MoD dismisses reports on 'Gulf War Syndrome'
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 05/11/2004)

The Ministry of Defence yesterday dismissed evidence from a number of scientific studies suggesting that troops who fought in the 1991 Gulf war were suffering from illnesses caused by their service.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is about to publish research that concluded that many veterans of the war suffer from neurological damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.

The report found that many had unusual brain damage that would cause some of the symptoms and might have been caused by exposure to chemicals or vaccines.

It pointed to organo-phosphate pesticides at British and US bases in the Gulf, vaccines given to troops, or the release of Iraqi sarin nerve gas as possible causes.

Meanwhile, Prof Simon Wesseley, who led an MoD-funded survey of 20,000 British troops, told Lord Lloyd's inquiry in August that it found that the more vaccines soldiers were given the more likely they were to be ill. But the MoD insisted yesterday that "there is no clinical evidence to suggest that the known effects of the suspected exposures have affected the health of veterans". Officials argued that "the vast body of research undertaken has found no link between specific causes and the symptoms".

The officials were speaking on the publication of a new report by the MoD entitled: The 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict: Health and Personnel Related Lesson Identified.

They denied that the date of publication almost 14 years after the war was aimed at trying to counter the anticipated effects of the publication of the US report and Lord Lloyd's independent inquiry, which is expected to publish its report this month.

The officials declined to comment on the US government's Binns Report until after it was published and denied that there was any contradiction between Prof Wesseley's findings and their stance. Although the MoD funded his study they did not accept his conclusions on the use of vaccines because they were not matched in any other studies and they had to consider the research as a whole, officials said.

Prof Wesseley told the inquiry: "Those [veterans] who had the most vaccinations were nearly twice as likely to get ill." Those who had a combination of the anthrax and whooping cough vaccines were 40 per cent more likely to suffer symptoms, he said.

On the use of depleted uranium ammunition, blamed by some veterans for their illnesses, the report says "there is no scientific or medical evidence to link DU to ill-health".

Of organo-phosphate pesticides, it merely says that the conflict "pointed up the need for greater awareness of the risks associated with a range of potentially lethal materials - like pesticides". The report does not mention the other most frequently cited cause - release of sarin nerve gas when US troops demolished an Iraqi weapons dump.

About 6,000 British servicemen and women claim to have "Gulf War Syndrome".