Gulf Vets Rap VA on Nerve Gas Compensation

NGWRC Plans Lawsuit If VA Does Not Act

Nov 6, 2000, David Eberhart, Stars and Stripes Veterans Affairs Editor

A Gulf War veterans group says it has learned that Acting VA Secretary Hershel Gober plans to deny service-connected compensation for sarin nerve gas exposure despite a recent Institute of Medicine finding that such exposures were "as likely as not" to have impacted the health of ailing veterans.

"The VA has chosen to ignore both available scientific evidence, the will of the Congress and the legitimate health concerns of Gulf War veterans," said Patrick G. Eddington, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center (NGWRC). "Secretary Gober has left us no alternative but to seek legal redress in the courts."

According to the NGWRC, the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report Sept. 7 that pointed to a correlation between sarin exposure and health problems plaguing Gulf veterans.

But a close reading of that report by The Stars and Stripes shows the report to be less than definitive. At page 5-25 of the report, for instance, an IOM committee stated: "...[T]here is inadequate/insufficient evidence to determine whether an association does or does not exist between exposure to sarin at low doses insufficient to cause acute cholinergic signs and symptoms and subsequent long-term adverse health effects."

The NGWRC, however, maintains that the association described in the report crosses a statutory threshold in federal law that "The credible evidence for the association is equal to or outweighs the credible evidence against the association."

In March 1991, during the cease-fire period, troops from the U.S. 37th and 307th engineering battalions destroyed enemy munitions throughout occupied areas of southern Iraq, including a large storage complex at Khamisiyah which contained more than 100 bunkers.

Two sites at Khamisiyah--one of the bunkers and a site called the "Pit"--contained stacks of 122 mm rockets loaded with sarin and cyclosarin. U.S. troops performing demolitions were unaware of the presence of the nerve agents because their detectors were sensitive only to lethal or near-lethal levels and did not sound any alarms.

It was not until October 1991 that inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) first confirmed the presence of a mixture of sarin and cyclosarin at Khamisiyah.

Eddington said that the federal government has failed to deal openly and honestly with Desert Storm veterans and their concern about various toxic exposures on the battlefields of Kuwait and southern Iraq.

"The Gulf War Syndrome tragedy began under the first Bush administration. It has been perpetuated and exacerbated under the Clinton-Gore administration. Veterans and their family members will undoubtedly take these facts into account when casting their votes on Nov. 7," Eddington said.

He said the NGWRC is considering filing a lawsuit to compel the VA to provide appropriate compensation to Gulf veterans known or suspected to have been exposed to Iraqi chemical agents and other toxins during and after the war.

"We will not rest until our veterans receive the medical care they need to try to rebuild both their bodies and their lives," Eddington said.

POSTED TO NGWRC WEB Tue Nov 07 07:54:56 2000

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