Last modified February 27, 2002
Becausemultiple pesticide residues are common - in fact, universal contaminants of tobacco products, I am extremely concerned about the unexamined relationship between the nerve gas antidote PB and high GWS rates among troops who smoke, dip and chew tobacco products. If as some researchers now believe GWS is caused even partly by interaction of nerve gas antidote with pesticides like dichlorvos and chlorpyrifos, then given the enormous diversity of insecticidal compounds that contaminate US and British tobacco products, including literally dozens of organochlorine, organophosphorous, and carbamate compounds, I have long expected GWS to occur at a much higher rate among smokers, dippers, and chewers.
The Department of Defense is looking carefully at pesticide/PB antagonism, especially the interactions between nerve gas antidote and cholinesterase inhibitors. "Chemicals which cause cholinesterase inhibition include: 1) organophosphate nerve agents, such as sarin, tabun, and soman; 2) organophosphate insecticides, such as chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon; 3) carbamate insecticides, such as carbaryl and propoxur; and 4) carbamate medications, such as pyridostigmine bromide and physostigmine." DOD Fact Sheet: Twelve New Studies On Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Funded By Department Of Defense, December 1997
The Department of Defense is also concerned enough about the effects of chronic exposure to organophosphorous pesticides in the context of Gulf War Syndrome that they currently have several major research projects underway. To browse information on these projects, many of them still in their preliminary stage, please click here.
All of the pesticides named by DOD, and many more with similarly devastating potential, are comtaminants of tobacco products. Since the beginning of the tragedy called Gulf War Syndrome my suspicion has been that the pyridostigmine bromide nerve gas antidote in many cases forced onto Gulf War troops was interacting with three, not two sources of pesticide exposure.
So, if the following conclusions are correct then it is quite likely that any veterans suffering from Gulf War Syndrome who used any kind of tobacco product before and during the conflict, and who continue to do so, are probably seriously affecting their chances of recovery and may in fact be defeating their therapy and worsening their illness on a daily basis.
In fact, veterans suffering from GWS ought to have an excellent class action case against the tobacco industry on the basis that the tobacco industry knew about the universal presence of pesticide residues in tobacco products, and had every reason to know of the potential for deadly harm from the interaction of its products with pyridostigmine bromide based on past internal industry research.
Unfortunately until quite recently there has simply been no data available on tobacco product use by US or Allied soldiers during the Gulf War. However, with the work of Dr. Robert Haley of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center first published in early 1997 we finally have the first solid data confirming suspicions about the impact of tobacco product pesticides on Gulf War Veterans' health, and Dr. Haley's data is now available on the internet.Take a look at the correlation data for yourself - the Chi Square values of the risk factor associated with high Pack/Years of smoking are extraordinary across all three main GWS syndromes.
Dr. Robert Haley's research details his investigation of Gulf War Syndrome from the perspective of organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN) which is a delayed-onset cascading degeration of brain, spinal cord and nerve damage suffered by people chronically exposed to low levels of organophosphorous insecticides. Dr. Haley's research is directed at the hypothesis that when multiple organophosphorous pesticides are ingested in association with exposure to both DEET and the anti-nerve gas substance pyridostigmine bromide, the resulting impact on human beings is far greater than would be the case with simple organophosphorous poisoning.
When you take the fate of tobacco product pesticides into account, the interaction between pesticides and the nerve gas antidote pyridostigmine bromide, becomes even more sinister. That's because when many of the major organophosphorous pesticides are burned, as in a smoking cigarette, the thermal decomposition byproducts include powerful nerve gas agents. When you burn dichlorvos, for example, you release toxic oxides of phosphorour and carbon, toxic and corrosive chlorides and toxic pohosgene gas. So, when you smoke a cigarette laced with dichlorvos, both because of manufacturing contamination and due to fallout from having your quarters sprayed and from the fumes of the pet collar you're wearing, you're creating a tiny little cloud of the nerve gas phosgene that follows you around wherever you go - sending the nerve gas antidote into a frenzy, without doubt destroying nerve and brain tissues, and wrecking havoc with your body's biochemistry.
After initial and continuing skepticism and outright attacks Dr. Haley's research is gaining support and the premise of multiple chemical exposure is being given attention by reasonable individuals and groups.
I cannot over-emphasize the relevance of Dr. Haley's data for those of us who have long believed that the pesticide residues in tobacco products are the dominant risk factor in tobacco product use. Here are some examples of high risk factor values from Dr. Haley's research. Check these risk factors for yourself in the Haley data
| RISK FACTOR | X² Syndrome 1 | X² Syndrome 2 | X² Syndrome 3 |
| Wore A Pet Collar | 8.7 (3.0 to 24.7) | 2.9 (1.1 to 7.6) | 2.7 (1.0 to 7.2) |
| Probable Chemical Attack | 1.3 (0.4 to 3.9) | 7.8 (2.4 to 25.9) | 2.3 (1.0 to 5.3) |
| Entered Enemy Bunker | 5.4 (1.8 to 16.0) | 2.4 (0.9 to 6.0) | 0.8 (0.2 to 3.1) |
| Scale of PB Effects | 0.7 | 37.4 | 13.4 |
| DEET With Skin-So-Soft | 6.0 | 0.7 | 1.7 |
| Housing Sprayed w/pesticide | 7.3 (0.9 to 55.4) | 0.5 (0.2 to 1.1) | 1.0 (0.4 to 2.2) |
| Exposed To Uranium | 0.7 (0.1 to 5.2) | 2.4 (0.9 to 6.0) | 0.8 (0.2 to 3.1) |
| Combat Stress Index | 5.1 | 1.27 | 0.0 |
| Cigarette Pack/Years | 5.7 | 5.06 | 3.4 |
Although the Chi Squares for all three syndromes are extremely high among those veterans with high pack/years - consistently much higher across all three syndromes than any other risk factor -there is no indication in Dr. Haley's published research that the connection between pesticides in tobacco products and GWS symptoms has been investigated. Dr. Haley's team have not begun to collect data on dipping and chewing among their research subjects - my strong suspicion is that if or when they do, these Chi Square numbers would show an even stronger and more definitive causal relationship between tobacco product use and GWS incidence.
