Gulf War Exposure Source: ABC News October 28, 2000
W A S H I N G T O N, - Tens of thousands of veterans of
the Persian Gulf War should be getting a letter in the next month or
so, telling them the Pentagon has revised its thinking on which of
them were exposed to nerve gas.
About 30,000 veterans told in 1997 that they were not
exposed during the 1991 war are to be notified that they were exposed.
And an equal number told before that they were exposed will now be
told they weren't, Undersecretary of Defense Bernard Rostker said
Friday.
Officials said they are working to track down addresses
of some people who have moved since the previous letters were sent
out. But the announcement on the revised findings - and the mailing of
letters - should come by mid- or late-November.
"These are very low levels - low enough that there is no
expectation of a health risk," said Austin Camacho, spokesman for the
Pentagon's office on Gulf War illnesses.
Better Information
The revision on who was exposed is based on better
information on such details as weather and troop locations at the
time, said oversight board spokesman Roger Kaplan.
Dr. Vinh Cam, an immunologist and member of the Special
Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigation of Gulf War
Chemical and Biological Incidents, worried that the revision will
again "raise questions of credibility" among critics of the government
's years-long effort to answer health questions of vets who served.
The board's chairman, former Sen. Warren Rudman, said
the revision proves the opposite.
"It shows [Pentagon officials] have tried very hard,
with all the evidence, to come back and re-evaluate," he said. "Does
it mean any more people are ill? So far there is no evidence of this."
The issue in question for veterans is what was the
health effect, and how many people were exposed to it - when U.S.
forces demolished Iraqi munitions and rockets at the Khamisiyah
weapons depot in March 1991.
It turned out some of the rockets contained the highly
toxic sarin, and the even more lethal cyclosarin, two chemical warfare
agents that paralyze the nerves, shutting down the lungs and other
organs.
In a review of work done and still under way on a number
of Gulf War studies, Rostker told the oversight board in its last
public session Friday that officials in the coming weeks will release
a report revising figures on which of the troops deployed in the depot
area might have been exposed.
Not the First Letters
In 1997, the Pentagon sent letters to some 110,000
troops who were near Khamisiyah, officials said. Of that number, some
99,000 were told they were believed to have been exposed to low levels
of sarin and 11,000 were told they were not.
Although those numbers remain the same, the specific
people believed exposed has changed because the new study uses better
information, Kaplan said.
One is more refined weather information - including
which way winds would have carried the toxins. Another is exact
locations of units at the time, meaning better information on which
were in the path of the toxins.
A study last year concluded that vets exposed to sarin
and cyclosarin in the war had no more health problems than those not
exposed and so the gas isn't necessarily to blame for illnesses
reported by thousands of Gulf War vets.
Kirt Love, a critic of government handling of Gulf War
illness studies who says he is a disabled veteran from the war,
blasted the Pentagon after hearing the news at Friday's meeting.
"They are still concealing records," he said. "What will
happen in the future when vets go into an area? Will they be able to
trust reports generated by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the
government?"
Critics have repeatedly alleged a coverup since the Gulf
War because after hundreds of millions of dollars and scores of
studies, officials say there is no scientific explanation for
mysterious maladies of some vets who served there. Their symptoms
include memory problems, nervous system disorders, fatigue and rashes.
Rudman said his committee, which goes out of existence
in January, was appointed four years ago to assure veterans that
someone was "looking over the shoulders" of those doing the studies.
"I find no evidence of any kind of coverup or attempt to
obfuscate, only a sincere effort to get the facts out," said board
member Alan Steinman, former surgeon general of the Coast Guard
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
by Pauline Jelinek
The Associated Press
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/gulfwarvets001028.htm
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