03/11/2001
By Ed Timms / The Dallas Morning News
A decade after the Persian Gulf War ended, epidemiologist Robert Haley is
fighting a very different battle.
He leads a team of scientists who've tried to find out why thousands of Gulf
War veterans are sick. After
a lengthy investigation, he believes that some answers have emerged. He wants
to expand research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
at Dallas, and he wants other scientists to replicate the findings, a critical
step in the research process.But there are skeptics and detractors of the
research at UT Southwestern, including some who hold important positions
in the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs.They've
questioned the conclusions of the researchers, criticized the small number
of participants in their study, discouraged additional funding and alleged
that certain scientific protocols were not followed.The UT Southwestern findings
reflect a growing schism between many researchers and ailing veterans and
the government. After expending considerable resources, the
government has provided few definitive answers to for the veterans. At the
same time, reports by veterans that chemical weapons were present in the
region – and research that suggests certain chemicals or drugs
may be responsible for the mysterious ailments – have not been
enthusiastically embraced by officials with the Pentagon or the VA.Still,
there is official recognition by the VA and the Defense Department that some
gulf veterans are indeed suffering from mysterious ailments, a significant
departure from the skepticism that was common in the first few years after
the war."The Department of Defense and VA both have learned that we didn't
listen to the veterans at the beginning," said Dr. Michael E. Kilpatrick,
who serves as chief of staff for the Pentagon's office of the special assistant
for Gulf War Illnesses.
Higher ratesNew VA data show that veterans who were in the Persian Gulf from
Aug. 2, 1990 – when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait – to July 31, 1991
have reported service-connected health problems at a higher rate than veterans
who were serving elsewhere in the world. Gulf veterans receive disability
compensation at a higher rate than veterans who served during World War II,
the Korean War and the Vietnam War.Dr. Kilpatrick of the Pentagon said the
government is committed to finding answers and has spent about $155 million
so far. More than 190 research projects have been funded and about 60 are
under review for funding.Money, or more specifically, the lack of it, remains
an issue for the researchers at UT Southwestern who have tried to find answers
for the veterans. The research was launched in 1994 with the help of a grant
from the Perot Foundation of Dallas. UT Southwestern received $3 million
in government funding in 1997,
but subsequent grant applications have been rejected repeatedly.Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, faced resistance from the Defense Department when
she earmarked $5 million, part of the 2001 defense budget, to help establish
a Gulf War Illness Research Center at UT Southwestern. She also plans to
introduce legislation that would require the VA to recognize that all Persian
Gulf War veterans may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals, similar to
the VA's "presumptive service-connection" that all Vietnam veterans may
have been exposed to Agent Orange.Ms. Hutchison said she is somewhat mystified
at the apparent reluctance to fund further research at UT Southwestern."It
seems to me that the DOD and the VA should say, gosh, if there's any nugget
of research that shows a causal connection, we're going to jump on it, even
if it's not proven, even if it's not absolutely certain," Ms. Hutchison said.
"Instead, they seem to have the attitude
that they're going to do everything to keep this particular line of research
from going forward. ..."
Dr. Haley concedes that he was somewhat skeptical when he was first was asked
to look into the Gulf War veterans' medical problems. But as research progressed,
he became convinced that there was something to their complaints.He believes
that U.S. service members were exposed to low levels of chemical weapons
early in the air campaign against Saddam Hussein's military forces, when
allied pilots bombed ammunition depots in southern Iraq. Many of the veterans
who are now sick were deployed in northern Saudi Arabia, near the border
with Iraq.In several cases, accounts by service members who believed they
encountered chemical weapons have been ruled out, or declared as unlikely,
in reports by the Pentagon. After a lengthy study, a committee of the National
Academies' Institute of Medicine in September presented no real explanation
for the mysterious ailments, but stated that more research was needed.A December
report by the Presidential Special Oversight Board also said more research
was needed to "evaluate the potential relationship between toxic exposures
and symptoms of undiagnosed Gulf War illnesses." It also described stress
as "likely a primary cause of illness in at least some Gulf War veterans,"
a premise angrily disputed by many veterans.
