Gulf War syndrome

Gulf War syndrome is the name given to a variety of psychological and physical symptoms, including increases in the rate of immune system disorders and birth defects, reported by veterans of the Gulf War. It has not always been clear whether these symptoms were related to Gulf War service. Symptoms attributed to this syndrome have often been wide-ranging and sometimes poorly defined. They often also include chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance.

Various causes that have been suggested; roughly in order of likelyhood:

• Depleted uranium uranyl oxide gas inhalation poisoning
• chemical weapons including Mustard gas
• Autoimmune diseases induced by squalene, an adjuvant used in anthrax vaccines to speed up the development of anthrax immunity.
• Biological weapons
• Exposure to pesticides
• Parasites
• Fumes from oil well fires
• The side-effects of drugs given for protection against nerve agents

Depleted Uranium, Birth Defects, and Immune System Damage

Because uranium is a chemical toxicant heavy metal with nephrotoxic (kidney-damaging)[1], teratogenic (birth defect-causing)[2], and potentially carcinogenic[3] properties, there is a connection between uranium exposure and a variety of illnesses[4]. The chemical toxicological hazard posed by uranium dwarfs its radiological hazard because it is only weakly radioactive. In 2002, A.C. Miller, et al., of the U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, found that the chemical generation of hydroxyl radicals by depleted uranium in vitro exceeds radiolytic generation by one million-fold[5]. Hydroxyl radicals damage DNA and other cellular structures, leading to cancer, immune system damage in white blood cells, birth defects in gonocytes (testes), and other serious health problems. In 2005, uranium metalworkers at a Bethlehem plant near Buffalo, New York, exposed to frequent occupational uranium inhalation risks, were found to have the same patterns of symptoms and illness as Gulf War Syndrome victims[6],[7].

The increase in the rate of birth defects in the children of Gulf War veterans and in Iraqis may therefore be attributed to depleted uranium inhalation exposure[8],[9]. A 2001 study of 15,000 February 1991 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times more likely to have children with birth defects[10]. In a study of U.K. troops, "Overall, the risk of any malformation among pregnancies reported by men was 50% higher in Gulf War Veterans (GWV) compared with Non-GWVs"[11]. A report written by an Irish petrochemical engineer stated that in Iraq, death rates per 1000 Iraqi children under 5 years of age increased from 2.3 in 1989 to 16.6 in 1993 and cases of leukaemia have more than quadrupled in areas where DU was present. I. Al-Sadoon, et al., writing in the Medical Journal of Basrah University, report a similar increase (see Table 1 here).

However, disputes continue to exist about the role of depleted uranium in Gulf War Syndrome. Some including Dr. Richard Guthrie, an expert in chemical warfare at Sussex University, have argued that a more likely cause for the increase in birth defects was the Iraqi Army’s use of teratogenic mustard agents. Since more recent epidemiological findings have come to light, only the plaintifs in a long-running class action lawsuit continue to assert that sulphur mustards might be responsible[12]. According to the CDC Toxicological Profile, for sulphur mustards to have produced as many birth defects as have been observed, they would have had to have also produced more than 200 times as many cancers as observed[13].

Early studies of depleted uranium aerosol exposure assumed that uranium combustion product particles would quickly settle out of the air[14] and thus could not affect populations more than a few kilometers from target areas[15], and that such particles, if inhaled, would remain undissolved in the lung for a great length of time and thus could be detected in urine[16]. But those studies ignored uranium trioxide gas -- also known as uranyl oxide gas, or UO₃(g) -- which is formed during uranium combustion (R.J. Ackermann, et al., "Free Energies of Formation of Gaseous Uranium, Molybdenum, and Tungsten Trioxides," Journal of Physical Chemistry, vol. 64 (1960) pp. 350-355, "gaseous monomeric uranium trioxide is the principal species produced by the reaction of U₃O₈ with oxygen." U₃O₈ being the dominant aerosol combustion product[17].) Uranyl ion contamination has been found on and around depleted uranium targets[18]. UO₃ gas remains dissolved in the atmosphere for weeks, but as a monomolecular gas is absorbed immediately upon inhalation, leading to accumulation in tissues including gonocytes (testes[19]) and white corpuscles[20], but virtually no residual presence in urine other than what might be present from coincident particulate exposure.

In early 2004, the U.K. Pensions Appeal Tribunal Service began attributing birth defect claims from February 1991 Gulf War combat veterans to depleted uranium poisoning [21],[22].

Relationship between Gulf War Syndrome and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

The symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome are more similar to those of industrial uranium fume exposure[23] than Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.

Controversy

There is controversy over whether or not Gulf War syndrome is, in fact, a physical medical condition related to sufferers' Gulf War service (or relation to a Gulf War veteran).

Evidence for

United States Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi's panel found that more recent studies suggest the veterans' illnesses are neurological and apparently are linked to exposure to neurotoxins such as the nerve gas sarin, the anti-nerve gas drug pyridostigmine bromide, and pesticides that affect the nervous system.

"Research studies conducted since the war have consistently indicated that psychiatric illness, combat experience or other deployment-related stressors do not explain Gulf War veterans illnesses in the large majority of ill veterans," the review committee said.

In November, 2004, an anonymously-funded British inquiry concluded, for the first time, that thousands of UK and US Gulf War veterans were made ill by their service. The report claimed that Gulf veterans were twice as likely to suffer from ill health than if they had been deployed elsewhere, and that the illnesses suffered were the result of a combination of causes. These included multiple injections of vaccines, the use of organophosphate pesticides to spray tents, low level exposure to nerve gas, and the inhalation of depleted uranium dust. [24][25] The study was the first to suggest a direct link between military service in the Gulf and illnesses suffered by veterans of that war and directly contradicts other theories which have suggested GWS is not a physical illness, but a response to the stresses of war.

Although not identifying Gulf War syndrome by name, in June of 2003 the High Court of England and Wales upheld a claim by Shaun Rusling that the depression, eczema, fatigue, nausea and breathing problems that he experienced after returning from the Gulf War were attributed to his military service.

A new British study comparing 24,000 Gulf War veterans to a control group of 18,000 men found that those who had taken part in the Gulf war have lower fertility and are 40 to 50% more likely to be unable to start a pregnancy. Among Gulf war soldiers, failure to conceive was 2.5% vs. 1.7% in the control group, and the rate of miscarriage was 3.4% vs. 2.3%. These differences are small but statistically significant. [26]

Evidence against

Similar syndromes have been seen as an after effect of many conflicts — for example, 'shell shock' after World War I, and post-traumatic stress disorder after the Vietnam War.

Another possibility is that some or all of the symptoms experienced are unrelated to service in the Gulf. A study for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence found no correlation between service in the Gulf and death from illness.

A 14 November 1996 article in the New England Journal of Medicine found no difference in death rates or hospitalization rates between Persian Gulf vets and non-Persian Gulf vets.

Additionally, some reported symptoms cannot be verified or connected to Gulf War service. Pfc. Brian Martin, a Gulf War veteran who has appeared on multiple talk shows and given interviews to many newspapers and magazines about Gulf War syndrome, reported developing lupus erythematosus, which news articles claim had been verified by federal medical exams, despite the Department of Veterans Affairs's denial of having had any patients with it. Army Reservist Michael Adcock (the first veteran whose death was widely attributed to Gulf War syndrome) and Navy Seabee Reservist Nick Roberts both claimed that their lymphoma developed soon after their Gulf War service, despite lymphoma taking several years to develop.

See also

• Depleted Uranium
• Agent Orange

External links

• Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses
• National Gulf War Resource Center
• Veterans for Common Sense
• Gulf Lore Syndrome