VETERANS of chemical weapons tests at the British military lab at Porton Down in Wiltshire have a 鈥渓ower quality of life鈥� than the general population, report researchers at the University of Oxford. Some of their symptoms are also strikingly similar to those of 1991 Gulf war veterans who were exposed to nerve gas.
The 269 men belong to a Porton Down veterans group which is suing the British government for damages as a result of tests conducted between 1939 and 1989.
A general health questionnaire showed that in the five years after an experiment the veterans commonly experienced headaches, irritability and outbursts of anger, loss of concentration, fatigue and sleep problems. Later they also suffered forgetfulness and numbness and tingling in fingers and toes (Occupational Medicine, DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kq1059). This is the first study to have recorded such symptoms in the volunteers. A previous study found no ill effects.
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鈥淵ou have to be very careful in interpreting data from such a small and self-selected group,鈥� cautions Kate Venables, who led the study. But the team says possible links between specific types of ill health and the experience at Porton Down cannot be ruled out.
The veterans were not analysed for which chemicals led to which symptoms, although more than a third were exposed to nerve agents. However, their symptoms are the same as those most commonly reported by British veterans of the 1991 Gulf war and resemble those of discrete syndromes in US Gulf war veterans that have been linked to exposure and genetic sensitivity to organophosphate nerve gas and similar chemicals (New 杏吧原创, 29 March 2003, p 6). Those included sleep and memory disturbance, confusion, emotional outbursts and numb or tingling extremities.
The British government still denies any link between exposure to such chemicals and a distinct Gulf war syndrome.
