
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994                    TAG: 9406160438 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A14    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940616                                 LENGTH: WASHINGTON

GULF WAR SYNDROME RESEARCH FOCUSES ON MIXTURE OF CHEMICALS

{LEAD} A scientist researching illnesses suffered by Persian Gulf war veterans found that a bug repellant on cockroaches is 10 times more deadly when combined with a drug that protects against nerve gas - but he said the study doesn't prove that the same thing would happen in humans.

Department of Agriculture scientist James Moss said Tuesday he conducted his study to find if the combination of two or more chemicals commonly used by the military during the gulf war could possibly be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome.

{REST} ``This does not prove that this combination is the cause of the Gulf War Syndrome,'' he said. ``I think it is one of several possible combinations. I think it needs to be looked at.''

A Gulf War Syndrome expert agreed, saying it was difficult to connect chemical effects on insects with chemical effects on humans.

``Trying to extrapolate animal data to humans is fraught with uncertainty,'' said Dr. William Eschenbacher, an associate professor at the Baylor College of Medicine. ``When going from an insect to a primate, to say the reaction is related is really stretching it a little bit.''

Eschenbacher, who served on a National Institutes of Health committee that studied Gulf War Syndrome, said finding a chemical combination that increases the toxic effect ``should alert us,'' but that it presents no real proof of human effects.

{KEYWORDS} PERSIAN GULF WAR VETERAN GULF WAR SYNDROME

by CNB