Persian Gulf Puzzle

Arizona State University, which discovered the compound. The promise of these and other possible disease-fighting compounds beneath the ocean's surface emphasizes the importance of protecting biodiversity. Many environmental groups have turned their attention to oceans because human activities are harming the seas. Some of these activities include wetlands destruction, overfishing, discharge of chemical pollutants , and dumping trash into the oceans. Groups such as The Audubon Society's Living Oceans Program aim to reform laws concerning marine and fisheries management for stricter regulations and more protection. One such law, the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, manages living marine resources and is up for reauthorization. In addition to its military outcomes, the 1991 Persian Gulf War gave rise to a public health puzzle that may take years to solve. At the end of a workshop in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 27-29, a blue-ribbon panel convened by the NIH Office of Medical Applications Research concluded that more research is needed to unravel the mystery of what is being called "Gulf War illness." At the workshop on "The Persian Gulf Experience and Health," a multidisciplinary panel compiled by the National Institutes of Health heard evidence from environmental and occupational health scientists , military physicians, epidemiolo-gists, and a number of Persian Gulf veterans and family members on what Major General Ronald R. Blanck of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center described as a "prolonged, nonresolving illness arising in soldiers either during or after deployment to the Persian Gulf.. ., The working case definition includes three major criteria-deployment to the Persian Gulf between 8 August 1990 and 31 July 1991; the onset of a persistent, relapsing, debilitating illness severe enough to reduce or impair ordinary activity for at least six months, and the exclusion of other known clinical conditions that could account for symptoms, which include severe fatigue, respiratory symptoms, unremitting diarrhea, sleep disturbances, irritability, and incapacitating joint and muscle pain. More than two dozen presenters and an often vocal audience discussed the factors that complicate accurate diagnosis of Persian Gulf veterans' illnesses. First, little baseline health data were collected among troops before deployment, and monitoring of their exposures to environmental toxins did not begin until months after the fighting. For example, collection of air quality data started months after many of the oilfield fires had been extinguished, and administration of blood tests to determine types of exposures the soldiers received was erratic at best. …