STRESS A FACTOR, GULF WAR PANEL SAYS.Byline: Eric Schmitt The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times A special White House panel concluded Tuesday that it could find no evidence that exposure to chemical weapons had hurt the health of Persian Gulf war Persian Gulf War or Gulf War (1990–91) International conflict triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Though justified by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on grounds that Kuwait was historically part of Iraq, the invasion was presumed to be veterans, but it sharply criticized the Pentagon's investigation of the issue and said further study was needed. In accepting the report Tuesday, President Clinton extended the panel's life by nine months to insure independent oversight of the ongoing Pentagon investigation. While it found no specific syndrome affecting Persian Gulf war veterans, the 12-member panel, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, did say that battlefield stress was almost certainly a contributing factor. The panel said the Pentagon's refusal until a few months ago to finance research into the long-term health effects of low-level exposure to chemical agents ``has done veterans and the public a disservice dis·ser·vice n. A harmful action; an injury. disservice Noun a harmful action Noun 1. .'' Clearly aware of this stinging criticism, Clinton said Tuesday that the panel would watch over the Pentagon's shoulder. ``We will do whatever we can and whatever it takes to research gulf war illnesses as thoroughly as possible,'' Clinton said. ``Every credible possibility must be fully explored, including low-level chemical exposure and combat stress.'' Clinton continued, ``I pledge to our veterans and to every American, we will not stop until we have done all we can to care for our gulf war veterans, to find out why they are sick and to help to make them healthy again.'' The panel's 126-page report, however, shed no new light on what is making veterans sick. The panel said current scientific evidence does not link the veterans' ailments to any specific environmental hazard 'Environmental hazard' is a generic term for any situation or state of events which poses a threat to the surrounding environment. This term incorporates topics like pollution and Natural Hazards such as storms and earthquakes. in the gulf - including pesticides, nerve gas nerve gas, any of several poison gases intended for military use, e.g., tabun, sarin, soman, and VX. Nerve gases were first developed by Germany during World War II but were not used at that time. and oil-well fires. But panel members urged the government to study these little-researched possibilities more fully. The Departments of Defense, Veterans' Affairs and Health and Human Services Noun 1. Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Department of Health and Human Services, HHS have sponsored more than 70 research projects to identify the possible causes of the illnesses. Under pressure from Congress and a searing sear 1 v. seared, sear·ing, sears v.tr. 1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of with or as if with a hot instrument. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. preliminary report from the panel, the Defense Department announced last November that it would expand its team of investigators to 110 from 12 and that it would investigate dozens of incidents in the gulf war in which chemical agents were detected. ``The department's early efforts were superficial and lacked credibility,'' Dr. Joyce Lashof, the panel's chairwoman, a former dean of the school of public health at the University of California at Berkeley (body, education) University of California at Berkeley - (UCB) See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation. , said Tuesday. But Gulf War veterans' groups and their backers on Capitol Hill immediately criticized the panel's findings, particularly that the physical effects Physical effects is the term given to a sub-category of special effects in which mechanical or physical effects are recorded. Physical effects are usually planned in preproduction and created in production. of wartime stress may explain many health problems. James Tuite III, who led a Senate inquiry into gulf war illnesses in 1993 and 1994 and who is now working with veterans' groups, said, ``The Department of Defense and the White House have dismissed a large body of scientific literature that supports the contention that low-level chemical agents and other toxic exposures can can cause these types of chronic illnesses.'' |
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