Could it be the dust?

[Sgt Leprechaun]

FYI....

****

USA Today
May 12, 2011
Pg. 1

Cover story

Could The Dust Be The Cause Of War Vets' Ailments?

Navy researcher links toxins in particles to a range of illnesses

By Kelly Kennedy, USA Today

U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait have inhaled microscopic dust particles laden with toxic metals, bacteria and fungi -- a toxic stew that may explain everything from the undiagnosed Gulf War Syndrome symptoms lingering from the 1991 war against Iraq to high rates of respiratory, neurological and heart ailments encountered in the current wars, scientists say.

"From my research and that of others, I really think this may be the smoking gun," says Navy Capt. Mark Lyles, chair of medical sciences and biotechnology at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. "It fits everything — symptoms, timing, everything."

Lyles and other researchers found that dust particles — up to 1,000 of which can sit on the head of a pin — gathered in Iraq and Kuwait contain 37 metals, including aluminum, lead, manganese, strontium and tin. The metals have been linked to neurological disorders, cancer, respiratory ailments, depression and heart disease, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers believe the metals occur both naturally and as a byproduct of pollution.

Researchers in and out of the military say the particles are smaller and easier to inhale than most dust particles, and that recent droughts in the region have killed desert shrubs that helped keep down that dust. The military's heavy vehicles have pounded the desert's protective crust into a layer of fine silt, Lyles says. Servicemembers breathe the dust — and all it carries — deeply into their lungs.

The dust contains 147 different kinds of bacteria, as well as fungi that could spread disease, Lyles found. Since the wars began in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan in 2001, the military has seen a 251% increase in the rate of neurological disorders per 10,000 active-duty servicemembers, a 47% rise in the rate of respiratory issues and a 34% increase in the rate of cardiovascular disease, according to a USA TODAY analysis of military morbidity records from 2001 to 2010. Those increases have researchers seeking possible causes.

Despite the research by Lyles and others, and the documented spikes in respiratory illnesses, Defense Department officials contend there are no health issues associated with the dust.

"The (Defense Department) has examined the concerns raised by the studies accomplished by Capt. Lyles," says Craig Postlewaite, who heads up the Secretary of Defense's Force Readiness and Health Assurance Office. He said the military found the dust is "not noticeably different from samples collected in the Sahara Desert and desert regions in the U.S. and China."

Lyles initially analyzed dust samples from Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 to help determine a way to keep the grit from rendering medical equipment useless.

"When I saw the data, I said, 'Oh my God. This can't be right,'" Lyles says.

Harry Fannin, a chemistry professor at Murray State University, analyzed the dust for Lyles in late 2004.

"It was a little bit unusual," he says, citing high levels of chromium, nickel and other metals.

"You wouldn't see metal like that in the U.S.," he says, adding he was most concerned about the tiny size of the particles. "Any time you have respirable particles, it's bad."

Scientists know fine particulate matter — that smaller than 10 micrometers, or about one-fourth the size of a single grain of table salt — can cause lung and respiratory problems.

Catherine Cahill, associate professor at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, began collecting airborne dust for the military with the Army Research Lab in Baghdad in 2008.

"I've done sampling since 1986, and I've never seen anything that bad — not even in China," she says, referring to China's extreme levels of pollution. The everyday fine particulate matter levels in Iraq were about three times greater than what the EPA says is healthy within a 24-hour period, she says — and those levels should not be exceeded more than once per year. "We're blowing that standard out of the water."

She called the abundance of aluminum and lead she found "our worst-case scenarios." Cahill says her research mirrors the work done by Lyles.

"Most things are high is the bottom line," she says. "I would expect chronic coughs, asthma, respiratory disease in the short term; and (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), heart problems and hypertension long-term. Mark's theory, to me, makes perfect sense."

Lyles' team found almost 150 kinds of bacteria, 25% of which may cause diseases such as meningitis, cystic fibrosis, septic arthritis, gastroenteritis, staph infections, diarrhea and food poisoning.

Defense: Not so fast

The Defense Department says it hasn't linked any illnesses among servicemembers to bacteria in the soil.

