Gulf War Syndrome

Legacy of a Perfect War

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From the Preface

Ten years ago, like so many other Americans, I watched CNN hour by hour and day by day as the drama of the Gulf War unfolded. I have never forgotten that visceral feeling of the great danger the young men and women in our Armed Forces were facing in a confrontation with a dictator who possessed a vast arsenal of chemical weapons and had not hesitated to use them on earlier occasions.

As the war was drawing to a successful close and I watched on the evening news the images of oil well fires burning throughout Kuwait, I realized that the soldiers who were breathing in the toxic fumes from this vast inferno for weeks were at risk for developing sensitivity to a wide array of chemicals. At that point I was not even aware of the myriad of other toxins to which our troops were exposed during the Gulf War.

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I realized how dangerous the exposure to the smoke from the oil well fires was because of my background in the field of chemical sensitivity. My knowledge of the condition known as multiple chemical sensitivity, or MCS, was gathered over many years, first from my own experience, then from that of my daughters, and later from my involvement as a national advocate for the chemically sensitive. In the latter role, I conducted a survey of 351 patients concerning their experience with various therapies they had tried. Sadly, as my survey shows, there is no quick fix for the chemically sensitive. I eventually produced a video entitled Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: How Chemical Exposures May be Affecting Your Health, which contained an eight-minute section on Gulf War syndrome. That project then led to a book, Casualties of Progress: Personal Histories from the Chemically Sensitive, which included stories from six Gulf War veterans. Several of these veterans thanked me for publicizing their health problems. I found their gratitude to be almost embarrassing—it was I who owed a huge debt of gratitude to them for facing grave danger during Desert Storm on behalf of all of us.

In February 2000, I attended a hearing of Congressman Christopher Shay's Human Resources Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform. Several members of the committee obviously understood the relationship between chemical sensitivity and Gulf War syndrome, but it was clear that the officials from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) who testified that day just didn't get it. I was also sorry to see that although over 100,000 Gulf War veterans are now sick, only two attended that hearing. I realized, however, that many of them were just too ill to travel to Washington and others had been financially devastated by their illness and could not afford the trip. Still others had probably given up trying to get anyone to listen to their plight, having been worn down by years of DOD and VA neglect and denial of their problems. The summary to the 1997 report of the Human Resources Subcommittee indicates what sick veterans have faced for years. "Sadly, when it comes to diagnosis, treatment and research for Gulf War veterans, we find the Federal Government too often has a tin ear, a cold heart and a closed mind."

The need was all too clear, and a few days later I decided to make a video to try to show what was happening to the Gulf War veterans. It was released in October 2000 under the title Gulf War Syndrome: Aftermath of a Toxic Battlefield. Once again one project led to another. The enormously complex issues that must be considered in any attempt to begin unraveling Gulf War syndrome could not be dealt with in sufficient depth in a 68-minute video. The present book is my attempt to shed a little more light on the various toxic exposures that have led to long-term, devastating consequences for the men and women who risked their lives in the Gulf War and lost their health.

—Alison Johnson