Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

There was a 1975 study that was published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) written by Doctor Karl Heinz Lohs based on Wermacht soldiers of WW2 that worked in the Third Reichs chemical warfare units  http://www.sipri.org/conten ts/cbwarfare/Publications/p dfs/cw-delayed.pdf  but Dr William Page of the IOM ignored this work and the work of the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 1994 http://www.ehponline.org/me mbers/1994/102-1/munro-full .html

Both of these studies show many long term health problems resulting from low level exposures and the veterans being affected years later, from cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nuerological  and pulmonary, yet DR Page found no problems, except for 25 personnel per 100,000 would get brain tumors. A result that neither of the other 2 studies noted. So which study is right? I the meantime the veterans are dead and disabled at very high rates, with no explanations from the DOD or the VA. They just deny our claims, stating that we have no proof of what or how much we were exposed to, or if the substances cause any problems.

This GAO report released yesterday though shows it doesn't matter because it states that DOD quit looking for more of the veterans used in these experiments in 2003, despite congressional committees demanding the DOD and the VA help these veterans. http://www.gao.gov/new.item s/d08366.pdf

In my own research in the past five years of GAO reports, NAS/IOM studies the SIPRI study and the NIH study and Congressional reports from the Armed Services Committees and the Veterans Affairs Committees, many elected officials have tried to help these men and were met by stonewalling by the DOD especially in the past 7 years of the Bush Administration.

Of the 7120 enlisted men used at Edgewood Arsenal a March 2003 Sarin study shows that 3098 men could not be found alive, one can only assume they are deceased, these men were aged  45-65 at the time of the data gathering in FY2000. That is 40% of the men. Of the 4022 survivors they did find, 54% of them or another 2200 men reported being disabled yet, the study never explains why, or any of the causes.

This is a conclusions section of the SIPRI report of 1975:
To conclude this section, the closing observations from Spiegelberg's monograph
will be cited (these remarks do not refer exclusively to organophosphorus
CW agents) [2]:

A psychiatric delayed-effect syndrome was found as a result of systematic investigations
on former members of CW production and testing stations for the Wehrmacht. In
terms of frequency, two groups of symptoms can be distinguished-each consisting of
four separate symptoms or signs.
(1) The great majority of persons examined showed:
(a) persistently lowered vitality accompanied by marked diminution in drive;           I have

(b) defective autonomic regulation leading to cephalalgia, gastrointestinal and        I have

cardiovascular symptoms, and premature decline in libido and potency;                I have

(c) intolerance symptoms (alcohol, nicotine, medicines);  I have

(d) impression of premature aging.  I have

(2) Further, one or more symptoms of the second group were found:

(a) depressive or subdepressive disorders of vital functions;                    I have

(b) cerebral vegetative (syncopal) attacks;

(c) slight or moderate amnestic and demential defects;                           I have

(d) slight organoneurological defects (predominantly microsymptoms and singular
signs of extrapyramidal character).

Our results are a contribution to the general question of psychopathological delayed
and permanent lesions caused by industrial poisoning. On the basis of our studies of
the etiologically different manifestations of toxication, the possibility of a relatively
uniform-though equally unspecific-cerebro-organic delayed effect syndrome is conceivable

If I only had one or two of the known problems I might think it was just bad health, but I have to many of them for it to be just a coincidence. I and the other veteran and the widows of the deceased veterans deserve better assistance from the government.

Many of the widows have never been notified their husbands were used in these experiments nor that their deaths may be linked to these exposures and they might be entitled to veterans benefits, health care and military privileges, use of the PX and Commissaries, etc.

I am in contact with 15 other "test vets" or "med vols" whatever term they want to use for us, but to a man we can not get recognition from DOD or the Army, many of the men have attempted to get promised awards, medals and cerftificates of appreciation. Some of the veterans say there were promised the Soldier's Medal which is awarded to peacetime soldiers who risk their lives to save others. The government refuses to address the issue except to claim what these men did was not out of the ordinary or heroic. I beg to differ, the amount of dead and disabled say otherwise, it was a dangerous assignment, just because the recruiting teams lied to the "volunteers" and told us the experiments were so safe that there was no need for follow up medical studies after we left Edgewood. Then why have they done three of them?

You can't use and abuse soldiers and decades later just ignore them and wait for them to die, it isn't right.