"All soil, no matter where it is found, has germs present, so this finding is not unusual," Postlewaite says. "We have closely examined our medical surveillance data for those personnel who have deployed — some multiple times — and we have not been able to identify any increased disease that could be associated with the germs that were identified in the soil."

But Lyles found others who saw anomalies.

Bob Miller, a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, worked with 101st Airborne soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., after they complained of being short of breath and unable to run as fast as they had before they deployed.

Many had been exposed to a sulfur fire in Mosul, Iraq. They also had been exposed to burn pits — the military disposes of trash at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan by burning as much as 240 tons of it a day in open pits. All of them came through chest X-rays and CT scans with clean bills of health. The soldiers volunteered for a procedure to obtain lung cell samples, and when Miller examined the biopsies, 50 of 54 showed constrictive bronchiolitis — a rare lung disease that closes the tiniest airways.

Those biopsies also turned up dust.

"A polarizing lens shows sparkling — that's the dust," Miller says. "It is a concern."

He plans to analyze that dust, as well as a brown pigment mixed with it.

"(Lyles) has pretty convincing evidence that the dust is a carrier of toxins," Miller says. "But we need more information before we can make any sweeping generalizations."

Veterans Affairs researcher Anthony Szema found that about 7% of veterans who had deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2007 had asthma, compared with about 4% who did not deploy. Then he heard about the burn pits, as well as Lyles' theories.

"Lyles gave a lecture in Denver," Szema says. "Everyone's jaw was falling on the floor."

The range of respiratory disease he saw didn't appear to be caused by one problem. And it seems to be getting worse: About 11% of soldiers returning from Iraq have respiratory problems, he says.

Ronnie Horner, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati, saw clusters of servicemembers with ALS— or Lou Gehrig's Disease — after the 1991 war in Iraq.

ALS affects about 1 to 2 people per 100,000 — usually men older than 55. Half the Desert Storm veterans diagnosed with ALS were younger than 25, and 98% were younger than 55.

"We know that aluminum has been associated with ALS, as well as lead," Horner says. "We were definitely interested in Lyles' work."

And early heavy-metal poisoning symptoms also look the same as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he says. "It's all speculation," he says. "But it's very intriguing, especially when there are such high levels of PTSD."

Former Army specialist Jeremy Bowman, 33, worked as a mechanic in Baghdad in 2003. While he was still in theater, his hands began to shake as if he were nervous. Now the shaking shimmies up his arms, into his legs and sometimes into his face. He takes medication to prevent the shaking from interfering with his daily life. His legs often feel numb or tingly, his back hurts and his leg muscles feel weak.

"It all falls under 'neurological signs and symptoms,' but nobody knows what it is," he says. "Everything new that comes out — burn pits, dust, depleted uranium — I think, 'Maybe that's it.'"

Bowman also has troubles breathing since he deployed and must use an inhaler.

Capt. J.A. "Cappy" Surrette, spokesman for the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said Navy researchers investigated to see whether the dust in Iraq and Afghanistan is toxic. The Navy has no record of troops complaining of cognitive difficulties unrelated to traumatic brain injuries, he says.

However, he says the Naval Health Research laboratory found that trace metals in the dust showed levels of toxicity.

"There is no definitive basis to say the sand is harmful to people or animals," he says.

However, one Navy study is examining the toxicity of sand from Afghanistan to see how it affects cell death, he says. A second is looking at whether Afghanistan dust contributes to brain trauma pathology in animals.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Rob Erckenbrack, 40, of West Fargo, N.D., deployed at Taqaddum, Iraq, in 2006, and guarded the perimeter at Taji, Iraq, in 2008. He began losing weight, and having respiratory problems and migraines. He also dealt with short-term memory loss but says he was not in an incident that would have caused a traumatic brain injury. In June 2010, he had a stroke.

"My doctors were surprised because I'm a healthy, active, adult," he says. "Then another guy from my unit went through the same thing."

Dale Griffin, an environmental public health microbiologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, also found metals and bacteria in the dust.

"We know that certain metals are toxic," he says. "I believe there is a risk there."

'It's a very complex problem'

Early in the 2003 Iraq War, a rare flu — eosinophilic pneumonia — infected 18 and killed two servicemembers in Iraq, according to a military study. Researchers theorized that the bacteria entered troops' lungs through the dust or through bacteria picked up from the ground from tobacco in foreign cigarettes.

