Journal article
Exposures to the Kuwait Oil Fires and Their Association with Asthma and Bronchitis Among Gulf War Veterans.
Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.110(11), pp.1141-1146
11/01/2002
DOI: 10.1289/ehp.021101141
PMCID: PMC1241071
PMID: 12417486
Appears in Diamond Open Access
Abstract
<p>Military personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf War have reported a variety of symptoms attributed to their exposures. We examined relationships between symptoms of respiratory illness present 5 years after the war and both self-reported and modeled exposures to oil-fire smoke that occurred during deployment. Exposure and symptom information was obtained by structured telephone interview in a population-based sample of 1,560 veterans who served in the Gulf War. Modeled exposures were exhaustively developed using a geographic information system to integrate spatial and temporal records of smoke concentrations with troop movements ascertained from global positioning systems records. For the oil-fire period, there were 600,000 modeled data points with solar absorbance used to represent smoke concentrations to a 15-km resolution. Outcomes included respiratory symptoms (asthma, bronchitis) and control outcomes (major depression, injury). Approximately 94% of the study cohort were still in the gulf theater during the time of the oil-well fires, and 21% remained there more than 100 days during the fires. There was modest correlation between self-reported and modeled exposures (r = 0.48, p < 0.05). Odds ratios for asthma, bronchitis, and major depression increased with increasing self-reported exposure. In contrast, there was no association between the modeled exposure and any of the outcomes. These findings do not support speculation that exposures to oil-fire smoke caused respiratory symptoms among veterans.</p>
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Exposures to the Kuwait Oil Fires and Their Association with Asthma and Bronchitis Among Gulf War Veterans.
- Creators
- Jeffrey L. LangeDavid A. SchwartzBradley N. DoebbelingJack M. HellerPeter S. Thorne - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol.110(11), pp.1141-1146
- DOI
- 10.1289/ehp.021101141
- PMID
- 12417486
- PMCID
- PMC1241071
- NLM abbreviation
- Environ Health Perspect
- ISSN
- 0091-6765
- Publisher
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
- Copyright
- EHP is a publication of the U.S. Federal Government, and its content lies in the public domain.
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/01/2002
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Occupational and Environmental Health
- Record Identifier
- 9983557433002771
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