Low Doses Of Nerve Gas Did No Harm Soldiers Near Munitions Depot Had No Unusual Chronic Illness

Soldiers who may have encountered low doses of nerve gas when an Iraqi munitions depot was blown up after the Persian Gulf War have not reported an unusual amount of chronic illness in the ensuing five years, according to analysis of health records of soldiers who volunteered to be examined by physicians in two government programs.

Among those in the programs, neither the soldiers close to the explosion of gas-filled rockets at the depot, nor those as far away as 30 miles, appear to have more health problems, or an unusual pattern of problems, when compared to other veterans of the Gulf War, the records show.

In recent months, some veterans and scientists have asserted that thousands of Gulf War veterans are ill because of exposure to nerve gas during the war, which began six years ago this month.

The idea, however, is controversial, because no acute cases of nerve-gas poisoning were reported at the time, according to military records. The new information - set to be discussed at a congressional hearing this week - suggests, but doesn’t prove, that troops most likely to have encountered nerve gas in the campaign against Iraq are not showing health effects that are dramatically different, or more prevalent, than those who were not in the area of possible exposure.

The Pentagon and the CIA say the only certain release of chemical weapons occurred in March 1991, soon after the war was over, when American soldiers destroyed a complex of bunkers and earthworks at a site in southern Iraq.

Military investigators are now attempting to contact all 22,000 people they believe were within about 30 miles during that period to ask them about their health and what they may remember of the March events.