In 2003, Richard Stumbo worked as a civilian contractor for the Department of the Army when he became sick with a flu so bad he had to be airlifted out of Iraq.

"My doctor said he thought it was some kind of bacteria in the dust that I picked up," Stumbo says. "My boss called me after I got home and told me a couple of the guys had died."

It took Stumbo two months to recover.

Geoff Plumlee, a research geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey, sifted through dust samples in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 to determine what in that particulate matter might affect first responders. His work led to legislation meant to take care of people with respiratory problems and cancers who had breathed in the dust.

After looking at Lyles' work, as well as military-sponsored and EPA research, Plumlee said he wants to see more.

"It's a very complex problem," he says. "I think all of the different studies are pointing to a need for a very detailed look."

Richard Meehan, chief of rheumatology at National Jewish Health in Denver, assisted the Army's Public Health Command with a particulate matter study.

National Jewish had received several cases similar to those of Miller's at Vanderbilt, and Meehan began to think it might be more than simply the burn pits. "We wanted to know why we were seeing these rare injuries that Bob Miller was finding," Meehan says.

He is part of a team working on a study to determine how to address the problem. "We need to see this in peer-reviewed journals," Meehan says. "I'd like to have this done correctly upfront so we don't end up with another Agent Orange."

Meehan emphasized that the dust isn't the only problem: Stress causes post-traumatic stress disorder. Explosions cause traumatic brain injuries. And burn pits shape yet another piece of the puzzle.

"I don't want a false cause," he says. "You miss really discovering what else is out there."

Meanwhile, Lyles says he wants samples taken in several places to determine hot spots in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He wants to follow people in units to see how they fare after exposures. He wants toxicology studies and more animal studies. And he wants the military to take notice.

"This has to be confronted," he says.

What harmful elements were found in war-zone dust

Sand is made up of pure silica, but deserts also include minerals that have been deposited by long-gone lakes, ground water, wind and pollution. Navy Capt. Mark Lyles' research team found 37 elements in samples of dust from Iraq and Kuwait, including 15 bioactive metals that are known to cause or have been linked to serious health effects with short- and long-term exposure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lyle's team measured settled dust, which servicemembers breathe when it rises into the air during a dust storm. Though the government has standards for air pollution that can contain the following elements, there are no standards for exposures to toxic elements in settled dust. The metals Lyle's team found include:

Aluminum (7,521 parts per million), which causes respiratory infections and lung disease, and has been linked to Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

Arsenic (10 ppm), which can cause lung cancer and skin and mucous membrane irritation.

Barium (463 ppm), which can cause breathing problems, heart palpitations, muscle weakness, and heart and liver damage.

Chromium (52 ppm) causes lung cancer and respiratory ailments. Animal tests have shown hexavalent chromium to be extremely toxic when inhaled at any level.

Cobalt (10 ppm) can lead to asthma, pulmonary disease and pneumonia.

Lead (138 ppm) can lead to headaches, nausea, muscle weakness and fatigue.

Manganese (352 ppm) has been linked to metabolic issues, Parkinson's disease and bronchitis.

Nickel (562 ppm) can lead to lung cancer, respiratory issues, birth defects and heart disorders.

Tin (8 ppm), which can cause respiratory problems, depression, liver damage, immune system and chromosomal disorders, a shortage of red blood cells, and brain damage that can lead to anger, sleeping disorders, forgetfulness and headaches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vanadium (49 ppm) can cause lung and eye irritation.

Zinc (206 ppm) can cause anemia and nervous-system disorders.

Sources: Mark Lyles, Naval War College; Environmental Protection Agency; Occupational Safety and Health Administration

[doc h fmf]

I THINK IT IS SGT LEP, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE , HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO TELL THE AFGAN IRAQUI VET ABOUT THEIR POISINING> THE GOVT ONLY TOOK 7YRS ABOUT OUR EXPOSURE . HERE IT IS 20yrs after the war and my fellow veteran and I ARE STILL TRYING TO GET ANSWERS AND GET SOME KIND OF DISABILITY. SO I HOPE MY IRAQI AND STAN VETS WONT HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS S#$% THAT THE GULFG WAR VETS HAD TO GO THROUGH

SEMPER FI AND GODBLESS YOU ALL


STEPHEN DOC HANSEN HM3 FMF

[Rocky C]

Great Post !!!

