Health Consequences of Service During the Persian Gulf War: Initial Findings and Recommendations for Immediate Action (1995)
Chapter: Appendix E: Activities (as of September 1994) Related to Potential Health Consequences of Service in the Persian Gulf
E
Activities (as of September 1994) Related to Potential Health Consequences of Service in the Persian Gulf
Activity | Organization | Nature of Activity |
Boards and Committees |
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Persian Gulf Expert Scientific Panel | Office of the Chief Medical Director for Environmental Medicine and Public Health, VA | Provide advice to the VA on diagnosis, treatment and research on PG-related health conditions. |
Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects | Defense Science Board, DoD | Report to the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition) on review of all available reports of detection of chemical agents and toxins during ODS/S and postwar period; and review scientific and medical evidence relating exposure to nerve agents, environmental pollutants, endemic biology and other health hazards (DSB, 1994). |
Persian Gulf Veterans Coordinating Board | Secretaries of DoD, HHS, and VA | Ensure interagency coordination of all efforts, separate and joint, in the areas of research, clinical care, and disability determination and compensation for post-DOS/S unexplained illnesses (PGVCB, 1994). |
Persian Gulf Interagency Research Coordinating Council | DoD, EPA, HHS, and VA | Coordinate all research activities undertaken or funded by the Executive Branch of the federal government on the health consequences of military service in PG theater; VA appointed as lead agency (PL 102-585. sec. 707). |
Activity | Organization | Nature of Activity |
NIH Technology Assessment Workshop: The Persian Gulf Experience and Health | Persian Gulf Interagency Research Coordinating Council | Develop a case definition of ''mystery illness'' and provide a list of recommendations. April 27–29, 1994 (NIH Technology Assessment Workshop Panel, 1994). |
Population-Based Activities |
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Registry of unit locations | Environmental Support Group, Dept. of the Army | Database that identifies the daily location of PG units. |
Health-Outcomes-Based Activities—Completed or Well Underway |
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Constructing a Case Definition |
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Working Group on Unexplained Illnesses | Walter Reed Army Medical Center | Review and analyze medical records of ODS/S veterans with unexplained symptoms to establish a working case definition for post-PG unexplained illnesses. |
Outbreak Investigations |
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Investigation of a possible outbreak among ODS veterans, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind. | Division of Preventive Medicine, WRAIR | Examined and surveyed 79 soldiers with unexplained signs and symptoms. |
Post-Persian-Gulf illness reported in Naval Reserve Mobile Construction Battalion 24 | Navy Preventive Medicine Unit 2, Dept. of the Navy | Follow-up of members of construction battalion units reporting unexplained signs and symptoms. |
VA Health Registry and Clinical Evaluations |
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Persian Gulf Health Registry | Environmental Agents Service, VA | Collects data from PG veterans self-referred for examination at VAMC. |
Review of Health Registry Data | Environmental Epidemiology Service, VA | Descriptive analysis of registry data. |
Persian Gulf Referral Centers | Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; and West Los Angeles, Calif. | Local VAMC physicians refer PG veterans for more extensive physical examinations, when needed. |
Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program | Office of Health Affairs, DoD | Clinical three-phase evaluation of active duty PG veterans and family members with unexplained signs and symptoms. |
Mental Health |
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Desert Storm Reunion Survey | Boston, Mass., VAMC | Determine impact of combat and noncombat experiences on subsequent pattern of adjustment (NEPEC, 1992; Wolfe et al., 1993). |
Neuropsychological and psychological profiles of PG soldiers returning home | Boston, Mass., VAMC | Neuropsychiatric evaluation to diagnose PTSD and anxiety disorders. |
Activity | Organization | Nature of Activity |
Development of neuropsychological function norms and assessment of neurotoxin exposure in PGW veterans and controls | Birmingham, Ala., VAMC | Provide basic neuropsychological and environmental exposure database information as core project support for future studies of symptomatic veterans and controls from the PGW. |
Early intervention with Appalachian Marine reservists in ODS | Mt. Home, Tenn., VAMC | Debriefing PG veterans on the stresses of deployment and combat-related PTSD (NEPEC, 1992; Sloan et al., unpublished a, b). |
Investigation of relation between experience in ODS and postwar adjustment | Clarksburg, W.V., VAMC and Dept. of Psychology, West Virginia University | Investigate the effects that involvement in ODS may have had on veterans, their spouses, or significant others, and their children (Scotti et al., 1993). |
Psychological assessment of ODS returnees | New Orleans, La., VAMC | Ongoing debriefing and assessment protocol conducted among troops mobilized in support of the PGW (NEPEC, 1992; Sutker et al., 1993, 1994a, 199b). |
