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Use of experimental drugs and vaccines on soldiers
during the Persian Gulf War may have caused the mysterious diseases
many of them suffer - and may have sickened workers at Utah's Dugway
Proving Ground over the years.
That's according to a six-month study by the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee and witnesses who testified about it on Friday.
They also said some supposedly safe substances still used in open-air
tests at Dugway to simulate more toxic chemical and biological weapons
may also be dangerous, which the Army has denied.
"We'd like to think that these kinds of abuses are a thing of the
past, but the legacy continues," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V.,
the committee chairman. "This situation is unacceptable."
The committee investigation said Persian Gulf soldiers were given two
experimental drugs - pyridostigmine bromide and a botulism vaccine -
and several other vaccines (which had been given to Dugway workers for
years) without being told what they were.
It said before the war, Army researchers carefully screened anyone
given pyridostigmine to ensure they were not sensitive to it. But when
the war began, large doses were given to "400,000 U.S. solders, none
of whom had been screened."
The committee investigation said that drug had never been proven "safe
or effective for repeated use by healthy persons under any
circumstances," but the military thought it would help protect
soldiers against some chemical arms.
Likewise, the committee investigation said the experimental botulism
vaccine was given too late to have been any good, either - and
research has shown many people are hypersensitive to it and have
adverse reactions.
Neil R. Tetzlaff of Fredericksburg, Va., a gulf war veteran, testified
he became sick immediately after taking it. Ever since, he has had
memory loss, body pain, fatigue, weakness, headaches, rashes and
nausea - as have many other veterans reporting similar mysterious
illnesses.
The committee investigation said the drug appeared to make some
soldiers more sensitive to pesticides and neurological problems.
Another gulf war veteran with similar problems, Barry M. Walker of
East Palestine, Ohio, said soldiers were given many other vaccines
without being told what they were, only that they would help protect
them against chemical and biological attack.
He and the committee found that such medication was not recorded on
soldiers' records, or that many of their records have been lost.
Earl P. Davenport of Tooele, a former Dugway worker, testified that
for years Dugway workers were also given similar shots without being
told what they were - and they either were not recorded on medical
records, or the records have been lost.
"When I questioned taking these shots, I was told I was receiving
hazard pay and it was part of my job. At this time, hazard pay was 6
cents an hour," Davenport said.
He said a number of former co-workers meeting about such problems
"discovered that at least 29 of the people, including myself, who had
worked with chemical and bio testing at Dugway and who had received
the shots, had also had heart attacks, and 12 of them had died.
Another 13 had serious problems such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and
Q fever."
Davenport also told how he has been sick with respiratory and heart
problems ever since he was accidentally sprayed with what was
supposedly a safe chemical that simulated some characteristics of
nerve gas in open-air tests.
The Army later found the chemical - dimethyl methyl-phos-phon-ate -
may cause cancer and discontinued its use in open-air trials. However,
Davenport said the military has blamed his health problems on
cigarettes that he used to smoke.
Rutgers political science professor Leonard Cole - who has written a
book on germ warfare testing - said Dugway used many substances
through the years in open tests that it said once were safe but later
decided were not, including: aspergillus fumigatus, zinc cadmium and
seratia marcescens.
He added, "Simulants now used at Dugway continue to pose risks." |
