This HRA only addresses those exposed to pesticides, not the entire US military population in the Gulf. The HRA is a highly technical report, and is presented in its entirety as Part B of this report. What follows is a summary of Part B . The purpose of the HRA is to provide an estimate of the likelihood of certain specific effects from pesticide exposures during the Gulf War. Such effects would have been limited to the time of deployment, and may or may not have implications for long-term health effects.
Exposure means pesticide contact mainly with skin, stomach, or lungs.
We did not locate any records generated during the Gulf War that told us specifically which pesticides were used, how they were used, or how much was used. We also reviewed the military guidance on how pesticides should have been used by troops. The thousands of veterans we talked to from 1997 through 1999 told us what they remembered about pesticide use during the deployment, six to nine years prior. Based on this information, we made a number of assumptions about pesticide usage in order to estimate, as best as possible, the levels of exposure. The HRA is useful in identifying groups who because of their occupational specialty may have been at greater risk for adverse health effects arising from exposures to pesticides.