Researchers Think They’ve Found the Cause of Gulf War Illness

| May 25, 2022

Researchers think it’s caused by exposure to the nerve agent sarin. Which is what the vets have been saying for decades now. Thanks to ninja for sending this one in.

From Military.com;

After nearly 30 years of trying to prove a theory — that an environmental toxin was responsible for sickening roughly 250,000 U.S. troops who served in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War — Dr. Robert Haley says new research confirms that sarin nerve gas caused Gulf War Illness.

Following the Gulf War, nearly one-third of all who deployed reported unexplained chronic symptoms such as rashes, fatigue, gastrointestinal and digestive issues, brain “fog,” neuropathy, and muscle and joint pain. Federal agencies spent years broadly dismissing the idea that troops may have been suffering from exposure to chemical agents, with many veterans experiencing symptoms sent to mental health providers.

But a study published last week in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives used genetic research and survey data to determine that U.S. service members exposed to sarin were more likely to develop Gulf War Illness, and those who were exposed and had a weaker variant of a gene that helps digest pesticides were nine times more likely to have symptoms.

“Quite simply, our findings prove that Gulf War illness was caused by sarin, which was released when we bombed Iraqi chemical weapons storage and production facilities,” said Haley, director of the Division of Epidemiology in the Internal Medicine Department at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

“There are still more than 100,000 Gulf War veterans who are not getting help for this illness and our hope is that these findings will accelerate the search for better treatment,” Haley said.

Originally developed as a pesticide, the chemical weapon sarin was known to have been stockpiled by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein prior to and after the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War. The synthetic nerve agent attacks the central nervous system and brain, killing victims by triggering an overreaction of neurotransmitters that causes convulsions and asphyxiation.

Thousands of coalition troops likely were exposed to sarin and cyclosarin, an organic phosphate also used as a chemical weapon, when the U.S. destroyed a bunker housing chemical weapons at the Khamisiyah Ammunition Storage Depot in southern Iraq, sending a plume of contaminants that spread across a 25-mile radius. Others may have been subjected to low levels of contaminants, as troops frequently reported that chemical weapons alarms went off in the absence of any apparent attack.

In the years following the war, veterans who sought medical help at the Department of Veterans Affairs were greeted with skepticism and sent to psychiatrists for mental health treatment. Health surveys conducted by the VA in the early 2010s of Gulf War veterans focused mainly on questions about psychological and psychiatric symptoms.

And in 2013, veterans’ suspicions of the lack of concern at the VA were confirmed when VA whistleblower and epidemiologist Steven Coughlin came forward to say that the department buried or obscured research findings that would link physical ailments to military service — a concerted effort to deny veterans health care and benefits.

Coughlin’s charges were later confirmed by an email sent to staff from former Undersecretary for Benefits Allison Hickey expressing concern that changing what the VA still calls “chronic multisymptom illness” to “Gulf War illness” might “imply a causal link between service in the Gulf and poor health which could necessitate legislation for disability compensation for veterans who served in the Gulf.”

More at the source.

Category: Disposable Warriors, Gulf War, Veteran Health Care

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Roh-Dog

Cool. Now do POL exposure, burn pits, and the anthrax, CoOf-1984 shots.

Ret_25X

the next subject to drop on VA is burn pits…they will never admit to POL product or DPU poisoning.

Roh-Dog

I’ve got Infantry Marine buddies, spent time where there was known-but-not-admitted-to use of DU in and around Fallujah train station*. Tons of “unexplained” blood, kidney and bone cancers, deaths before 40.

A couple guys I served with dyin young too (Kirkuk and NW Baghdad areas).

Praying only gets us so far, IDGAF about me and mine’s, some of those men have families and that tears me soul to pieces.

*iirc, could’ve been Ramadi also/or.

Last edited 2 years ago by Roh-Dog
Anonymous

That’ll take another 30 years… each.

Last edited 2 years ago by Anonymous
Ret_25X

You know, it is funny how 31 years later, they come out and say what we had been saying the entire time—it was the sarin, dummies.

Sapper3307

Thanks 307th/20th ENGR’s!

Old Sapper

They say blow it up we blow it up.

Sapper3307

True!

Anonymous

VA: Deny, deny until veterans die! (Cuts down on claims, you see… )

KoB

Spot on, Anonymous. The Beauracracy will live longer than the patient. I think the VA has long gotten away from what their Mission was to be and their main focus has been to make a paycheck. Have also felt that every employee at the VA should be a Vet.

