- No mention here of "vaccines" as a cause of
Gulf War Syndrome.....although vaccines could cause exposure to "toxic
chemicals" as cited below.
-
- Note that Gulf War Syndrome can affect some soldiers
who never served in the Gulf, probably because they also received many
of the same multiple vaccinations (including the notorious anthrax vaccine)
that were given to all soldiers serving during the first Gulf War.
-
- Alan Cantwell, MD
-
- Gulf War Syndrome 'Does Exist'
BBC News
10-17-4
-
- Scientists in the US say they have demonstrated the existence
of the illness known as "Gulf war syndrome".
-
- The findings are in a report by the influential Research
Advisory Committee on Gulf war veterans' illness, leaked to the New York
Times.
-
- Committee chief scientist Professor Beatrice Golombe
said that exposure to certain substances in the Gulf may have altered some
troops' body chemistry.
-
- The study was welcomed by British veterans of the Gulf
war.
-
- The secretary of the National Gulf Veterans and Families
Benevolent Association, Noel Baker, said the US research was "very
explosive".
-
- He added that the Ministry of Defence, which has always
denied the existence of a syndrome, would "have to take notice"
of it.
-
- "This is very, very senior research. It's not by
any private venture or by someone with an axe to grind."
-
- He described the attitude in the US as one of "genuinely
wanting to find out if there is a problem.
-
- "In the UK, the MoD doesn't want to find the truth".
-
- The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the leaked
report.
-
- A spokesman said the ministry's position on the syndrome
was well-documented, and that there were on-going studies into it.
-
- The ministry argues that there was no single cause of
the illnesses reported by veterans from the conflict.
-
- Thousands of veterans of the 1991 war suffer from unexplained
poor health.
-
- Servicemen and women from the US, UK, Canada and France
who took part in the operation to drive Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait
have reported one or more symptoms, including memory loss, chronic fatigue
and dizziness.
-
- 'Really ill'
-
- Many continue to suffer from chronic and debilitating
illnesses more than a decade since the war.
-
- However, scientists had until now been unable to establish
their causes.
-
- The US report said the troops' problems were definitely
caused by exposure to toxic chemicals rather than stress or psychiatric
illness.
-
- Potential sources include Iraqi nerve gas and drugs given
to the troops to protect them from chemical weapons.
-
- "Gulf war veterans really are ill at an elevated
degree and several studies bring consistent findings that about 25%-30%
of those who were deployed are ill," Professor Golombe told BBC Radio
4's Today programme.
-
- In July, a study funded by the Ministry of Defence and
carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine involved
more than 40,000 former soldiers.
-
- It found veterans of the 1991 Gulf War were more likely
to report symptoms of ill-health, but similar symptoms were reported by
both those who did not serve in the Gulf.
-
- © BBC MMIV
-
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3748844.stm
-
-
-
- Comment
- From Brenda Livingston
- living@airmail.net
10-18-4
-
- Dr. Cantwell,
-
- Thank you for sharing this BBC article and raising awareness
about the change of mind about the causes of this devastating illness.
-
- One very important thing to note regarding what has been
termed "Gulf War Syndrome"...it is a global disease.
-
- The research by Dr. Robert Haley (UT Southwestern) and
other research upon which the GAO and the new draft of a report by the
'Research Advisory Committee On Gulf War Veteran's Illnesses' (reported
in the New York Times) is explicit in stating that it is the exposure to
neurotoxins (organophosphates - acetylcholinerase inhibitors)-- and possibly
sarin and pyridostigmine bromide pills and most definitely pesticides --
that causes the neurological damage suffered by thousands of soldiers that
went to the Gulf and others who remained state side.
-
- The likely reason that soldiers who did not go to the
Gulf have this disease is that they like millions of others are deficit
a vital enzyme (i.e., PON-Q) or other enzymes which help protect the brain
and nervous system from severe damage due to exposure to pesticides and
like neurotoxins (as stated in Haley's research --see sites listed below).
-
- This disease is not a disease only of the Gulf War Veterans
-- but a disease effecting a substantive proportion of the General Population.
The genetic propensity to acquire this horribly painful and debilitating
neurological damage is simply not limited to soldiers. If a portion of
soldiers have this genetic disorder...a portion civilians do also...which
means they are at grave risk of neurological damage if exposed even to
low levels of pesticides.
-
- It is now time for full funding of research to find diagnostic
tools and a cure for this disease -- and time for the general public to
know the damaging effects of exposure to even low amounts of pesticides
if they have this genetic propensity.
-
- There are thousands of people across the nation who are
suffering every day with this "syndrome"-- being exposed and
exposing themselves and others to damaging neurotoxins -- having been denied
crucial information about this disease for so many years.
-
- And now with aerial and ground spraying of insecticides
for West Nile Virus -- aerial spraying unannounced in many cities -- I
am sure studies (in another 15 years if ever funded) -- will show profound
neurological damage to a substantial portion of our population due to this
unecessary and dangerous practice of exposing whole populations to these
pesticides daily...when use of larvicide is all that was needed.
-
- Please continue to get this information out not only
to those suffering from what has been euphemistically termed "environmental
illness" and "chemical sensitivity" and likely a litany
of other debilitating illnesses due to exposure to pesticides -- but to
doctors and researchers who can encourage the medical and health research
community to move forward to finding ways to help and heal ALL those suffering
from this malady. Where is the funding for research and studies for the
rest of us?
-
- ======
-
- http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/full/215/3/807
- Robert W. Haley, MD et al., "Brain Abnormalities in Gulf War Syndrome:
Evaluation with 1H MR Spectroscopy1"
- ===========
-
- http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/
- abstract/277/3/231?ijkey=2c3844de2b
- 503634ac151966be0f47fc235fbadc&keytype2
- =tf_ipsecsha
- R. W. Haley and T. L. Kurt, "Self-reported exposure to neurotoxic
chemical combinations in the Gulf War. A cross-sectional epidemiologic
study", JAMA Vol. 277 No. 3, January 15, 1997
- ===========
- Robert Haley, MD, Epidemiology Division, Department of Internal Medicine,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 75235-8874,
USA. http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/epidemi/gws/
- ===========
- http://reform.house.gov/UploadedFiles/GAO%2520Rhodes%
- 2520Testimony%2520June%25201,%25202004.pdf
- United States General Accounting Office Testimony Before the Subcommittee
on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee
on Government Reform, House of Representatives GAO GULF WAR ILLNESSES "DOD's
Conclusions About U.S. Troops' Exposure Cannot Be Adequately Supported"
Statement of Keith Rhodes, Chief Technologist Center for Technology and
Engineering, Applied Research and Methods
-
- Brenda Livingston
|
