Widespread Gulf War illness -Panel finds

[Guest guest]

Some References:

" GWS & Simon Wessely "

Help ME Circle, 15 November 2004:

http://listserv.nodak.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0411b & L=co-cure & F= & S= & P=9994

" Prof Wessely -Simple Question "

Help ME Circle, 15 November 2004:

http://listserv.surfnet.nl/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0411c & L=me-net & H=1 & O=D & F= & S= & P=2\

64

" Simon Wessely/ A Bridge Too Far "

Help ME Circle, 15 November 2004

http://listserv.nodak.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0411b & L=co-cure & T=0 & F= & S= & P=11238

~jvr

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Rome News-Tribune

November 16, 2008

Panel finds

widespread Gulf War illness

11/16/08

ANNE USHER/ News Service

WASHINGTON - At least one in four U.S. veterans of

the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multi-symptom

illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during

the conflict, a congressionally mandated report being

released Monday found.

For much of the past 17 years, government officials

have maintained that these veterans -- more than

175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed -- are merely

suffering the effects of wartime stress, even as more

have come forward recently with severe ailments.

" The extensive body of scientific research now

available consistently indicates that 'Gulf War

illness' is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic

exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few

veterans have recovered or substantially improved

with time, " said the report, being released Monday

by a panel of scientists and veterans. A copy was

obtained by Newspapers.

Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a

combination of memory and concentration problems,

persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and

widespread pain. It may also include chronic

digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin

rashes.

Two things the military provided to troops in large

quantities to protect them -- pesticides and

pyridostigmine bromide (PB), aimed at thwarting the

effects of nerve gas -- are the most likely culprits,

the panel found.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War

Veterans' Illnesses, created by Congress in 2002,

presented its 450-page report to Secretary of

Veterans Affairs Peake on Monday. It said its

report is the first to review the hundreds of U.S. and

international studies on Gulf War vets since that

have been conducted the mid-1990s.

In a 2004 draft report to Congress, the panel said

that many Gulf veterans were suffering from

neurological damage caused by exposure to toxic

chemicals.

The new report goes further by pinpointing known

causes and it criticizes past U.S. studies, which have

cost more than $340 million, as " overly simplistic

and compartmentalized. "

It recommends that the Department of Veterans

Affairs order a re-do of past Gulf War and Health

reports, calling them " skewed " because they did not

include evaluations of toxic exposure studies in lab

animals, as Congress had requested.

The panel examined such tests and noted that recent

ones -- unethical to carry out on humans - have

identified biological effects from Gulf War exposures

that were previously unknown.

While it called some new VA and DOD programs

promising, it noted that overall federal funding for

Gulf War research has dropped sharply in recent

years. Those studies that have been funded, it said,

" have little or no relevance to the health of Gulf War

veterans, and for research on stress and psychiatric

illness. "

" Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War had the

distinction of serving their country in a military

operation that was a tremendous success, achieved

in short order. But many had the misfortune of

developing lasting health consequences that were

poorly understood and, for too long, denied or

trivialized, " the committee's report says.

The report also faults the Pentagon, saying it clearly

recognized scientific evidence substantiating Gulf

War illness in 2001 but did not acknowledge it

publicly.

It said that Acting Special Assistant to the Secretary

of Defense for Gulf War illnesses Lt. Gen. Dale

Vesser remarked that year that although Saddam

Hussein didn't use nuclear, biological, or chemical

agents against coalition forces during the war -- an

assertion still debated -- " It never dawned on us ././.

that we may have done it to ourselves. "

" We know that at least 40,000 American troops may

have been overexposed to pesticides, " Vesser said,

adding that more than 250,000 American troops took

the small, white PB pills. " Both of these substances

may (be) consistent with the symptoms that some

Gulf War veterans have. "

The panel is urging Congress to spend at least $60

million annually for Gulf War research. It notes that

no effective treatments have yet been found.

The VA declined to comment until it has a chance to

review the report.

The panel focused its research on comparing the

brain and nervous system of healthy adults with

those of sick Gulf War vets, as well as analyzing

changes to the neuroendocrine and immune systems.

