- All 50,000 troops who served in the first Gulf war might
have been exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents during the fighting
and its aftermath, a US investigation has suggested.
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- The implication of a Congressional report that large
numbers of civilians and troops in Iraq and neighbouring countries could
have been exposed will galvanise the controversy over illnesses suffered
by more than 5,000 British veterans since 1991 that have been linked to
their service in the Gulf.
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- The report indicates that possible chemical contamination
of troops could have been much more widespread than suggested by previous
official government estimates, based on US research for the Pentagon and
CIA.
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- Lord Morris, the Labour peer who has led the campaign
on Gulf war illnesses, yesterday demanded answers from the government,
saying it appeared the entire British deployment of more than 50,000 troops
could have been at risk.
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- The MoD used the US defence department models to estimate
that 9,000 British troops were within the chemical plume that might have
been released from the destruction of chemical agents at Khamisaya, in
southern Iraq, in March 1991. This figure was revealed in 1999. Previously,
the government said no British units would have been affected, although
one Briton might have been under a plume.
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- More than 5,000 British veterans have reported illnesses
they believe related to the Gulf war or the inoculations they received
before deployment and more than 600 have died. The government has refused
to accept any suggestion that there is a "syndrome" but points
to its £8.5m research programme to prove its commitment to finding
answers.
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- The government's current position is that the possible
level of nerve agent exposure from Khamisaya would have had "no detectable
effect" on human health, and the Pentagon still insists the information
was the best available and any researcher would know limitations of the
data. The CIA also agreed with the report.
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- But the general accounting office (GAO), the investigative
arm of Congress, last week said the assumptions used by the Pentagon were
based on incomplete and uncertain data and that postwar testing to replicate
the size of the plume "did not realistically simulate the actual conditions
of bombings or demolitions".
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- The Pentagon, including the bombing of other sites in
Iraq, estimated that nearly 102,000 US troops were potentially exposed.
But the GAO concluded that, given the significant methodological flaws,
neither the Pentagon nor the MoD could know which troops were and which
troops were not exposed.
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- Lord Morris, an honorary member of a US congressional
sub-committee investigating undiagnosed illnesses, said: "This is
a profoundly significant report not only for US veterans but for ours as
well."
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- He has tabled a parliamentary question to ministers on
the issue.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1236274,00.html
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