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Gulf War syndrome (GWS) is the name given to an illness with symptoms including increases in the rate of immune system disorders and birth defects, reported by veterans of the Persian Gulf War. It has not always been clear whether these symptoms were related to Gulf War service. Symptoms attributed to this syndrome have often been wide-ranging and sometimes poorly defined. They often include chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance. U.S. Gulf War veterans have experienced mortality rates exceeding those of U.S. Vietnam veterans. Brain cancer deaths, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and fibromyalgia now are recognized by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments as potentially connected to service during the Persian Gulf War.

Various causes that have been suggested:

• Contagious disease
• Depleted uranium weapons
• Anthrax vaccine
• Biological weapons
• Chemical weapons including Nerve gas and Mustard gas
• Fumes from oil well fires
• Exposure to inhibited red-fuming nitric acid (IRFNA), a rocket fuel/oxidizing agent used in SS-1 Scud (and derived) ballistic missiles, SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missiles and possibly other pieces of Iraqi military technology.
• Exposure to pesticides
• Parasites
• The side-effects of drugs given for protection against nerve agents
• Military experimentation

Contagious Disease

There are some who believe that Gulf War Syndrome is the result of a contagious bacteria. There are anecdotal reports of improvement in some victims when treated with antibiotics.

Multiple chemical sensitivity

The symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome are similar to those of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS.)

Anthrax vaccine

Anthrax vaccine was blamed by troops early-on as a potential source of the mysterious pattern of illness.

The vaccine was particularly painful when administered, and often caused a severe local skin reaction that lasted for weeks or months. While FDA approved, it never went through large scale clinical trials, in comparison to almost all other vaccines in the United States.

Data linking squalene in the vaccine to Gulf War Syndrome was "presented in the peer-reviewed February 2000 and August 2002 articles. The published findings (1) strongly suggest that the GWS-like illness being reported by all of the various patient groups is the same illness, (2) strongly suggest that the contaminated vaccine caused the illness in the AVIP group, and (3) further suggest that squalene contamination of one or more 1990-1991-era vaccines accounts for the GWS cases from that era." The sickest veterans tended to have the highest levels of squalene antibodies in their bloodstream.

Even after the war, troops that had never been deployed overseas, after receiving the anthrax vaccine, developed symptoms similar to those of Gulf War Syndrome. The Pentagon failed to report to Congress 20,000 cases where soldiers were hospitalized after receiving the vaccine between 1998 and 2000.

252 Members of a U.S. Air Force Squadron who received the vaccine were surveyed, and 139 of these returned their questionares. Of these, 58% reported reactions, often consistent with some features of a Gulf War Syndrome type illness, including: joint and muscle pain (41%), decreased energy and tiredness (29%), reduced concentration (28%), short-term memory loss (24%), and sleep problems (17%).

In 2000, a medical examiner ruled that anthrax vaccine was a contributing factor in the death of a civilian who helped manufacture the vaccine given to U.S. troops. That same year, a Canadian judge ruled that the anthrax vaccine was potentially unsafe, halting the trial of a soldier who had been court-martialled for refusing to take it.

Despite repeated assurances that the vaccine was safe and necessary, a U.S. Federal Judge ruled that there was good cause to believe it was harmful, and he ordered the Pentagon to stop administering it in October 2004. That ban has not been lifted. Anthrax vaccine is the only substance suspected in Gulf War syndrome to which forced exposure has since been banned to protect troops from it.

In July 2005, a U.S. soldier was awarded a disability pension for medical problems which developed after his anthrax vaccination, after a Federal Appeals Court ruled in his favor.

On December 15, 2005, the highly troubled Food and Drug Administration, released a Final Order finding that anthrax vaccine is safe and effective. All vaccines cause adverse events in a subset of those to whom they are administered. , Women who receive the vaccine get pregnant and deliver children at the same rates as unvaccinated women. Anthrax vaccination has no effect on pregnancy and birth rates or adverse birth outcomes.