It found that in terms of brain function, exposure to

pesticides and the PB pills hurts people's memory,

attention and mood. Some people, it notes, are

genetically more susceptible to exposures than

others.

About half of Gulf War personnel are believed to

have taken PB tablets during deployment, with the

greatest use among ground troops and those in

forward positions.

Many veterans say they were forced to take the pills,

which had not been approved by the FDA, and some

said they immediately became sickened.

" Many of us got sick from the pills, " said retired Staff

Sgt. Hardie, a Wisconsin native who was

with a multinational unit that crossed from Saudi

Arabia into Kuwait and then Iraq.

He said he was required to take them for several

weeks and soon suffered from watery eyes and vision

problems, diarrhea, muscle twitching and a runny

nose. A fellow Special Forces officer, he said, lost

about 20 pounds in short order. " All of us had

concerns at the time. "

To ward off swarms of sand flies in Kuwait City and

the eastern Saudi province of Dhahran, Hardie said

trucks would come through at 3 a.m. and spray

" clouds " of pesticides.

Fly strips that smelled toxic hung " everywhere, "

especially near food. " The pesticide use was far and

away (more) than what you'd see in daily life, " he

said.

Several soldiers interviewed said they were ordered

to dunk their uniforms in the pesticide DEET and to

spray pesticide routinely on exposed skin and in their

boots to ward off scorpions. Others wore pet flea

collars around their ankles.

The federal panel added that it also could not rule

out an association between Gulf War illness and the

prolonged exposure to oil fires, as well as low-level

exposures to nerve agents, injections of many

vaccines and combinations of neurotoxic exposures.

Hardie, a panel member, is convinced that he was

later exposed to the chemical warfare agent ite

in a freshly abandoned Iraqi bunker; he noted its

signature strong geranium smell.

He said he and others in his unit who ran miles a day

past burning oil wells later hacked up black chunks of

mucus and what he says his doctors think were

pieces of his lung tissue. He said civilian doctors

have diagnosed him with fibromyalgia, chronic

fatigue, dizziness, confusion, acid reflux disease and

chronic sinusitis.

He was not among the 100,000 U.S. troops who were

potentially exposed to low-levels of Sarin gas, a

nerve agent, as a result of large-scale U.S.

demolitions of Iraqi munitions near Khamisiyah, Iraq,

in 1991.

Troops who were downwind from the demolitions

have died from brain cancer at twice the rate of other

Gulf War veterans, the report stated.

A panel member, Dr. a White, chair of

environmental health at the Boston University School

of Public Health, found evidence last year linking

low-level exposure to nerve gas among in Persian

Gulf troops with lasting brain deficits.

The extent of the deficits - less brain " white matter "

and reduced cognitive function -- corresponded to the

extent of the exposure.

In addition, the panel said, Gulf War veterans have

significantly higher rates of amyotrophic lateral

sclerosis (ALS) than other veterans.

White said that while there is a lot of anecdotal

evidence of Gulf War vets contracting multiple

sclerosis (MS), studies haven't confirmed a combat

link to that degenerative disease. Questions also

remain about rates of cancers, disease-specific

mortality rates in Gulf War veterans and the health

of veterans' children.

Conversely, the panel said there is little evidence

supporting an association or major link with depleted

uranium, anthrax vaccine, fuels, solvents, sand and

particulates, infectious diseases, and chemical agent

resistant coating (CARC).

The fact that veterans repeatedly still find that their

complaints are met with cynicism, she said, " upsets

me as a scientist, as someone who cares about

veterans. "

Hardie said the Gulf War veterans have felt profound

frustration that the health community as a whole has

only been treating affected veterans' symptoms.

" If you have MS - 'here's some Motrin.' How long can

you take nasal steroids without getting at root cause

-- the brain damage? " he said. " The sad thing is

scientists are saying in more precise terms what

veterans were saying all along: We are sick,

sickened by Gulf War service, and we need health

care to help us. "

For more about the Committee and its activities,

click here: http://www.va.gov/RAC-GWVI