(431.4259) WISE-Amsterdam -Desert Storm Syndrome first came to Axelrod's attention when she read several articles detailing numerous undiagnosed ailments affecting soldiers who served in the Gulf War (1991). Later, she personally interviewed soldiers who confirmed the symptoms described by the popular press.
An initial review of available scientific literature suggests that any one of a number of factors - ranging from the effects of depleted uranium to pesticide exposure - may be causing the soldiers to fall ill. Unfortunately the United States Department of Defense (DOD) regards Desert Storm Syndrome in much the same way as Agent Orange was initially viewed after the Vietnam War. The DOD has chosen to ignore and discount the chronic sickness. The complaining soldier was told "it is all in your head" and then summarily dismissed by military physicians who prescribed mental tests, muscle relaxants and sleeping pills. Due to the DOD's indifference, IPPH decided to release its report.
Desert Storm Syndrome symptoms include the following: shortness of breath, loss of balance and fatigue, flu-like chills and sweats, diarrhea and loss of bladder control, headache and head pressure, joint and muscle pain, sores, skin rashes and burning skin, bleeding gums and loosened teeth, nose bleeds, hoarseness, hair loss, water retention, abdominal pain and bloating, chest pain and soreness, confusion, seizures, sleeplessness, blurred vision and short term memory loss.
Preliminary research point to the following potential causes of Desert Storm Syndrome:
- Administration of three vaccines intended as protection against nerve and biological warfare agents
- The effects of depleted uranium used in tank armor, missile and aircraft counter weights and navigational devices, and in tank and anti-aircraft and personnel artillery
- Smoke and chemical pollutants released by the continuous oil well fires
- Old World Leishmaniasis - a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of many species of sand fly indigenous to the region
- Pesticides and insecticides used extensively throughout the war to protect against pestilence
- Allied destruction of Iraqi chemical, nerve and biological warfare weapons resulting in inadvertent exposure to either chemical, nerve or biological warfare agents
- Adding to any of these effects, either alone of cumulatively, is the intense Desert Storm electromagnetic environment.
According to Naïma Lefkir-Lafitte and Roland Lafitte, in an article in Le Monde Diplomatique, the toxicity of depleted uranium is weak, chemically it is a poison - the same as heavy metals like lead. The radiological toxicity corresponds to half of that of natural uranium. Elementary precautions would be enough. A confidential report submitted to the British government by the authority controlling the nuclear industry, published in November 1992, however, reveals that in different places in Iraq and Kuwait, enough salvos have been fired to contaminate vehicles and the ground up to levels higher than permitted.
This represents a risk for the team of cleaners and the local population as well (especially those who collect bits of this heavy metal and keep them). This confidential report underscores that the danger especially comes from the uranium dust that arise when the projectiles hit the targets. The particles can easily be inhaled. The article in Le Monde Diplomatique also refers to the fact that since 1991 the number of cases of children afflicted with leukemia in Iraq has increased. The same is true with cases of children in hospitals suffering from loss of hair, bleeding and swollen bellies.
For more information on Depleted Uranium see WISE NC 403.3925 / 358.3546
Sources:
- International Perspectives in Public Health (Can), 1994 volume 10 (ISSN:8755-5328)
- Le Monde Diplomatique (Fr), 22 April 1995
ON M5J 1 B5 Canada.
Contact on Depleted Uranium: Henk van de Keur, LAKA Foundation, Ketelhuisplein 43, 1054 RD Amsterdam,
Netherlands, Tel. +31-20-6168294
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