Mass Spec Finds Gulf War Illness

November 25, 2008

A U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs forensics report released last week, "Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans," revealed that, after many years of disbelief, Gulf War illness is real and the result of neurotoxic exposures during the war deployment.

Technical results from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS) were included in the scientific findings and recommendations. Specifically, the report referred to an ongoing CAMS collaboration with the Univ. of New Mexico studying inhalation penetration of depleted uranium into brain tissues, and described toxicity studies at CAMS that supported the overall conclusion that a chemical given to the troops for protection against nerve agents and pesticide use during deployment are "causally associated with Gulf War illness."

LLNL/Univ. of California publications cited were "Pyrethroid Decrease in Central Nervous System from Nerve Agent Pre-Treatment" in the Journal of Applied Toxicology and "Protein Binding of lisofluorophate in vivo After Coexposure to Multiple Chemicals" in Environmental Health Perspectives.

For more on the VA report, go to http://www.vmwusa.org/images/stories/gwi_and_health_rac_gwvi_report_2008.pdf

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

John M	5/6/2010 11:46:34 AM
Interesting that you causally relate pesticides and PB as modern pesticides are largely nerve agents due to their effectiveness at low dose rates. So -- could we have pre-treated the vets for nerve agent exposure and then exposed them with pesticides? I remember articles abouot troops wearing "dog flea collars" as wrist bands to keep fleas and ticks off. High localized absorption through the skin coupled area dosing coupled with internal dosing of PB may have lead to a synergistic event with negitive consequences.

Dave Klingler	9/28/2009 1:27:46 PM
Mr. Mineer, it's been my personal experience that the most avid advocacy of the whole concept of GWI has come from the left, not the right, although it's often used as an indictment against the Pentagon for using depleted uranium or "proof" that the U.S. Guvment used nerve gas in the Gulf, etc. etc. Sometimes the veterans get lost in all the noise. The right has for the most part (in my experience) tried to suppress the concept of GWI because it serves as an indirect indictment of our wartime practices in the Gulf whether or not said indictment should be considered fair; if you're a hawk you'd probably like not to have GWI be real. The veterans themselves have kept the cause alive as well, and rightfully so; veterans often have to live with the consequences of the mistakes of their C.O.'s long after a war. Those consequences need to be recognized. It doesn't serve our country in the slightest to continue to deny our mistakes and then never correct them, forcing our soldiers to pay with their health for someone's political career.

Lloyd Mineer	8/25/2009 11:20:59 AM
Hopefully not to become too embroiled in politics but Mr. Kaczkowski it should have been painfully obvious that it has primarily been the warhawks who have helped to keep it in the news and hopefully force the government into finding the solutions to GWI. That has been true whether it was the Bush admin or the ineffective and totally uncaring Obama admin.

Peter Kaczkowski	8/11/2009 12:48:37 PM
The link above is not valid, instead the report can be downloaded from: http://www1.va.gov/rac-gwvi/docs/GWIandHealthofGWVeterans_RAC-GWVIReport_2008.pdf The causes of GWI are not obvious, though the existence of the syndrome, long denied, is definitely more so since a quarter of combat personnel have it. It took a lot of epidemiological study to find that: "Evidence strongly and consistently indicates that two Gulf War neurotoxic exposures are causally associated with Gulf War illness: 1) use of pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, given to protect troops from effects of nerve agents, and 2) pesticide use during deployment. Evidence includes the consistent association of Gulf War illness with PB and pesticides across studies of Gulf War veterans, identified dose-response effects, and research findings in other populations and in animal models." That's CAUSALLY not CASUALLY for those miscreants who continue to deny GWI. The pills and pesticides were given with the best of intentions, but this was clearly a mistake, having caused enormous suffering. Indeed, fear of nerve agent use was never vindicated since there were no attacks. Continued denial of the existence of GWI is scandalous, and should be punished. Further research on developing treatment (which currently does not exist) is necessary. "Support our Troops" ought to also mean "Care for our Veterans" and I urge the war hawks to put their money where their (enormous) mouths are and support spending more TAX money on veteran's health care.

	3/13/2009 9:43:46 AM
No, it will be carried out at the Institute for Leaping to Conclusions without Evidence.

Dennis Speer	11/25/2008 3:55:46 PM
Congratulations to the researchers. This confirms what I and all my veteran friends have known for years. Will the follow up research be done at The Institute for the Study of the Painfully Obvious?

Type Your Comment...

Name:
E-mail (optional):	*E-mail addresses do not publish to the site.
Comment:

Editor's Corner

Tim Virtualization of the Lab
With advanced computing and algorithmic technologies, modeling and simulation techniques are becoming more accepted and the results more reliable across a wide range of disciplines....continue