
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994                   TAG: 9405090142
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GULF WAR AILMENTS LINKED TO PILLS

Two veterans of the Persian Gulf War told a Senate panel Friday that pills they were required to take to protect them from Iraqi nerve gas ended up severely damaging their nervous systems.

The Defense Department denies that the drug caused ill effects.

``Since taking pyridostigmine while deployed for Desert Shield, I have been suffering moderate, severe and intolerable pain, fatigue easily and lately have developed one heck of a palsy,'' Neil Tetzlaff, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, told the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

The Rev. Barry Walker, who served as a chaplain in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait and who also claims nerve damage as a result of the drug, said soldiers were told nothing about possible side effects.

``All we were told was that the pills would protect us against chemical and biological weapons,'' said Walker. ``We were told to take the pills, and not given a choice, though some soldiers did not take them.''

The pills were included in kits handed out to soldiers.

A Defense Department doctor who testified after the veterans said the decision to give the soldiers the drug came out of concern for their safety and the drug was deemed safe on the basis of ``an overwhelming bulk of research.''

``We were basically facing an enemy who had used nerve gas before and we had every reason to believe that they in fact had integrated the use of nerve gas and biological weapons into their combat arms,'' said Dr. Edward Martin, acting principal assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

He said the Defense Department also consulted ``with our best scientists, those in the public health service, at NIH, especially at FDA'' in making the decision to give soldiers the drug.

Sen. John Rockefeller, chairman of the committee, said his committee staff has spent six months researching the mysterious illnesses experienced by Gulf War veterans.

``The results of our investigation showed a reckless disregard that shocked me, and I think they will shock all Americans,'' he said.

He said the Pentagon used various experimental drugs on soldiers in the war, including experimental vaccines as well as pills.

``The Pentagon did studies of one of these drugs, pyridostigmine, in a cautious way before the war, excluding anyone who might be harmed by the drug,'' he said. ``But, after protecting a few hundred men who volunteered for these studies, they threw caution to the winds, ignoring all warnings of potential harm, and gave these drugs to hundreds of thousands of soldiers with virtually no warnings and no safeguards.''

by CNB