Gulf War Illnesses

This testimony evaluates the federal strategy to research Gulf War illnesses. In short, GAO finds that (1) the government was not proactive in researching Gulf War illnesses; (2) the government's early research emphasized stress as a cause for veterans' illnesses and gave other hypotheses, such as multiple chemical sensitivity, little attention; (3) the private sector, in contrast, pursued research on the health effects of low-level exposures to chemical agents and industrial chemical compounds; (4) government research used an epidemiological approach, but little research on treatment was funded; and (5) most of the ongoing epidemiological research focusing on the prevalence or causes of Gulf War illnesses will not provide conclusive answers, particularly in identifying risk factors or possible causes, because of formidable methodological and data problems.

GAO noted that: (1) the government was not proactive in researching Gulf War illnesses; (2) the government's early research emphasized stress as a cause for Gulf War veterans' illnesses and gave other hypotheses, such as multiple chemical sensitivity, little attention; (3) in contrast, the private sector pursued research on the health effects of low-level exposures to certain chemical warfare agents or industrial chemical compounds; (4) government research used an epidemiological approach, but little research on treatment was funded; and (5) most of the ongoing epidemiological research focusing on the prevalence or causes of Gulf War-related illnesses will not provide conclusive answers, particularly in identifying risk factors or potential causes due to formidable methodological and data problems.