Navy researcher links toxins in war zone dust to ailments

[The Straight Story]

Navy researcher links toxins in war zone dust to ailments

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.

http://www.stripes.com/news/navy-researcher-links-toxins-in-war-zone-dust-to-ailments-1.143390

[TheWraith]

1. Not to mention, we bombed a shitload of chemical weapons bunkers.

That stuff doesn't necessarily just vaporize. And then there was the huge number of oil fires...

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Not only military but civilians are breathing this toxis mess.

shudder.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Yeah. the poor civilians have to live and breath it 24/7/52

[KT2000]

4. Duh!

Really wish the scientists would talk to each other. It is well known in the literature that dust is a carrier of chemicals in the environment. The dust settles in the nose, the chemicals destroy the tight junctions in the nose and the chemicals travel to the olfactory bulb which is in the center of the brain. Under certain conditions, the blood brain barrier can be breeched by certain chemicals, such as extreme stress.

One study found that formaldehyde levels measured in the dust at a clothing factory was 1500 times the level found in the ambient air readings.