Want to make the VA better? Tell Kongress Klowne Kritters they have to go there for their medical services.

NC Ken

It worked for the VA for decades post-Vietnam with Agent Orange. They figured, ” what the hell … “

26Limabeans

Still can’t match Agent Orange. Nam vets rule that game.

Honor and Courage

I was traveling on a Commercial Flight out of Theater on an emergency leave and ran into another American on my Flight. While refueling and a short coffee lay over the conversation about weapons of Mas Destruction and what happened to them came up. He said that we had provided enough chemical and Biological material for Sadam to kill the whole population of the middle east. Iran and the Kurds got the brunt of them but what happened to the left overs. Buried somewhere with no surviving witnesses. Don’t have any proof as to the extent of his knowledge.

AZRobert

I remember reading something about a large convoy heading towards the border of Syria that was hands off, just before the booms went off in Iraq. I still wonder what all was in that convoy?

Rumor was some Russians and others in the convoy, but with what’s going on now, the others probably were cee i a bio-weapons contractors.

poetrooper

LTG Ion Pacepa, who headed the Romanian security forces before defecting to the US, maintained until his recent death that the Russians ran multiple convoys of WMD’s out of Iraq during the buildup to war with the US.
The liberal media crucified Bush over the issue when no WMD’s were purportedly found during and after the war. They still scoff.

But isn’t this study evidence to support GWB’s contention? Sarin is most assuredly a WMD as far as this old Brigade CBR NCO is aware. Or is the government going to provide free healthcare to veterans for the lingering effects of a WMD that wasn’t even in-country according to the MSM and the Bush-hating left? 🤔  🤔  🤔 

AZRobert

It’s kind of funny/strange how fast those convoy stories disappeared from the news, as fast as Rumsfeld finding missing trillions in the DOD budget just before 911.

The latest from Dr. David E. Martin on rumble about the bio-engineered Monkey pox might add more to the puzzle.

David

“Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction!” says every lib…

Largo Larry

So Sadam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction contrary to what the liberals had to say.

Name edited to protect PII.
AW1

AW1Ed

Had them and used them. Ask Syria where the leftovers went.

E-4 Mafia For Life

I helped destroy chemical munitions at the Khamisiyah Ammunition Storage Depot.
A Troop Task Force 2/4 CAV, 24th ID (MECH).
We wore only worn out MOPP suits.
We used WP and thermite to melt arty rounds and barrels of bad stuff.
Bravo Troop (Air CAV) fired TOW II’s and hydras into munitions as well.
I initially went to the VA back in 1992 after hearing about GWS.
They sent me down the psychiatric PTS route. 31 years later I’m still messed up. Yeah, I think PTS is part of it but my brain doesn’t work right either.
I’m not holding my breath… that would just accelerate the VA’s mission to outlive the affected.

MarineDad61

I was in the VA by November 1991,
with skin feeling and muscle control issues.
Pushed back at the front door several times.
I was even asked “What drugs are you trying to get from us?”

Eventually, 1 neurologist called me at home,
and told me to meet her at the VA front door lobby.
When she led me to a back exam room,
and an old woman sticking me with the electrodes
did some voltage tests,
I was given a VA Card, and became a neurology outpatient.

I read all about answers and solutions in the early 2000s,
but none of that worked. Neither did the prescriptions.

I lived my life since with medical issues,
and a 0% VA Disability rating for 24 years, until 2015,
when I received a partial rating, no longer 0%.

And then I read about this turd TODAY,
and it really pisses me off.
Bro.

[An Army vet bodybuilder scammed the VA out of $245,000 while claiming he couldn’t even lift, bro]
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-bodybuilder-zachary-barton-scammed-va/

MarineDad61

Photo with story.
PTS o’ the D.
Depends.
Cane.

[He admitted to lying on a mental health test by reporting to the Veterans Administration that he suffered from combat-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,
telling administrators he could barely lift 10 pounds and he even committed to the charade enough to wear adult diapers and used a cane when arriving at an appointment.]

VA scammer Zachary Burton 1.jpg
e. conboy

This is maddening. My cousin suffered with aftermath of Agent Orange.
Of course he didn’t catch it in his two tours of Nam.
(Wonder how far this yellow-bellied sap sucker can stretch a rope around his neck?)

USMC Steve

If they are going to the va (deserved little letters) for help, ain’t no one getting help for it. Those motherfuckers work harder at not working than anyone I ever saw. If they don’t outright try to kill you.