Statement of James J. Tuite III
Interdisciplinary Sciences Director
Chronic Illness Research Foundation

at the Annual Press Conference of the
Chemical Weapons Working Group
Washington, DC
April 21, 1997

The following is a quote from a letter I received from a sick Gulf War veteran in 1994.

"We had gas alarms go off several times, We were told they were all false alarms. We noticed what we thought were missiles streaking across the sky. We were told these were shooting stars. We heard loud explosions in the sky and saw bright flashes of light. We were told these were sonic booms."

That veteran is now suffering from Gulf War syndrome.

During the Senate Banking Committee investigation, I received similar deceptive answers from Administration, Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency officials when they were questioned regarding the exposure of our soldiers to chemical warfare agents.

It had been the position of the Department of Defense since mid-1993 that no chemical agents were detected and that no chemical munitions were forward deployed in areas occupied by US forces. The facts continued to argue otherwise.

Veterans' testimony and studies and reports from before, during and after the war all indicate that the troops were exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents from fallout and other collateral agent releases at many locations.

On June 21, 1996, the Department of Defense finally admitted that chemical weapons were deployed in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations and that they were improperly destroyed by US troops after the war. But even with this admission, they continue to insist that only a small number of troops may have been exposed. While they are currently saying that we should think in terms of "big" numbers--more than 21,000--some estimates of possible exposures from this event alone are currently as high as 130,000.

We know from prior animal research and human occupational exposures research that many of the compounds to which the veterans were exposed have been linked to damaged DNA repair mechanisms and damage to the proteins and enzymes that regulate many neuro-immune processes.

We know the troops were exposed to these nerve and blister warfare agents as well as many other toxic compounds that by themselves or in combination have been shown to result in chronic illnesses and cancers.

Now, the very same individuals who misled Congress about the exposure of our veterans to chemical warfare agents, and who are associated with withholding vital information that delayed research into their exposures, are telling US civilians that incineration and low-level exposure to many of the very same compounds is safe.

The Department of Defense tells our veterans that they will research the effects of these exposures and their possible relationship between Gulf War-related illnesses and at the same time tells citizens living near the stockpile sites, "It is safe."

No studies have been done to assess the impact of simultaneous exposures to these agents, their combustion by-products, agricultural pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons, despite an abundance of published scientific evidence to suggest that there is exposure synergy among these compounds--and despite the fact that many or all of these potential health threats exist in the vicinity of the stockpile sites.

They have done no dynamic exposure studies, provided no assurances, shown no good faith and simply say trust us. Trust is a valuable commodity and must be earned.

The Army has not earned our trust. Similar guarantees have been provided in the past to residents around the earlier generations of testing and incineration sites. Canvases of the areas around the Tooele/Dugway sites, sites of previous testing and incineration, indicate that a pattern of cancers and chronic illnesses is emerging in Utah. Similar situations are being reported at several of the other sites.

Attempts to have epidemiological data collected to assess the impact of past exposures in the areas where many of these depots are located have simply been rebuffed.

The Air Force continues to deny that Agent Orange is harmful, yet Vietnam veterans suffer from statistically significant incidences of myeloma cancer, sarcomas, lymphomas and prostate cancer--cancers epidemiologically associated with occupational exposures to synthetic chemicals.

Many Vietnam veterans have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder--a non-specific diagnosis based on symptoms that constitute a subset of those associated with the neuropsychiatric effects of toxic exposures. Despite a history of proven toxic exposure, these veterans do not receive toxicological examinations.

The Gulf War veterans receive the same inadequate care and are destined to develop similar disorders.

The citizens around the stockpile sites are asking for appropriate research to be conducted and for closed-loop disposal. The military seems to want to do neither.

The Gulf War experience suggests that we should all be concerned about these exposures to our veterans and our citizens. Congress--which has been quick to exploit the Gulf War coverup to get publicity--has been abysmally slow in directly addressing the threats and health problems being confronted by our veterans and their own constituents.

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