RE: DU in the Gulf War

[Glen.Vickers@ucm.com]

I don't event think chem exposure is even a reasonable link.

If you look at the areas of potential exposure and duty stations were
symptoms were reported, there is not a reasonable tie.

I believe many of the symptoms complained about don't even match "symptom"
profiles for many of the commonly available chemicals.  There should be
pretty decent data from the more recent conflicts such as the Soviets in
Afghanistan and the Iran and Iraq war.

One of the universities in North Carolina produced a report that said they
produced similar symptoms by combining the use of the bug repellant and use
of a drug that was given to help combat against the full effects of nerve
agent.  The use of the repellant and drug would have likely covered the
population of soldiers in many different areas.  The symptoms were reported
in many different areas...  It's been a long time but I believe the drug was
used to help the body build up reserves of cholinesterase to make for that
which would be affected by nerve gas.  The additional reserves in the body
would hopefully be enough to keep the person alive.  We all know applying
pesticides to the external surfaces of the skin can lead to pesticide in the
body also.  Both of these by themselves or in concert sound like they could
have "nervous" system symptoms.  This actually sounds reasonable...

People tend to hold to the dark and sinister theories rather than sound
science, but that is human nature.

Hastily written,
Glen Vickers
glen.vickers@ucm.com

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Kim Merritt [SMTP:Merritt9@llnl.gov]
	Sent:	Friday, February 05, 1999 10:19 AM
	To:	Multiple recipients of list
	Subject:	DU in the Gulf War

	>
	>
	>I would say that the more likely cause of exposure to Chem/Bio
weapons was
	>actually the demolition of Iraqi weapons depots (Kamskaya?) by
allied
	>troops.  They were unaware of the presence of these "special"
weapons.  You
	>can look up extensive information on this on the web.
	>
	>As for the introduction of Uranium into the search for the cause; I
would
	>look no farther than the troops themselves.  Troops are not HP's or
IH's
	>and know little more about their DU rounds than that they are
radioactive
	>and are good for killing the enemy.  (I myself used chemicals in
the
	>military in manners that in retrospect were not smart.)  I knew
they were
	>bad for me but had little training to assess the level of bad.  I
also
	>believe that the reason that it has not been looked at before for
combat
	>troops is the nature of the war itself.  Desert Storm (during the
ground
	>assault phase) was largely a mechanized infantry (read tanks and
stuff) war
	>whereas Viet Nam was more of a person killing person war.  There is
not
	>much need for armour piercing ammo in the latter.
	>
	>I personally think that the Chem/Bio scenario is much more
realistic since
	>the military has had DU rounds for quite awhile and therefore has
probably
	>been practicing with them.  This would lead me to believe they
there should
	>have been some effect seen before the war if the DU was the cause.
But
	>hey, I'm no epidemiologist...
	>
	>Anyway, my 2 cents.
	>
	>
	>| | | |    Kim Merritt, RRPT
	>| | | |__  Safety Support Officer, Physics & Space Technolgy
	>| | \___/  Lawrence Livermore National Labs
	>| \___/    merritt9@llnl.gov
	>\___/      Voice: (925)423-9668   Fax: (925)422-7160
	>	   "When the only tool you have is a hammer,
	>	   every problem begins to resemble a nail."
	>	   -Abraham Maslow
	
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	Kim Merritt
	Safety Support Officer
	Physics & Space Technology
	phone 3-9668
	pager 01017
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