ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997              TAG: 9701100044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune

FLEA COLLARS BLAMED STUDY: VETS' ILLNESS HAD OTHER CAUSES

The fatigue, nausea and other symptoms afflicting some Gulf War veterans may have been caused by pet flea collars worn by some soldiers, pesticides, chemical nerve agents, and pills taken to protect against nerve gas.

The chemicals, or mixtures of them, caused subtle, delayed damage to the brains and nervous systems of some veterans, researchers at the University of Texas said Wednesday.

If their conclusion is confirmed by further research, it would represent a breakthrough in a years-long search for causes of an array of veterans' medical complaints lumped under the label Gulf War Syndrome.

However, many experts who have studied Gulf War Syndrome were skeptical about the study's conclusions and warned that they might lead nowhere - as have other hypotheses.

Even if correct in its conclusions, the study does not offer a way for doctors to diagnose a veteran who walks into a clinic with the syndrome - and therefore does not point the way to a cure.

Tuesday, a White House panel concluded a two-year investigation of Gulf War Syndrome by saying no plausible explanation for the veterans' complaints had been found other than the stress of wartime service. The committee explicitly ruled out exposure to environmental toxins in the Persian Gulf War as a possible cause.

``The studies would not have changed anything in our final report,'' said Gary Caruso, a spokesman for the president's advisory committee. He said a review of the Texas studies by Dr. Joyce Lashof, the committee chairwoman, concluded that the new research did not sway the bulk of the evidence, which still pointed to no connection between Gulf War chemicals and veterans' illnesses.

Still, veterans' groups and other activists argue that exposure to chemicals during the war may have caused the symptoms, and Clinton ordered the study group to oversee a continuing search for causes of the veterans' complaints.

The Texas scientists say the veterans may be suffering from a rare disorder called organophosphate-induced delayed polyneuropathy, caused by exposure to chemicals that block an enzyme important to the functioning of the human nervous system.

The researchers said sophisticated neurological tests given to a group of veterans with symptoms who had been exposed to insecticides and other chemicals in the Persian Gulf showed that they ``leaned toward abnormality.'' Up to a quarter of the 697,000 Gulf War veterans may have been affected by combinations of these chemicals.

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