Persistence of Symptoms in Veterans of the First Gulf War: 5-Year Follow-up

BACKGROUND: During the 1990–1991 Gulf War, approximately 700,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the Persian Gulf theater of operations. Of that number, approximately 100,000 have presented medical complaints through various registry and examination programs. OBJECTIVES: Widespread symptomatic illness without defining physical features has been reported among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. We ascertained changes in symptom status between an initial 1995 symptom evaluation and a follow-up in 2000. METHODS: We assessed mailed symptom survey questionnaires for 390 previously surveyed members of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Gulf War Registry for changes over the 5-year interval in terms of number and severity of symptoms. RESULTS: For the cohort as a whole, we found no significant changes in symptom number or severity. Those initially more symptomatic in 1995 showed some improvement over time, but remained much more highly symptomatic than those who had lesser initial symptomatology. CONCLUSIONS: The symptom outbreak following the 1991 Gulf War has not abated over time in registry veterans, suggesting substantial need for better understanding and care for these veterans

The Symmetry Rule: A Seven-Year Study of Symptoms and Explanatory Labels Among Gulf War Veterans

Noticing medical symptoms can cause one to search for explanatory labels such as “ate bad food” or even “exposed to anthrax,” and perhaps these labels may cause new symptom reports. The present study examined whether there is empirical support for this symptom-label “symmetry rule.” We interviewed veterans (N = 362) from the Gulf War Registry in 1995 and 2002 about their medical symptoms and about their exposure to war-related hazards and stressors. Health symptom reports were strongly correlated between the two time periods and showed relatively stable mean levels, whereas recall of war-related exposures was notably unstable. Veterans starting with fewer medical symptoms recalled fewer war-related exposures seven years later. Initial recollection of chemical and biological warfare exposure (but not other exposures) longitudinally predicted novel medical symptoms. The findings generally support the symmetry rule hypotheses, although the evidence for the label to symptom link was less strong. The findings account for some variability in symptoms and exposure recall over time, but they do not, on their own, account for the Gulf War veterans’ elevated number of unexplained medical symptoms

An investigation of formaldehyde concentration in residences and the development of a model for the prediction of its emission rates

Indoor air pollution caused by formaldehyde associated with building materials imposes a variety of acute and chronic adverse effects on people’s health. The aim of this research is to investigate the concentrations of formaldehyde in residences and develop emission rate prediction model in residential buildings. On-site measurements including the indoor and outdoor concentrations of formaldehyde and CO2 were carried out in 42 urban residences in Chongqing. The people occupancy schedule in different functional rooms was obtained by observing the change in CO2 concentration. A robust model for the estimation of formaldehyde emission rates using CO2 as the tracer gas; associated with a Monte-Carlo simulation of occupant activities and the characteristics of residences; has been developed. It is revealed that the mean indoor formaldehyde concentration was 30.12μg/m3, which was slightly higher than the outdoor concentration of 27.80μg/m3. The emission rates of 61.82±52.39 and 49.69±42.13µg/h/m2 (mean±SD) during the daytime and nighttime, respectively with a daily average of 57.20±48.79µg/h/m2. The significant contribution to indoor formaldehyde concentration was from indoor sources. Indoor formaldehyde source control is suggested to be an efficient way to control the indoor concentration