Chemical Weapons Working Group
P.O. Box 467; Berea, KY 40403
(606) 986-7565 (606) 986-2695 (fax)
e-mail: kefwilli@acs.eku.edu web: www.cwwg.org
for further information: Craig Williams: (606) 986-7565
for immediate release: Friday, September 25, 1998
DoD LACKS STRATEGY AND RESEARCH PROGRAM TO ADDRESS LOW-LEVEL CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENT (CWA) EXPOSURES, ACCORDING TO NEW GAO REPORT
Citizen groups point to National Research Council's new CWA toxicity data along with the GAO report as proof the Army's "safe" exposure levels for workers and civilians are pure "guess work"
According to a report released September 23 by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) the Department of Defense (DoD) "has not developed a doctrine that addresses low-level exposures to chemical warfare agents either in isolation or in combination with other contaminants." The report also states that the DoD has "no chemical defense research program to determine the effects of low-level chemical exposures."
The GAO study, "Chemical Weapons: DoD Does Not Have a Strategy to Address Low-Level Exposures," was done at the request of Senators Byrd, Glenn and Levin around concerns about possible low-level CWA exposures experienced during the Persian Gulf War. In a prepared statement yesterday, Senator Byrd (D-WV), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that despite existing DOD research that indicates low-level exposures to CWAs can result in both short-term and long-term adverse effects, the "DoD has no strategy to address low-level exposures to chemical warfare agents. None. Nada. Zip. It seems both prudent and reasonable to at least begin the conceptual work to address the issue of low-level exposures to chemical warfare agents."
Citizens groups at the Army's chemical weapons disposal sites are pointing to the GAO report along with the recently obtained National Research Council (NRC) report, which showed certain CWAs to be twice as toxic as previously thought, as proof that the Army's standards for safe exposures to workers and civilians are unprotective and invalid.
Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) spokesperson, Craig Williams, said, "The Army continues to claim that its safe worker and civilian exposure levels are adequately protective, while the evidence is overwhelming that this position is more an exercise in pubic relations rather than bona fide science. The fact is these "safe" exposure levels are taken from high-dosage experiments the NRC recently found to be 'poorly controlled, inadequate and based on a limited toxicity data base.'"
CWWG claims are supported by the new GAO study which states, "Occupational [worker] and general [civilian] exposure limits for chemical warfare agents stored by DoD are...based on linear extrapolations of experimental results of experiments involving human volunteers as well as animal reactions to higher doses."
The Army's chemical weapons incinerators release low levels of CWAs even during perfect operating conditions, and higher levels during upsets. There have been over twenty confirmed agent stack alarms at the Army incinerators in Utah and the Pacific along with thousands of reportedly "unconfirmed" alarms. While claiming it's not CWA, Army officials admit in most cases they don't know what chemical(s) sets off the unconfirmed alarms.
According to the GAO, the DoD says it lacks a low-level exposure strategy because there is "no concensus on the effects of low-level exposure." But the GAO report states, "Past research indicates that single and repeated low-level exposures to some chemical warfare agents can result in adverse psychological, physiological, behavioral and performance effects." The Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses found that, "Subclinical levels of exposure to chemical warfare agents can result in changes in brain activity and may result in long-term health effects." A NATO Handbook on CWA states, "Daily exposure to concentrations of a nerve agent insufficient to produce symptoms after a single exposure may result in the onset of symptoms after several days and that continued daily exposure may result in increasingly severe effects." And, a 1997 House Government Oversight Committee concluded, "Exposures to low-levels of chemical warfare agents and other toxins can cause delayed, chronic health effects."
"Those statements are close enough to concensus for us," said Williams, "considering the Dod wants to burn these chemical weapons in our backyards."
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The GAO report (GAO/NSIAD 98-228) can be obtained from the CWWG office or at www.gao.gov
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