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Stars and Stripes: Gulf Illness: Distrust
and the Nuremberg Code
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Gulf Illness: Distrust and the Nuremberg Code
Oct 2, 2000
Dave Eberhart
Stars and Stripes Veterans Affairs Editor
The theme of the National Gulf War Resource Center’s 5th Annual Veterans Illnesses Conference, held Sept. 14-18 in Herndon, Va., was distrust of the government in all things related to the so-called “Gulf War Syndrome.”
The NGWRC claimed that the United States violated the Nuremberg
Code on medical experimentation when investigational new drugs
(INDs) were administered to U.S. troops without proper record-keeping,
follow-up evaluations or proper study of side effects as mandated
by the December 1990 Food and Drug Administration waiver of informed
consent.
Informed consent is at the heart of the Nuremberg Code. According
to “Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military
Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10,” Vol. 2, Nuremberg,
October 1946-April 1949, page 181:
“Voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential...[B]efore
the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental
subject, there should be made known to him the nature, duration,
and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it
is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably
to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person, which
may possibly come from his participation in the experiment...”
Denials, Disinformation
The NGWRC further attributed the difficulty in providing a single-case
definition of Gulf War illness or effective treatments for it
to the “failure” of the Defense Department and the VA
“to be candid with veterans about the number and extent of
the toxic exposures during the 1991 Gulf War.”
The NGWRC cited denials, disinformation and data that should
have been collected and safeguarded but which either was not,
or has since vanished, specifically:
(1) Continual DoD denials, until 1996, of the exposure of as many
as 100,000 U.S. troops to low levels of chemical warfare agents.
(2) DoD denials, until 1998, of exposure of as many as 436,000
U.S. troops to depleted uranium (DU).
(3) Failure of the DoD to maintain and disclose records on INDs,
specifically pyridostigmine bromide (PB), used to protect troops
from the nerve gas soman; the botulinum toxoid vaccine; and the
anthrax vaccine. The NGWRC cited a dearth of records detailing
those who received the anthrax vaccine, when it was administered,
and what lots were used.
(4) Failure of the DoD to keep records on the types, amounts and
exposure periods of other toxins, including chemical agent resistant
coatings (CARCs) and oil well-fire pollutants, to which soldiers
who lived in heavily polluted areas for two months or longer during
the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath were exposed.
Depleted uranium was a key issue at the conference owing to
the current controversy spawned by Dr. Asaf Durakovic.
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former U.S. Army colonel, recently was slated
to announce, at a conference of nuclear medicine scientists in
Paris, that “tens of thousands” of British and American
soldiers are slowly dying as a result of radiation from DU shells
fired during the Gulf War. Instead, in toned-down remarks on Sept.
3, Durakovic said that many of the Gulf War veterans he examined
“suffered renal disease and failure, the clinical consequences
of inhaled uranium.”
DU is a radioactive toxic waste product from nuclear reactors
that is used to strengthen the tips of anti-tank shells to ensure
their armor-piercing capacity. More than 640,000 pounds of DU
were fired on Gulf War battlefields from tanks and attack aircraft.
954,000 Rounds
The federal government has admitted that DU exposure of .01 gram
over one week can cause health problems. The rounds create radioactive
toxic dust on impact. Studies indicate that inhaled DU dust remains
in the body for years.
Weapons using DU during the Gulf War included the M1 Abrams tank, the Bradley armored personnel carrier and the A-10 Warthog aircraft, which fired small-caliber DU bullets from twin 30 mm guns. It has been estimated that tanks fired 14,000 large-caliber DU rounds and that U.S. aircraft fired 940,000 small-caliber rounds. Additionally, the British are estimated to have fired 100 rounds from tanks.
With a half-life of 4.5 billion years, DU may harm air, water
and soil as well as individuals returning to contaminated areas.
According to the NGWRC, military regulations in effect during
the Gulf War required that soldiers entering areas known or suspected
to have been contaminated by radioactive materials have their
medical records annotated accordingly and be tested for possible
exposure.
It is the NGWRC’s position that, despite repeated warnings
prior to the Gulf War, the military failed to follow its own regulations
with the consequence that no records on periods or levels of DU
exposure can be found. A lack of reliable data remains the greatest
obstacle to researchers investigating DU poisoning.
In 1993, at the request of Gulf War veterans and the General Accounting Office, the VA began a follow-up program among a small group of 33 veterans who had been involved in friendly-fire incidents. Veterans injured by DU shrapnel came forward for years after the conflict had ended. According to the NGWRC, many were never informed that the shrapnel in their bodies was DU-contaminated, and many were not evaluated for possible contamination until 1999.
Lung Cancer
In 1996, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’
Illnesses (PAC) concluded that an increase in lung cancer among
Gulf War veterans may be attributable to exposure to DU particles.
The VA recently launched a DU testing program, and veterans
who believe they may have been exposed can call the VA at 1-800-PGW-VETS
or the DoD at 1-800-472-6719 for information.
Part II will examine the use of DU in the Balkans and the danger
of exposure to the toxic dust by peacekeepers in the region.
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