Newsgroups: biz.americast.samples
From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Subject: GIs blame illnesses on oil fires
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 11:09:31 EDT

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\SE A
\HD GIs blame illnesses on oil fires
\SH Army can't confirm link
\BY Joyce Price and Rowan Scarborough
\CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A number of Gulf war veterans are turning up at sick call with symptoms
of petroleum poisoning first described 1 1/2 years ago by an official
Pentagon panel examining the hazards of fighting near Kuwait's burning oil
wells.

The Army says it has yet to find a definite link between soldiers'
complaints of breathing problems and dizziness and their prolonged exposure
to thick, black smoke bellowing from wells set afire by Iraqi troops.

Yet, during the war a Naval Medical Research Institute workshop
determined that American GIs faced a number of health risks from the raging
oil fires, according to the group's final report, obtained yesterday by The
Washington Times.

The panel of military doctors and petroleum experts recommended that
units be equipped with special protective gear and with devices to detect
the presence of dangerous gases leaking from the wells.

But the report apparently came too late to affect any unit's equipping,
since the war ended a day after its completion.

Some veterans are pointing to the group's findings as support for their
argument that hundreds of soldiers are experiencing oil-related health
problems - even while the Pentagon remains skeptical.

Virginia Stephanakis, spokeswoman for the Army Surgeon General's
Office, said yesterday, "As soon as they lit the oil wells, we knew there
could be a problem," but added, "So far, we haven't seen anyone suffering
with petroleum poisoning."

Still, she said, "we haven't ruled anything out.  And we're getting
some outside experts with expertise in this area" to work with military
doctors who are knowledgeable in the field.

"They haven't ruled anything 'in' is more like it," said Betty Zuspann,
wife of Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Gary Zuspann, who is undergoing tests
at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Mrs.  Zuspann, of Euless, Texas, said yesterday that preliminary tests
indicated the presence of hydrocarbons in her husband's body, which she
believes are the result of his six-month exposure to "smoke, crude oil" and
other products of combustion emitted by the oil-well fires in Kuwait.  She
said he remained on a ship in the Gulf off the coast of Kuwait until he
returned home late last August.

At least two Desert Storm veterans already have been diagnosed as
having petroleum poisoning, according to the Dallas Morning News.  Dr.
Theron Randolph, a Chicago-area internist, allergist and self-styled
founder of "environmental medicine," made the diagnoses.

Dr.  Randolph said in a telephone interview yesterday that symptoms of
this disorder can also include extreme fatigue, breathing difficulties,
headaches, arthritis, muscle aches and pains, and a runny or stuffy nose.

He said the big problem with petroleum poisoning is that "it tends to
persist and spread to related chemical exposures."  Soldiers in the Gulf,
he said, could have developed the problem as the result of exposure to
burning oil wells or to "petroleum products which were used on roads to cut
down on the dust or to pesticides which were used everywhere over there."

Over here, he said, a person's symptoms could worsen if he is given
petroleum-based drugs or breathes auto exhaust or perfumes.

Mrs.  Zuspann said she has a publication of a chemical manufacturer
that identifies heart palpitations, an enlarged aorta and "extreme airway
restriction" as other possible complications of petroleum poisoning.

"Personally, I've seen about 10 cases myself" of Persian Gulf veterans
with mysterious "respiratory" illnesses, said Dick Johnson, legislative
affairs director for the 170,000-member Non-Commissioned Officers
Association.

"And, quite frankly, I've seen no concerted effort on the part of the
Defense Department to try to do anything," Mr.  Johnson said.

Mrs.  Zuspann said the Navy "did nothing" for her husband and he was
admitted to the Army hospital through the help of Sen.  Lloyd Bentsen,
Texas Democrat.

Marine Capt.  David Fournier of Jacksonville, N.C., said he has been
diagnosed as having respiratory airway disease since returning from the
Gulf and has body pain.

"I'm in pain all the time in both hands and my right foot," Capt.
Fournier said.  "And I feel fatigued all the time" and am unable to work.

He said he was camped in Kuwait for 30 days after the end of the ground
war and sometimes was as close as 50 yards from a burning oil well.  "There
were days when I traveled through thick darkness and smoke," he said.

Capt.  Fournier said the military sometimes put out warnings on the
radio, advising soldiers to cover their noses and mouths with a scarf if
they were exposed to fire and smoke from oil-well fires.  "But even with a
scarf, I could still taste the oil," he said yesterday.

Mrs.  Zuspann said her husband did not receive such warnings, as his
ship was blacked out to eliminate light and sound.

Capt.  Fournier said he speaks daily with Petty Officer Zuspann by
phone and has many of the same symptoms.  But he said he has hit a brick
wall in his bid to enter Walter Reed and hopes he, too, can get some
congressional assistance.

Maj.  Pete Keating, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said the service
sent in preventive medicine teams, including environmental health
specialists.  The experts took air samples before, during and after the war
in the entire Kuwaiti theater, he said.

Maj.  Keating said exposure to oil smoke in Kuwait after the war "was
deemed not to be of significance."

"Just the stuff in the air was not considered a big concern," he said.
"The concern was for long exposure" in close vicinity to the oil fires.

Maj.  Keating said the Army has a "good record" of investigating health
complaints to see if they are linked to a particular theater of operation.

"We're not leaving anything to chance," he said.  "If we come across
some sort of health problem and we can trace it back to the Gulf war, we'll
do a very, very thorough follow-up.  We've been in the business of
deploying to foreign and hostile environments for some time."



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