Psychological adjustment in ODS/S veterans | Gainesville, Fla., VAMC | Conduct psychological tests to determine if differences existed between PG veterans and controls in terms of overall mental health (NEPEC, 1992). |
ODS follow-up survey | Salt Lake City, Utah, VAMC | To elicit VAMC employees' perceptions of ODS activation, deployment, and reintegration experiences. |
ODS Outreach Program | Cincinnati, Ohio, VAMC | Explore relation between early life stressors, combat stressors, coping skills and current level of symptomatology. |
Other completed VAMC studies |
| Evaluation of possible psychological consequences of PG service (NEPEC, 1992). |
West Haven VAMC ODS report | West Haven, Conn. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
The PG Outreach Program at the Little Rock VAMC | Little Rock, Ark. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
An Evaluation of Troops Returning from the PG: A Preliminary Report | Providence, R.I. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
Coming Home for Good: The ODS Veterans and Family Psychosocial Debriefing Project | Portland, Oreg. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
Activity | Organization | Nature of Activity |
The Need for Continuing Mental Health Intervention in Soldiers Returning form the PGW: Assessment of Deployed and Non-Deployed Reserve Units from Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, and West Virginia | Highland Drive, Pa. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
PG Veterans Seen Through VA's Readjustment Counseling Service and Impact of the PGW on VA's Provision of Readjustment Counseling | Washington, D.C. | (NEPEC, 1992) |
Stress-related surveys of active duty, national guard, and reserve personnel | Dept. of Military Psychology, WRAIR | Assess stresses and psychological and psychosocial impacts of commitment to combat and probable stress consequences, such as posttraumatic and postdeployment stress symptoms and stresses due to return and adjustment. |
Leishmaniasis |
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Leishmaniasis research | Infectious Disease Section, WRAIR | Clinical assessment of viscerotropic leishmaniasis as a potential cause of some of the unexplained PGW illnesses. |
Health-Outcomes-Based Activities—New or Just Beginning |
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Reproductive Health |
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Children of PG veterans | Jackson, Miss., VAMC, CDC, Miss. State Health Department | Clearinghouse for data on reported birth defects in children of members of Waynesboro, Miss., National Guard. |
GAO Birth Defects Report | GAO | Review of reproductive outcomes among children of PG veterans. |
Mortality study | Environmental Agents Service, VA | Study of mortality of all PG veterans compared to PG-era veterans. |
Health survey | Environmental Agents Service, VA | Study of prevalence of health outcomes in 15,000 PG veterans and 15,000 PG-era veterans. |
Iowa survey | National Center for Environmental Health, CDC | Assess prevalence of self-reported adverse health outcomes among Iowa residents who were deployed to the PG during ODS compared to Iowa veterans deployed elsewhere during the same era. |
Activity | Organization | Nature of Activity |
Epidemiologic studies of morbidity among PG veterans | Clinical Epidemiology Branch, Naval Health Research Center | 1) Cohort study of members of PG and control construction battalions; 2) cohort study of PG veterans and control hospitalization diagnoses; and 3) outcomes of hospitalization for pregnancy among cohorts in study 2. |
Exposure-Based Activities |
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Environmental |
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Air monitoring of oil well fires | U.S. Interagency Air Assessment Team (EPA, HHS, NOAA) and representatives from Coast Guard, DoD, DOE | Assessed pollutants from oil well fires. |
Report to Congress: United States Gulf Environmental Technical Assessment (January 27–July 31, 1991) | International cooperative effort coordinated by U.N.; EPA coordinated U.S. activities (PL 102-27, sec. 309) | Coordinated effort of international activities in response to health, atmospheric, and environmental impacts of oil discharge and fires. |
Report to Congress on health effects of exposure to burning oil fields | DoD—Depts. of Army, Navy, and Air Force | Results of Army, Navy, and Air Force studies of potential health consequences of exposure to fumes from burning oil. |
Environmental toxicology studies | Dept. of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology | Human autopsy studies; veterinary pathology reports with toxicological results of potentially hazardous PG environmental exposures. |
Kuwait Oil Fire Health Risk Assessment | USAEHA | Quantitative assessment of carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic health risks of exposure to oil well fires (USAEHA, 1992; 1994a). |
Biologic Surveillance Initiative | USAEHA, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology | Biologic Surveillance Initiative: Surveillance of German-based 11th Armored Calvary (before, during, and after deployment to the PG) (USAEHA 1994b). |
Laboratory studies of pesticides | Army Research and Development Command, Dept. of the Army | Proposed activities: USAEHA will study the effects of combined exposure to PB, DEET, and permethrin in rats; South Florida Research Corporation will study the effects of PB in humans (men and women); Duke University will study the delayed reactions in chickens of exposure to DEET, permethrin, and sarin. |