Nerve agent

Many of the symptoms, other than low cancer incidence rates, of Gulf War syndrome are identical to those experienced in organophosphate poisoning. Gulf War veterans were exposed to a number of sources of these compounds, including nerve gas and pesticides.

Over 125,000 U.S. troops and 9,000 UK troops were exposed to nerve gas and mustard gas when an Iraqi depot in Khamisiyah, Iraq was bombed in 1991.

One of the most unusual events during the build-up and deployment of British forces into the desert of Saudi Arabia was the constant alarms from the NIAD detection systems deployed by all British forces in theatre. The NIAD is a chemical and biological detection system that is set-up some distance away from a deployed unit, and will set off an alarm automatically if an agent is detected. During the troop build-up, these detectors were set off on a large number of occasions, making the soldiers don their respirators. Many reasons were given for the alarms, ranging from fumes from helicopters, fumes from passing jeeps, cigarette smoke and even deodorant worn by troops manning the NIAD posts. Although the NIAD had been deployed countless times in peacetime exercises in the years before the gulf war, the large number of alarms was to say the least very unusual and reasons given something of a joke among the troops.

The Riegle Report said that chemical alarms went off 18,000 times during the Gulf War. The United States did not have any biological agent detection capability whatsoever during the Persian Gulf War. After the air war started on January 16, 1991, coalition forces were chronically exposed to low (nonlethal) levels of chemical and biological agents released primarily by direct Iraqi attack via missiles, rockets, artillery, or aircraft munitions and by fallout from allied bombings of Iraqi chemical warfare munitions facilities. - Chemical detection units from the Czech Republic confirmed chemical agents. - French detection units detected chemical agents. - Chemical specialists from the British Army detected chemical agents. - Both Czech and French forces reported detections immediately to U.S. forces. - U.S. forces detected, confirmed, and reported chemical agents; and - U.S. soldiers were awarded medals for detecting chemical agents.

Some, including Richard Guthrie, an expert in chemical warfare at Sussex University, have argued that a likely cause for the increase in birth defects was the Iraqi Army’s use of teratogenic mustard agents. Plaintifs in a long-running class action lawsuit continue to assert that sulphur mustards might be responsible.

Depleted uranium

Because uranium is a heavy metal and chemical toxicant with nephrotoxic (kidney-damaging) , teratogenic (birth defect-causing) , and potentially carcinogenic properties, some sources believe there to be a connection between uranium exposure and a variety of illnesses. The chemical toxicological hazard posed by uranium dwarfs its radiological hazard because it is only weakly radioactive. In 2005, uranium metalworkers at a Bethlehem plant near Buffalo, New York, exposed to frequent occupational uranium inhalation risks, were alleged by non-scientific sources to have the same patterns of symptoms and illness as Gulf War Syndrome victims,.

Increases in the rate of birth defects for children born to Gulf War veterans have been reported but have not been sustained by more careful studies such as those done by the Centers for Disease Control. A 2001 survey of 15,000 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to report having children with birth defects.

In 2005, depleted uranium was shown to be a neurotoxin in rats .

A small study of U.K. veterans who thought they might have been exposed to DU showed abberations in their white blood cell chromosomes. Mice immune cells exposed to uranium exhibit abnormalities.

In the Balkans war zone where depleted uranium was also used, an absence of problems is seen by some as evidence of DU muntions' safety. "Independent investigations by the World Health Organization, European Commission, European Parliament, United Nations Environment Programme, United Kingdom Royal Society, and the Health Council of the Netherlands all discounted any association between depleted uranium and leukemia or other medical problems.

Controversy

There is controversy over whether or not Gulf War syndrome is, in fact, a physical medical condition related to sufferers' Gulf War service (or relation to a Gulf War veteran).

Evidence for

United States Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi's panel found that pre-2005 studies suggested the veterans' illnesses are neurological and apparently are linked to exposure to neurotoxins, such as the nerve gas sarin, the anti-nerve gas drug [[p