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thedrifter
11-04-03, 05:56 AM
11-01-2003

Is a Potential ALS Epidemic Driving Opposition to ‘Concurrent Receipt’?



By Roger Moore



Did a new research report on Gulf War Syndrome and Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) help sink congressional reform of “concurrent receipt”?



That’s a key question that medical experts and veterans’ organizations should ask in the months ahead as wrangling continues in Congress over the controversial law that allows the federal government to deduct one dollar from a disabled veteran’s retirement pay for every dollar he or she receives in disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs.



In my DefenseWatch Special Report article, “Mixed Review on Support to Veterans” (Oct. 15, 2003), one of the most significant aspects I reported on was the recently released University of Texas Southwestern study by Dr. Robert Haley.



Dr. Haley is the Chief of Epidemology at UT Southwestern and began his research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, in 1998 at the request of Michael Donnelly, a Gulf War Veteran, and his father, Tom Donnelly, according to a news release by UT Southwestern on Sept 22, 2003.



The results of Dr. Haley's research, and a parallel VA study prompted by Dr. Haley’s research were recently published in the October 2003 edition of Neurology magazine. The findings of both studies corroborate at least one very compelling question namely:



Weapons of Mass Destruction did exist in Iraq as far back as 1990 because the trigger for early ALS in our Gulf War veterans was low-level exposure to Sarin gas when we bombed and later destroyed Iraq’s chemical stores.



Notice my emphasis on early. I say this because the studies indicate that these same people would probably have developed Gehrig's disease, but much later in life. Another important point is the exposure to low-level Sarin gas and the link of similar chemicals in household or commercially available pesticides. In his Neurology magazine article, Dr. Haley observed:



“The increasing slope of the epidemic curve beginning three years after the Gulf War and still increasing in 1998 further supports a true excess and raises the possibility of an even larger ALS problem in future years in the Gulf War veteran population.”



Could this possibly be one of the reasons behind the Bush administration's reluctance to approve “concurrent receipt” reform? That is, could it be that the potential budget-busting crisis of 100,000-plus veterans and families becoming eligible almost overnight for medical retirement, benefits and intensive health care, has spooked the supposedly pro-military administration?



On June 19, 2002 the administration, through the Office of Management and Budget, sent a letter to Sen. Carl Levin, D-MI regarding then-Senate bill 2514, and the National Defense Authorization Act for FY-2003, igniting a firestorm in the military and veterans communities.



In the “concurrent receipt” paragraph of the letter, the administration went on record as opposing Section 641 of the bill, which would have phased in full “concurrent receipt,” as being too expensive.



Public release of the Haley ALS study only recently occurred in September 2003 but the initial study was circulating as far back as September 2001. Additionally, the Horner/VA ALS study was in circulation a year later in September 2002.

With the testimony and studies leading up to budget formulation, the timing of these reports, along with Dr. Haley’s previous works on Gulf War Syndrome, some interesting questions are raised and may deserve a closer look from the veterans community.



Stay tuned.



Roger Moore is a Contributing Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at rmoore_dw@yahoo.com.


http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=DefenseWatch.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=237&rnd=137.93616598561715

Sempers,

Roger
:marine: