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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- When they finally come home from war, some U.S. soldiers are returning with a debilitating condition -- and it isn’t something you can see. A large group of soldiers exposed to sulfur dioxide at a mine fire near Mosul Iraq in 2003 are suffering from a lung disease called bronchiolitis.
Fifty-six of the soldiers from Fort Campbell, Kent. who were in Mosul at the time of the fire were evaluated for unexplained shortness of breath. When chest X-rays, computerized tomography scans and pulmonary function tests didn’t find anything, thorascopic lung biopsies were performed. Twenty-nine of the soldiers were conclusively diagnosed with bronchiolitis, which affects the small airways of the lung.
All of the soldiers were physically fit whey they were deployed. Robert Miller, M.D., assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Vanderbilt University, was the principal investigator. “On return, none of those diagnosed with bronchiolitis met physical training standards. In almost every case, they were declared unfit for duty and were medically boarded with a service connected disability.”
The sulfur fire at Mosul was the largest ever man-made release of sulfur dioxide. It was 100-times greater than the release from the volcanic eruption of Mt. St. Helens.
Also disturbing was the fact that five of the 31 soldiers biopsied had not been exposed to the Mosul fire, but they too had toxic lung injury. This raises concerns that there were other unidentified toxins putting soldiers at risk of developing the disease. Matthew King, M.D., the study’s lead author, also pointed out that soldiers from battalions other than Fort Campbell were at Mosul as well.
“Bronchiolitis needs to be considered in Iraq war veterans presenting with unexplained shortness of breath on exertion,” Dr. King was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: American Thoracic Society’s 2008 International Convention in Toronto, May 16-21, 2008
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