Toxic Chemicals Blamed for Gulf War Illness

[babylonsister]

Toxic Chemicals Blamed for Gulf War Illness

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, November 17, 2008; 12:00 AM


MONDAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Gulf War illness, dismissed by some as a psychosomatic disorder, is a very real illness that affects at least 25 percent of the 700,000 U.S. veterans who took part in the 1991 Gulf War.

It's likely cause was exposure to toxic chemicals that included pesticides that were often overused during the war, as well as a drug given to U.S. troops to protect them from nerve gas, a frequent weapon of choice of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

And no effective treatments have been devised for the disorder.

Those are three key conclusions of a Congressionally mandated landmark report released Monday by a federal panel of scientific experts and veterans.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111701821.html

[kirby]

1. Were these same pesticides/drugs used currently?

Will the current veterans suffer the same fate?

[babylonsister]

2. I don't know, but hopefully someone's looking into it. nt