Munition exposure linked to brain cancer in US vets

[donsu]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-07-25T203304Z_01_B378270_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-BRAIN-CANCER-DC.XML


Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as their unexposed peers from the same war to die from brain cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.

"We found an approximately twofold excess of brain cancer deaths, 12 to 13 excess deaths in a population of 100,000 veterans, associated with possible exposure to chemical warfare agents," Tim A. Bullman, from the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, DC, and colleagues report.

-snip-

Further analysis showed evidence of an effect based exposure levels. For instance, compared with their unexposed peers, veterans exposed to chemical munitions for one day were 72 percent more likely to die from brain cancer, while those exposed for two or more days were 226 percent more likely to die from brain cancer.
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go to Iraq and get dead or injured, or not, but you will still come home sick

[TahitiNut]

1. Not "linked" ... "correlated"!

While it's not unreasonable to hypothesize causality, such causality cannot be assured merely through statistical correlation.