Munition exposure linked to brain cancer in US vets

© Reuters 2005 ^ | Mon Jul 25, 2005 9:32 PM BST | © Reuters 2005

[Former Military Chick]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as their unexposed peers from the same war to die from brain cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health.

"We found an approximately twofold excess of brain cancer deaths, 12 to 13 excess deaths in a population of 100,000 veterans, associated with possible exposure to chemical warfare agents," Tim A. Bullman, from the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, DC, and colleagues report.

In the new study, rates of death from specific causes for 100,487 exposed US army veterans were compared with those for 224,980 unexposed veterans.

For most diseases, no difference in mortality was seen between the two groups, the investigators point out. The exception was brain cancer for which the exposed group had an elevated risk of death.

Further analysis showed evidence of an effect based exposure levels. For instance, compared with their unexposed peers, veterans exposed to chemical munitions for one day were 72 percent more likely to die from brain cancer, while those exposed for two or more days were 226 percent more likely to die from brain cancer.

However, the investigators caution that additional research is needed to confirm these findings.

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, August 2005.

[ExcursionGuy84]

OUCH! Cancerous cells growing within the grey matter has certainly got to smart.

[Former Military Chick]

PING

[DTogo]

...exposure to chemical warfare agents...

WMD? I thought it was all a lie!

[Question Liberal Authority]

If you have munitions going through your brain, cancer is the least of your problems.

[armymarinemom]

I have wondered for years about how Sarin traveled in clothing of at least one of those returning home that had been downwind from the dump. Most of the data that I have read states that it can only be carried for about 30 minutes but a spouse of a Gulf War vet suffered injuries from doing her husbands laundry. Does anyone know if putting clothing in plastic after exposure prolongs the time that the material is dangerous?

[lilylangtree]

Wish there was a cure for cancer period. I think about one of the Star Trek movies where Chekhov needs to be saved from having brain surgery. In the hospital on the way to rescue Chekhov, Bones McCoy passes a mature woman on a stretcher who is moaning in pain and waiting for kidney surgery. Bones stops and gives her a pill. Later as Kirk and Bones are making the getaway with Chekhov in tow, they pass the same little woman who is sitting up in a wheelchair with a smile on her face and puzzlement on the surrounding doctors faces. She's telling everyone that passes that she's healed and she doesn't need a new kidney. After all these decades, why can't there be an overall cure for this horrible dreaded disease?

[tfecw]

"Gulf War veterans exposed to chemical munitions at Khamisiyah, Iraq are nearly twice as likely as their unexposed peers from the same war to die from brain cancer, according to a report in the American Journal of Public Health. "

So...what are the odds of someone getting brain cancer?

[GOP_1900AD]

So, if they were exposed to chemical munitions, and, since chemical munitions are WMDs, the that means .... THERE *ARE/WERE* WMDs IN IRAQ!

[ConservativeMind]

I am not sure why an entire class of munitions could cause this end result.

Additionally, I don't understand how they were exposed and didn't die unless they were simply handlers and trace amounts got out.

I don't know if the sample was statistically significant if exposure cases are apparently so few. If very few were exposed, the brain cancer association is an anomaly until we can find a statistically significant sample.

Regardless, I am sorrowful they have experienced such consequences.

[Gunrunner2]

Why? Because we must cure AIDS, you know, the disease where everyone is at risk, not just drug-using needle sharing, homosexuals. . .that is why.

The homo lobby has been very effective in convincing the MSM that if Bob bags Susie then Bob is gonna get AIDS at the same risk of Steve and Steve having "special sex."