PORTLAND -- Construction workers injured at the Umatilla Chemical Depot almost five years ago suffer from long-term injuries and emotional problems similar to those experienced by the victims of the Tokyo sarin attacks, a psychologist testified Wednesday.

Dr. Rosemarie Bowler, a neuropsychologist from San Francisco State University, told U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Hubel she interviewed 17 of the 49 construction workers who are suing the Army.

The workers believe the injuries they received during a mysterious accident at the Umatilla Chemical Depot on Sept. 15, 1999, were caused by a chemical weapons leak.

Bowler said most of the workers she examined in 2003 had long-term cognitive disorders, impaired vision, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The workers were building an incinerator plant just a few hundred yards from K block, where the Army stores 3,717 tons of sarin and mustard gas, when more than four dozen of them simultaneously became violently ill.

Bowler said the workers reported symptoms similar to what was seen in Tokyo -- blurred vision, difficulty breathing, headaches and burning lungs. Later, she said, they reported experiencing problems with sleep, memory, sexual dysfunction and depression.

"(The symptoms) are consistent with the findings in Tokyo?" asked James McCandlish, a Portland-based attorney representing the workers.

"Yes," replied Bowler, a chemical exposure specialist who interviewed victims of the March 20, 1995, attack in Tokyo in which terrorists leaked sarin nerve gas into the city's subway system, killing 11 people and injuring more than 5,500.

"In meetings with health professionals in Japan, they are still treating many of the symptoms," she said.

Bowler was the only witness Wednesday in the second phase of the trial, in which the workers' attorneys are trying to prove the men were exposed to chemical weapons.

In the first phase of the trial, Hubel ruled the Army was negligent in its emergency response to the accident, but did not rule on what caused it.

Henry Miller, a Justice Department attorney representing the Army, charged that Bowler lacked credibility and that the psychological profiles she had prepared on the workers lacked critical information.

"You didn't review their education records? Or employment records? Or document how they were functioning prior to the accident?" Miller asked.

"No," Bowler replied.

Miller also questioned Bowler about the absence of miosis, or "pinpoint pupils," a symptom frequently seen in victims of sarin exposure but that was not noted in any of the workers after the incident.

"If you were sent a group of patients and asked to look for signs of sarin exposure, would you look at their eyes for a sign of miosis?" Miller asked.

"I would not be asked to diagnose (patients)," Bowler replied, explaining she is not a medical doctor.

The workers' attorneys will wrap up their expert witness testimony today in Portland.

The trial continues Monday with the Army calling rebuttal witnesses. Closing arguments are scheduled June 29.