WASHINGTON, July 26 (UPI) -- A study has found an increase in brain cancer deaths among U.S. veterans possibly exposed to the nerve agent sarin while destroying Iraqi weapons in 1991.
Commissioned by the military, the Institute of Medicine's report found a brain cancer death rate of 12 per 100,000 from 1991 to 2000. William Page, director of the study said over the same period, researchers found 25 brain cancer deaths per 100,000 veterans who were exposed.
About 100,000 of the 350,000 Army soldiers in the Persian Gulf could have been exposed to sarin after they blew up two large ammunition caches in Khamisiyah, Iraq, in March 1991.
The study's authors note sarin has never been shown to cause cancer, and also notes the study alone doesn't prove being in the hazard area caused brain cancer.
At the time, the military didn't know the destroyed Iraqi rockets contained sarin, said Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director for the Deployment Health Support Directorate in the Department of Defense.
The study is published in the August edition of the American Journal of Public Health.
