The New York Times, but that the basic

scientific findings would not change.

 

The committee says a search for medical treatments tailored to the new

findings are " urgently needed " and recommends $60 million in federal

funds for new research over the next four years. It says an estimated

100,000 Gulf War veterans, or about one in seven, suffer war-related

health problems.

 

The report also says that understanding illnesses from the war will be

critical in planning future military deployments and measures to

improve domestic security. It calls for a reassessment of the use of

pyridostigmine bromide.

 

Though some conclusions are hedged in careful language in the 135-page

draft report, committee members said in interviews that they were

consciously departing from the past scientific consensus and taking a

strong stand on a politically and scientifically volatile subject.

 

" I would absolutely say it's a break from previous panels, " said Dr.

Beatrice A. Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at the

University of California at San Diego, a member of the panel and its

scientific director for much of its existence. " It reflects a

different body of evidence, because more studies have come out. No one

had gone to the scientific evidence on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. "

 

The new report, prepared for the federal Department of Veterans

Affairs, draws conclusions that are essentially the opposite of those

of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans'

Illnesses, led by Dr. Lashof. That group reported to President Bill

Clinton in 1996 that " current scientific evidence does not support a

causal link " between the veterans' symptoms and chemical exposures in

the Persian Gulf.

 

Instead, the earlier group said, stress " is likely to be an important

contributing factor to the broad range of physical and psychological

illnesses currently being reported by gulf war veterans. "

 

Another panel of scientists convened in 1998 by the Institute of

Medicine, a unit of the National Academies that focuses on health and

medical advice, has produced a series of reports that generally point

away from neurotoxin exposure as a likely cause of the veterans'

illnesses.

 

Some 697,000 American troops were sent to the Persian Gulf at the end

of 1990 to drive the Iraqi forces of President Saddam Hussein out of

Kuwait.

Though the military campaign was swift and successful, 13 years after

the war ended many veterans still complain of persistent fatigue,

headaches, joint pain, numbness, diarrhea and other health problems.

 

Among dozens of studies cited by the new report is a 1998 survey that

looked at about 2,000 Kansas veterans, 1,548 of whom served in the

gulf. It found that more than 30 percent of the gulf veterans report

three or more such symptoms. The presence of multiple symptoms, their

persistence for many years and the dominance of muscular and skeletal

complaints all distinguish the ailments of gulf war veterans from the

ailments of veterans of other wars, Dr. Golomb said.

 

The Pentagon admitted in 1997 that as many as 100,000 American service

members might have been exposed to nerve gas when American combat

engineers blew up the Kamisiyah ammunition depot in southern Iraq in

March 1991, shortly after the war.

 

The new panel was appointed in 2002 by Anthony J. Principi, the

veterans affairs secretary, in accordance with a law passed in 1998

but never acted on by the Clinton administration. Of the 11 members 7

are scientists and 4 are veterans, including the chairman, James

Binns, a Vietnam veteran and former Pentagon official. Eight other

scientists worked as advisers to the panel.

 

Committee members said release of the report, which was described in

the Oct. 1 issue of Science magazine, had been set for earlier this

month but was postponed because of scheduling problems.

 

Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Principi, who was in Michigan Thursday for

the groundbreaking of a new veterans cemetery, praised the committee's

work.

 

" I'm looking forward to studying the committee's report and working

with them to ensure adequate research funding to find answers to these

perplexing medical issues, " he said. He said the department was

already providing disability benefits for some veterans who have

developed amyotrophic lateral

sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, based on studies finding that the

veterans have nearly double the risk of the disease as veterans who

did not go to the Persian Gulf do.

 

According to his spokeswoman, Cynthia Church, Mr. Principi, a

combat-decorated Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, took a particular

interest in the research of Dr. Robert W. Haley, whom he appointed to

the panel. Dr. Haley, chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas

Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, has written a series of studies

of the possible effects of neurotoxins on gulf war veterans, including

some financed by the Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot.

 

Dr. Haley acknowledged that his work, which has been championed by

some veterans and members of Congress, has been viewed skeptically by

some scientists. He said the current committee's findings represent a

" revolutionary change " from the past, when what he called " radically

conservative " scientists dismissed the neurotoxin thesis.

 

" I think this committee has honestly weighed all the evidence, " he said.

" Although it's not proven, the preponderance of the evidence supports

a new explanation - brain cell damage, nervous system damage caused by

chemical exposures. "

 

Jim Reichert, a 41-year-old industrial equipment mechanic who lives in

Columbia, Ill., said he was heartened to hear of the committee's

conclusions.

 

Mr. Reichert said he had served as a Blackhawk helicopter crewman in

the war. After his six months in the gulf region, he developed strange

symptoms which have never gone away, he said. Fatigue forced him to

give up hunting and fishing, he loses control of his hand muscles and

drops tools on the job, and he suffers from chronic diarrhea and a

recurring, blistering skin condition.

 

" If it was stress alone, it wouldn't have lasted this long, " Mr.

Reichert said. Referring to himself and other ailing veterans, he

said: " We're not crazy. If I'm a little nuts, it's because I've been

sick so long. "

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/politics/15gulf.html?ex=1098850325 & ei=1 & en

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