Nerve Gas Unlikely to Be Cause of Soldiers’ Ailments, Report Says

A Pentagon-sponsored study concludes that it is unlikely, but still possible, that some of the undiagnosed illnesses reported by Gulf War veterans could be explained by their exposure to low levels of Iraqi nerve gas. The report, released Tuesday, found no evidence in available scientific literature, however, to support the idea that symptoms linked to nerve gas would appear two or more years after exposure. About half of Gulf War veterans reporting health problems did so a year or more after returning to the United States.

The report, by the Rand Corp.’s federally funded National Defense Research Institute, concluded that nerve gas could not categorically be eliminated as a possible cause of the syndrome, but added that it is “difficult to accept” that exposures affecting large numbers of troops would have escaped notice.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II