Commission Study Links Gulf War Syndrome to Chemical Exposures

Many who suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia are also often diagnosed with what is known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), a condition that shares similar symptoms with Gulf War Syndrome. Now, according to an article in the New York Times, a commission appointed by President George W. Bush’s Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi has determined there is strong possibility of a connection to chemical exposures suffered during the 1990 Gulf War to Gulf War Syndrome.

697,000 American troops were sent to the Persian Gulf in early 1990 in response to the Iraqi forces of President Saddam Hussein that were occupying Kuwait. In 1997, the Pentagon announced that as many 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 panel investigating any connection between such possible chemical exposures and Gulf War Syndrome were appointed “in accordance with a law passed in 1998 but never acted on by the Clinton administration.” The panel consisted of 11 members, seven who are scientists and four veterans, “including the chairman, James Binns, a Vietnam veteran and former Pentagon official. Eight other scientists worked as advisers to the panel.”

One commission member, Dr. Robert W. Haley, is chief of epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and “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.”

According to Dr. Haley “this committee has honestly weighed all the evidence” and “[a]lthough it’s not proven, the preponderance of the evidence supports a new explanation – brain cell damage, nervous system damage caused by chemical exposures.”

The symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome include diarrhea, headaches, joint pain, persistent fatigue, numbness, and other health problems. Because this study shows evidence that those symptoms are the result of exposure to neurotoxins rather than wartime stress, it may prove beneficial for those veterans who need disability benefits because of persistent medical problems associated with Gulf War Syndrome. Already receiving disability benefits are those who served in the Persian Gulf and have developed amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which affects those veterans in twice the number as those who did not serve in the Persian Gulf.

Possible neurotoxin exposures 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.”

The results of the study were originally to have appeared in the October 1 issue of Science magazine, but was reportedly “postponed because of scheduling problems.”

Related posts:

1. What is Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and Environmental Illness (EI)?

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