Evidence from veteransVeterans disagree, pointing to several factors:•
The numerous alarms that were set
off during the war, indicating the presence of chemical weapons • Iraqi
leader Hussein's past use of chemical weapons against Iranian forces and
Kurds in Iraq• Evidence that Iraqi troops used chemical weapons during
the Gulf War."Our chemical alarms went off every day," said Roy Morrow, 56,
of Phenix City, Ala., who
served with the 24th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion in the northeastern
Saudi Arabian port of
Al Jubayl. "I can't believe that every alarm was false."UT Southwestern
concentrated its scientific investigation on veterans who served with the
24th, a reserve unit whose sailors live mostly in the Southeastern United
States.The findings indicate that some gulf veterans used or were exposed
to chemicals and an anti-nerve gas drug that could be toxic if combined.
Scientists also found that veterans born with
low levels of an enzyme that selectively destroys nerve gas were more likely
to suffer brain damage from an exposure, which may explain why some veterans
became sick and others who were in the same area did not.Last fall, researchers
uncovered evidence that ill veterans produce an abnormally high amount of
a brain chemical, a neurotransmitter known as dopamine, and they raised concerns
that could lead to long-term neuro-degenerative illnesses. Damage to the
left basal ganglia portion of the brain was measured by magnetic resonance
(MR) spectroscopy, which uses radio waves in a strong magnetic field to measure
chemicals in the body.Dallas businessman Ross Perot, who's long been an advocate
for the sick veterans, said the evidence that they were subjected to chemical
weapons is overwhelming. If more money actually had been spent on research,
rather than used "to fight the issue," he added, "we'd probably have it
solved.""If we thought Watergate was a scandal, Watergate is insignificant
compared to allowing probably a hundred thousand men to be suffering for
10 years while a small group keeps everything in denial," Mr. Perot
said.Published papers on the UT Southwestern research have withstood the
scrutiny of a dozen peer-reviewed scientific journals.Government investigators
have concluded that some veterans potentially were exposed to low levels
of chemical warfare agents when ammunition bunkers at Khamisiyah, Iraq, were
destroyed by U.S. forces in March 1991. But firm evidence that gulf veterans
are sick because of exposure to chemical weapons, officials with the Pentagon
and VA assert, so far, just isn't there."It makes no difference to us one
way or the other whether or not chemicals were used or not used," said Dr.
Bernard Rostker, who headed the Pentagon's office for Gulf War illnesses
for more than four years."I wish we could have found something that would
have given some explanation and some comfort to our veterans, but I can't
manufacture something."Dr. Kilpatrick, a former Navy researcher and now with
the Pentagon Gulf War office, characterized the UT Southwestern research
as "intriguing.""I think those of us in the Department of Defense who are
looking at the science have always concurred that Dr. Haley has good hypotheses,"
he said. "We don't doubt in any way, shape, or form his commitment to Gulf
War veterans in particular."But he also suggested that the UT Southwestern
findings should be replicated before the research is expanded.Researchers
at UT Southwestern counter that government funding to replicate their findings,
or to broaden the scope of the research, has not been forthcoming, and that's
the conundrum.One avenue of research that hit a roadblock was UT Southwestern's
effort to determine whether gulf veterans are developing amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS) at an abnormally high rate.In a June 18, 1999 letter, Dr.
Haley asked the VA to perform a blind-mail out to Gulf War veterans identified
as having ALS or other motor-neuron diseases.
Scientific protocols Dr. John R. Feussner, the VA's chief of research, raised
concerns about scientific protocols in the UT research. The VA ultimately
refused the request from UT Southwestern. But on
March 27, 2000, the VA issued a statement announcing a nationwide study to
determine the rate of ALS among veterans who served during the Gulf War.
The statement did not mention the UT Southwestern research effort, nor were
UT Southwestern scientists part of the VA study.Officials at UT Southwestern
said a review of their study found some clerical errors that were corrected
but nothing that raised questions about the fundamental Gulf War research.Dr.
Rostker, an economist who recently rejoined the Rand Corp.,
a think tank that conducts numerous studies for the military, accused Dr.
Haley and others of lobbying to circumvent the Defense Department's peer
review process.Mr. Perot acknowledges that he has contacted officials in
Washington in an effort to get help for Gulf veterans and in support of Dr.
Haley's research, but
he bristles at any suggestion that constitutes lobbying."Who did I talk to?
Just about everybody," Mr. Perot said. "Assume I was contacting them to do
something for one of my companies that would make me a lot of money, that's
lobbying. Trying to get help for these soldiers, that's just doing what you
have the right to do
as a citizen."
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