|
WASHINGTON -- A never-reported 1972 Army experiment, in which sheep
died after being exposed to low levels of a chemical-weapon agent and
a pesticide in Utah, could shed light on why some Persian Gulf War
veterans are sick.
The experiment was done after 6,400 sheep died when a nerve-gas test
went awry at Dugway Proving Ground in 1968. But the Pentagon never
revealed the study results, even though they could suggest why
hundreds of sheep, goats and camels died during the 1991 war.
"Certainly [the study] raises a red flag," said Eula Bingham, who
chairs the federal Persian Gulf Expert Scientific Committee that
reviews Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs' efforts to
unravel mysteries of gulf illnesses.
James Tuite, director of the Chronic Illness Research Foundation, said
"widespread reporting of dead animals" coincided with allied air
attacks on Iraq's chemical-weapons bunkers and at least one
pesticide-storage facility during Operation Desert Storm.
At the same time, said Tuite, who previously directed a congressional
probe of gulf illnesses, many U.S. troops who had sprayed themselves
with insecticides and lived in tents sprayed with pesticides
complained of rashes and flu-like symptoms consistent with exposure to
low-level chemical agents.
The sheep study also raises questions about why troops were not warned
about the cumulative effects of pesticides and chemical-weapon agents,
particularly because fears ran high about Saddam Hussein's threat to
use his chemical arsenal.
The 1972 Army experiment involved three groups of five sheep each. One
group was exposed to twice the recommended level of a pesticide for
parasites, another group to a light dose of the VX chemical-weapon
agent blamed for earlier killing the 6,400 sheep. The third group was
exposed to the pesticide and to VX.
One sheep in the experiment had a severe reaction to the pesticide.
Other sheep in that group and those exposed to only the VX chemical
were mildly affected or unaffected, according to the Army report,
which Tuite obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
But of the five sheep exposed to VX and the pesticide, two died, one
was severely affected but recovered, and two were mildly affected.
While the experiment was too small to be statistically significant,
Bingham said it is the kind of information that should have been
provided to her committee and other Gulf War investigators.
"I believe the [Defense Department] has to know about it," said
Bingham, a toxicologist and professor at the University of Cincinnati
College of Medicine. "There are people in the service who were around
at that time [1972]."
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said military officials are aware of
the sheep study. But he discounted its value to Gulf War
investigations, saying they are "two entirely separate events that
occurred under entirely different circumstances."
Whitman said there was "enough of a concern" about dead animals during
the war that tissue samples were taken and analyzed.
"All the deaths were believed to have been naturally occurring and . .
there were no chemical or biological agents involved," he said.
However, dead animals on the battlefield is among issues being
examined by the Pentagon team investigating gulf illnesses, he said.
Agricultural practices in the Mideast include treating sheep and other
animals with pesticides. Because pesticides also are used on crops,
animals may ingest them. And during the war, U.S. forces sprayed some
domestic animals with pesticides.
Besides the study of sheep -- which scientists consider a "sentinel"
species, more sensitive to environmental exposures than most other
animals -- Dugway Proving Ground did two similar studies on cattle in
1972.
While results were less dramatic, cattle had a reaction "somewhat more
pronounced" when exposed to a pesticide and a chemical agent than when
exposed to just one of them.
While the Pentagon has not informed investigators of those studies,
Bingham said there are implications for gulf veterans: Troops were
extensively exposed to pesticides -- some "literally wore flea
collars" -- at a time when thousands of chemical alarms sounded after
bombardments of Iraqi positions.
Tuite, using government weather maps, has developed evidence that
chemical agents stored in depots bombed by allied forces could have
been carried downwind to U.S. troops. The Pentagon has not refuted his
assertion.
After years of denial, the Pentagon last June acknowledged that some
20,800 U.S. troops could have been exposed to chemical-weapon agents
when Iraqi munitions bunkers were blown up after the war.
Tuite fears one consequence of the government's failure to focus on
environmental exposures is that military and VA doctors will continue
to emphasize treating sick veterans for stress, while ignoring
immune-system and other diseases "brought on by toxicological damage."
He also sees the Army's failure to make the Dugway study public as
another example of "the Pentagon playing dumb while Gulf War veterans
get sicker."
|
