The UK Ministry of Defence has warned scientists studying health effects of the first Gulf war in 1990-1991 not to supply unpublished findings to an inquiry into Gulf war illnesses, raising concerns that key information will be omitted. The independent inquiry started hearing witnesses in London on 12 July, a process that is due to last three weeks.
In a letter to research groups, the director of the MoD鈥檚 Veterans Policy Unit, Malcolm Longwood, advised that while 鈥渋t would be inappropriate for the ministry to influence鈥� what the inquiry is told, 鈥淚 do ask you to observe the confidentiality鈥� of unpublished findings from MoD-funded research.
But one group did manage to publish its findings in time. Rebecca Simmons and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reported in BMC Public Health that a general health questionnaire included in a study of fertility among veterans 鈥減rovides evidence against a unique Gulf war syndrome鈥�. The MoD has long denied such a syndrome exists.
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Robert Haley of the University of Texas in Dallas, who has evidence of Gulf war syndrome among US veterans, disputes that claim. He says the study was not designed to pick up evidence of a new syndrome. 鈥淭here were no plans to conduct a formal test for a particular syndrome,鈥� Simmons told New 杏吧原创.