Race is another factor not reported in the Haley research data, which is unfortunate considering the very strong clinical and epidemiological evidence that Black and Latino people are far more vulnerable to both acute and chronic pesticide poisoning than Anglos. To review a bibliography of relevant clinical literature click here and then use your browser's find command to search for 'race'. To review a set of very well-done, detailed summaries of recent studies on the human health effects of exposure to common pesticides, including many of the most common contaminants of tobacco products, click here.
Another interesting puzzle that has shown up in the Haley data is that older Vets appear to be more severely affected for a given level of exposure and PB sensitivity than younger Vets. The researchers explain this anomaly as a function of the aging process itself, but it makes perfect sense to me that long-time smokers and users are going to have much higher levels of pesticide saturation in their tissues, and therefore will suffer more severe neurological damage from an equivalent environmental exposure combined with ingestion of PB antidote.
A UT Southwestern press release on this research notes: " Risk factors suggesting interactions between low-level chemical nerve agents, the pyridostigmine bromide (PB) anti-nerve-gas pills that many Gulf War veterans were given by the military, and chemicals in insect repellents and pet flea collars used by some soldiers to fight insects, were four to eight times more common in the veterans with the syndromes. But risk factors for exposure to oil-well smoke, multiple immunizations, depleted uranium munitions, burning jet fuel in tents, combat stress and other publicized concerns were only weakly -- or not at all -- associated. The evidence for chemical interactions was particularly strong. Veterans involved in what they believe was a chemical weapons attack on January 19 and 20, 1991, and who had particularly severe side effects from the PB tablets were five times more likely to have one of the syndromes than those with only one of these risk factors. "This indicates a synergistic effect," Haley said. "This is a strong sign of truly causal events in epidemiology.""
Dr. Haley's collaborator Dr. Thomas Kurt has also investigated Duke University studies on the effects of combining pesticides, permethrin and chlorpyrifos, DEET, and pyridostigmine bromide (PB). The results strongly indicate that the three-way combination does far more long term damage at any level of exposure than even very high levels of exposure to single chemicals. Major symptoms included diarehea, breathing problems, weakness and tremors. These also sound awfully familiar to those following or living the GWS story.
Another potentially useful area of study for those concerned with GWS is the research into multiple chemical sensitivity, or environmental illness. If the connection between tobacco product use and GWS is as strong as I believe it is, then GWS may in fact be a powerful variant of MCS. For a collection of recent research into the symptoms, causes, and treatment of MCS, click here.
One of the first breaks in this story occurred in the UK on Feb. 27, 1997, when Minister of State for the Armed Forces Nicolas Soames "conceded that the government had been misled about the use of pesticides around British forces in the Gulf." Officials said to have known of the consequences of exposure to both nerve gas antidote and pesticides are under investigation. There was great concern on the part of MOP and British troops affected with GWS. The current British focus does not appear to include pet collar pesticides, but only those pesticides used by the military for actual pest control. It seems that the Ministry had been assured by reliable chemical industry and government researchers that there was little danger in such exposure. (LA Times Wire)
I wonder whether the British Government and Parliament knew then ( or know now) of the research by BAT into the relationship between pesticide residues and the health effects of tobacco products. It would certainly seem to me, given the evidence present at the Galen portion of this site that BAT was in a position to know of the potential dangers to troops exposed to nerve gas antidote who also use tobacco products. One wonders whether such a warning was ever given?
Even though the doses of organophosphorous insecticides in tobacco products are very small, I suspect that in the Gulf War environment the results of this triple exposure were also very similar to results described by Dr. John McLachlan of Tulane University in his article in Science, June, 1996. In that article Dr. McLachlan describes how minute doses of four of the common pesticides, when ingested together, can have up to 1600 times greater toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic impact than you would expect simply by adding together their individual toxicities at very levels of exposure. (The pesticides investigated in Dr. McLachlan's research are also principal tobacco product contaminants.) Although Dr. McLachlan's research came into question, in late 1997, the underlying issues remain open concerning the potential effects of pesticides combined at high temperatures in the pyrolysis zones of cigarettes and other tobacco products and then being ingested by military personnel exposed to anti-nerve gas agents.
Do you have any suggestions or comments on the relationship I am hypothesizing between tobacco product use and Gulf War Syndrome? If so please send them along to bdrake@ktc.com
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1998 by Bill Drake
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