ABOUT
Smart discussion of the latest science and news on toxins in your food, water, and air, and what government agencies should be doing to protect public health. Written by EWG staff.
DONATE TO EWG!
Help us protect your health and environment! Please donate $5 to EWG today.
GET EWG'S TIPS & ACTION ALERTS
Sign Up here to receive email updates and tips from EWG and stay informed on the issues that matter most to you.
ENVIROBLOG VIA EMAIL
Join EWG's live chat with Chef Ann Cooper
School lunch: More fruits & veggies, please!
Texas Schools are Drilling for Dollars
Why do blowouts take so long to fix?
SEARCH ENVIROBLOG
FEATURED
Support the 2010 Safe Cosmetics Act. It's Urgent.
Why, oh why is there plastic in my aluminum water bottle?
Cell phone radiation series - Part 2: 8 Ways to reduce your exposure
Test Your Knowledge of Cosmetics Safety: 8 Myths Debunked
EWG's Tips for Parents: The Series
EWG's Tips to avoid BPA exposure
EWG on TV
Cutting the Pork from U.S. Farm Bill
Sunscreen safety & DC drinking water
Perchlorate in people, kids' personal care products & plastics, and sunscreen
BPA in baby formula & safe cosmetics
What can I do about fluoride in my water?
What is new carpet treated with? What can I do?
Are stainless steel water bottles safe?
Is mineral-based makeup safer?
PEOPLE TALKING TOXICS
TALK TO US
Did we miss something? Email Enviroblog.
« EPA widens rift with science advisers | Main | Where have all the frogs gone? »
Gulf War Illness: As clear as the nose on your face
If you follow environmental health policy, then you're well aware that there are more than a few folks out there who continue to assure us that low-dose exposures to toxic chemicals don't harm human health, despite a whole lot of (rapidly mounting) evidence to the contrary. Of course, this "there's not enough proof" and "if I can't see it I won't believe it" attitude is hardly limited to environmental health.
Right off the top of my head I can think of several other issues where some people's refusal to acknowledge and/or fully explore cause-and-effect continue to cause human suffering and delayed action at great cost. Gulf War illness is one of them.
Just yesterday, 17 years after the Gulf War began in 1991, a Congressionally-mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses issued a 450-page report stating what has long been suspected but not fully accepted: it's real. Or, in the Committee chairman's own words, "When you look at all the studies, it's as clear as the nose on your face that this is real." How real? The report's press release says more:
The new report says that scientific evidence "leaves no question that Gulf War illness is a real condition," and it cites dozens of research studies that have identified "objective biological measures" that distinguish veterans with the illness from healthy controls.Those measures relate to structure and functioning of the brain, functioning of the autonomic nervous system, neuroendocrine and immune alterations, and variability in enzymes that protect the body from neurotoxic chemicals.
And to make it even more difficult for veterans, the Committee's Science Director explains how sufferers have been treated:
"Veterans of the first Gulf War have been plagued by ill health since their return 17 years ago. Although the evidence for this health phenomenon is overwhelming, veterans repeatedly find that their complaints are met with cynicism and a 'blame the victim' mentality that attributes their health problems to mental illness or non-physical factors."
It's hard to know whether to be glad it's finally been said, or incredibly frustrated that at least 1 in 4 of that war's 697,000 veterans have been in medical limbo for so many years, their bad health doubted. I feel both. And not solely because these honored citizens suffer without credibility or the appropriate medical attention. But because history is repeating itself. It took 20 years to admit that Agent Orange caused illness, and here we are again. And again, the chemicals are toxic and the health effects serious. The Washington Post summarized the report yesterday in a piece titled Toxic Chemicals Blamed for Gulf War Illness.
It is incredibly important to see these links between toxic exposures and adverse human health supported and confirmed. While in this case it is pesticides and the drug pyridostigmine bromide that are to blame, there are many others. But more to blame is our government's slowness to connect the dots. There is a rapidly growing body of respected evidence that tells us we are using chemicals with known and unknown adverse health effects that we don't fully understand, won't acknowledge, and can't remedy. It is high time that we protect public health from known toxic chemicals as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.
[photo courtesy of flickr commons]
Leave a comment