REPORT: TOXINS BEHIND GULF WAR SICKNESS

“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,” the New York Times says.

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.

October 15th, 2004 | Uncategorized | Comments Off Both comments and pings are currently closed.