Gulf War Syndrome, Suicide and Neurological Damage Linked to Chemical Exposure

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.

Between April 1, 1991, and December 31, 2007, 162 Gulf veterans died “due to intentional self-harm” or from other incidents where the intent was unclear, leading to open verdicts at inquests.

The latest figures appear to back up the case of campaigners seeking compensation from the MoD for Gulf veterans who have suffered traumas since the conflict ended.

The 162 deaths compare with 144 recorded among a similar group of men and women who were serving in the Armed Forces in 1991 but were not sent to the Gulf.

Moreover, it is an incontrivertible fact that Saddam possessed and used WMD (of the chemical variety, at least) in years past - not only against the Iranians but his own people. (And possibly against U.S. soldiers in Operation Desert Storm, based on some Agent Orange reports).

Finally, it is also an undisputed fact that Saddam refused to fully cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. He pointedly declined to answer very specific questions about weapons and materials that were not accounted for. What was he hiding?

      Washington - US soldiers assigned to guard a crucial part of Iraq's oil infrastructure became ill after exposure to a highly toxic chemical at the plant, witnesses testified at a Democratic Policy Committee hearing yesterday on Capitol Hill.

    "These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. "They were sick."

    "Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated" while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard.

According to CNN, troops in the Gulf War may have dealt with mustard gas on several occasions. As many as seven U.S. Army divisions, or approximately 100,000 soldiers, may have been exposed during the war. While the total number remains unconfirmed, several soldiers who served during the Gulf War experienced symptoms in line with mustard gas exposure [source: CNN].

In May 1996, an UNSCOM team revisited the Khamisiyah site and decided that these rockets were binary agent (GB/GF) filled. In July 1996, the CIA presented its downwind hazard model to the Presidential Advisory Committee. Based on some modeling and assumptions, they suggested that a downwind hazard of four km might cause acute symptoms of runny noses and headaches, and an area of up to 25 km might have been contaminated at a much lower dosage level that we call the general population dosage limit. That's a 72 hour exposure at 0.013 milligram-minutes/cubic meter), which is lower than the 0.04 mg-min/m3 that govt workers at Army chemical weapons storage sites have to observe, much lower than the incapacitating dose of 2-3 mg-min/m3, and a hell of a lot lower than the lethal dose of 70-100 mg-min/m3.  That model didn't take into account hot desert weather, the 37 other bunkers exploding, or the purity of the chemical agent. But just to be safe, the DOD doubled the hazard area and announced in October 1996 that 15-20,000 troops might have been exposed to nerve agent as a result of these explosions. After re-running the models, refining the results, and adding a significant conservative safety estimate, DOD [Department of Defense] announced in September 1997 that about 99,000 troops might have been exposed to nerve agents, over a three-day period, as a result of the explosion.  In 2000, DOD ran another study and upped the number to 101,752, based on troop locations and three different models' hazard plumes. What was lost in the study was the fact that the overwhelming majority of the "exposed soldiers" were subjected to levels that, had they been exposed to those levels for the rest of their lives, would not have suffered any ill effects from nerve agent.

At the close of the Gulf War, the US Army exploded an Iraqi chemical weapons depot at Kamashiya. In 1996, the Department of Defense finally admitted that more than 20,000 US troops were exposed to VX and sarin nerve agents as a result of the US operation at Kamashiya. This may be one cause of the Gulf War Syndrome. Another cause might be the experimental vaccines unwittingly given to more than 100,000 US troops, or the depleted uranium shells used during the bombings.

Before we learn how mustard gas works, it's important to understand what a gas is in terms of chemical warfare. Just the word "gas" may lead people to think that the substance is a vapor. That's not entirely true. Gases in warfare can be any chemical substance, including gases, solids and liquids, and generally fall into one of three medical groups.

1. Lethal gases can lead to disablement or death.

Mustard gas, also called sulfur mustard, gets its name from its sometimes yellow appearance and mustardlike smell. It's referred to as a blister agent or a vesicant, and comes in vapor, solid or liquid form. Other blister agents include nitrogen mustard, lewisite and­ phosgene oxime.

Blister agents are no fun. Once in contact with an unsuspecting victim, they damage skin and internal areas such as mucous membranes inside your nose and throat. Mustard gas is an alkylating agent, meaning its chemicals destroy DNA and cells and liquefy tissue. In essence, mustard gas kills tissue and membranes in the areas it touches. Alkylating agents also are often used in cancer drugs.