[FistFu68]

Hope You Men get the Help You deserve and need 'cause alot of the Men I knew that were exposed too AGENT ORANGE are Dead or Slowly Dying like Me...S/F Good Luck

[afraziaaaa]

Not to make light of the situation, or to complain but this reminds me of a time where Marines in a certain command were FORCED to run a PFT during a dust storm. Sometimes the decision making capabilities we possess are hilarious.

I wouldn't be suprised if the dust were a factor in certain medical issues. I barely noticed an increase in sinus/upper respiratory issues. I am sure other vets have experienced worse related to dust. Interesting article, I wonder if anything will come of it.

[doc h fmf]

Your In My Thoughts And Prayers Jack. That Also Reminds Me Then We Have That Toxic Water At Lejuene Peoplwe Were Exposed To. Thats Okay Love My Country And You My Brothers And Sisters

Semper Fi And Godbless You All


Stephen Doc Hansen Hm3 Fmf

[darlencegen]

thanks

--------------
Lowest Price DVD

[Mistybluelady]

Great post Lep.... McMaster University did a study on dust and burn off smoke... found that the fire dept issued protective gear including mask does not protect from the dust particles at all..... cant imagine how it effected the vets with no masks and just regular gear.... with cancer being one of the major effects... agent orange is a slow killer...

[kaelobo]

HI Misty, .................a question to anyone out there, its about Moms , my mother is89years old ,she is going in a nursing home, she had 10 kids 6boys 4girls, four of her son are vets,three are combat rvn vets. her husband ww2 101st army combat vet never wounded or rated at the VA, he had PTSD real bad , he has a few medals for his bravery in combat, told his sons that we were not allowed to go to VA unless we lost or arm or legs VA was a place for wounded warriors,not the walking sick, real hard case.he has passed on GOd bless his soul,QUESTION does my Mom have any benefits from the VA to help with nursing home etc, if not that really sucks, s/f

[USNAviator]

HI Misty, .................a question to anyone out there, its about Moms , my mother is89years old ,she is going in a nursing home, she had 10 kids 6boys 4girls, four of her son are vets,three are combat rvn vets. her husband ww2 101st army combat vet never wounded or rated at the VA, he had PTSD real bad , he has a few medals for his bravery in combat, told his sons that we were not allowed to go to VA unless we lost or arm or legs VA was a place for wounded warriors,not the walking sick, real hard case.he has passed on GOd bless his soul,QUESTION does my Mom have any benefits from the VA to help with nursing home etc, if not that really sucks, s/f

Kaelobo, first off I hope this finds you and your wife well.

I'm not an expert but I don't think she has much hope. Her husband wasn't rated by the VA. If he had been there may have been a program or two that might have helped out

Hopefully Rocky will see this or someone else with better knowledge than I have

Good luck

[kaelobo]

USNAvitor thanks for reply, i never really thought about the MOMS or wives of a combat vet,there husbands never got wounded and that happens. ww2 vets are some proud vets, as much a my dad need mental help for his PTSD and he could have been rated he had Malia got that in the philippines,you could not drag him to the VA, he was proud to serve this country as was all his sons, when does the MOMS get any credit or honored for just being a wife of a vet and a mother of four vets, WELL my hats off to all wifes and moms out there, so the a wife of a vet needs to get his vet to the VA and get rated for any future benefits from VA, so much for the VETs thats sucks it up, thats wrong, just sounding off,

[HST]

This sounds a lot like the radiation you guys got at Bikini Atol is really like sunshine, it's good for you....the LSD we gave you was meant to open up your mind to new ideas.... agent orange is a lot like orange juice, you men should be happy that your government exposed you and all the rest of the BS the government used on vets to keep from admitting the truth.

[kaelobo]

Just got back from seeing my Mom ,she told me my dad got malaria in Philippines they ship him to VA hospital in Virgina than he got hepatitis in va hospital spent four months in va hospital. the VA track him down year later and had him sign a release and gave him 3hundred dollars at that time that was alot of money. iam trying to get his dd214 cause it sure sounds wrong to me,