The Gary Null Blog

By Gary Null Ph.D. "The situation is unfair from start to finish. It begins with soldiers who are asked to participate in research or take experimental drugs, but are not told what the risks are before, during, or after." "Then information about the exposures is not included in the soldiers' medical records, putting them at even greater risk. And when these soldiers leave the service and become veterans, the [Veterans Administration] lacks information about the exposures and about any resulting illnesses, making it more difficult to help them." "Finally, when these veterans become ill, they are unable to get the medical records and other information they need in order to prove that their illnesses are related to military service." "This situation is unacceptable." These strong words about service-related illness in Gulf War veterans sound like they come from a raddical veterans' rights group activist. But they don't. They were spoken by John D. Rockefeller IV, senator from West Virginia and the chair of the Senate's Committee on Veterans' Affairs. They were uttered May 6, 1994, when that committee held a hearing on the topic "Is Military Research Hazardous to Veterans' Health?" In the aftermath of America's Persian Gulf involvement, clearly the answer to that question was yes. Military research has been hazardous to veterans' health.