Gulf War GIs to Be Tested for Exposure to Chemicals : Military: Head of VA says it is responding to claims of mysterious ailments afflicting some veterans. Pilot program will be started in Alabama.

The Veterans Affairs Department, responding to claims of mysterious ailments afflicting some Persian Gulf War veterans, announced Monday that it will test veterans for chemical exposure.

VA Secretary Jesse Brown said a pilot program will be started at the VA Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., with neurological and other testing conducted on veterans from Georgia and Alabama who have claimed chemical warfare exposure.

The Defense Department has stated that there is no evidence of chemical weapons use during the Gulf War. But Brown said the VA was willing to look at any possible cause of the veterans’ health problems and “have never foreclosed the possibility of exposure to chemical agents.”

Brown said he had also directed that the results of examinations on some 10,000 veterans be reviewed to see if they should be tested again.

Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), who has urged the Pentagon to investigate the possibility of chemical contamination during the war, called Brown’s decision “an important breakthrough which I have sought and strongly support.”

Riegle issued a report in September citing evidence that the Iraqis may have launched at least two missiles with chemical toxin warheads at U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia.

The report said 85 of the 110 members of an Army company based near one of the attacks have since reported symptoms common to those with “Persian Gulf Syndrome.”

His report also raised the possibility that thousands of other Americans were sickened from toxins released into the air and carried by the wind after allied warplanes bombed chemical and biological warfare facilities in the Baghdad area.

Thousands of veterans have complained of such symptoms as fatigue, memory loss, skin rashes, heart and intestinal problems and pain in their joints. The VA has set up a Persian Gulf Registry to examine the health problems, but has been unable to pinpoint a cause of the ailments.

Among the possibilities, including chemical exposure, are smoke, crude-oil fumes, pesticides and radiation from depleted uranium used in munitions.

Brown said the decision to launch the VA study was based on the Pentagon’s acknowledgment that the Czech military had detected low concentrations of chemical agents during the 1991 war.

On Friday, a VA doctor in Tuskegee, Ala., retracted a diagnosis he had made that a Gulf War veteran was suffering from “chemical-biological exposure.”

The change came a day after Sen. Richard C. Shelby (D-Ala.) announced the diagnosis on the Senate floor and expressed serious reservations about the Defense Department’s denials that no chemical attacks occurred during the conflict.