User:Maryam&Alyssa/sandbox

Health impacts

The use of chemicals agents

During the Gulf wars the populations were exposed to chemicals agents. Indeed, chemicals agent, for example Depleted Uranium (DU), were used for the first time during the first Gulf War in tank kinetic energy penetrator or autocannon rounds.

After the Gulf wars, the United Sates Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and research organizations evaluated and are still evaluated possible causes of veterans health issues, and this included chemical and biological weapons.

However, the use of chemicals agent by both US army and Iraqi forces is still a subject of debate. In 1997, the US government published a report that states that:

"The US Intelligence Community (IC) has assessed that Iraq did not use chemical weapons during the Gulf war. However, based on a comprehensive review of intelligence information and relevant information made available by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), we conclude that chemical warfare (CW) agent was released as a result of US postwar demolition of rockets with chemical warheads in a bunker (called Bunker 73 by Iraq) and a pit in an area known as Khamisiyah."

For example, over 100,000 Gulf War Veterans have been exposed to these nerve agents chemicals during the demolition of a munitions storage depot in Khamisiyah.

A study of the Boston School of Public Health show that there is a correlation between the deployed veterans in Iraq and health symptom reporting after the war. After the returned form the Persian Gulf War, many veterans reported health symptoms and medical problems. This report states that:

"Persian Gulf-deployed veterans were more likely to report neurological, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, cardiac, dermatological, musculoskeletal, psychological and neuropsychological system symptoms than Germany veterans."

Gulf War Syndrome

After the Gulf wars, the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Academy of Science (NAS) provided multiple reports on the Gulf war illnesses.

A report published in 2007 on the Gulf War Illnesses states that Veterans in Iraqi were exposed to different chemicals agents as DU, pesticides, nerve gas sarin, and multiple vaccinations.

The report from Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC) established the link between neurological veterans illnesses and the exposure neurotixins.

The Gulf War illness or Gulf War syndrome refers to the illness and neurological symptoms as "fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headaches, loss of memory and poor sleep" encounters by veterans after the Gulf War in 1991. This syndrome was associated to different causes as the exposure to deplete uranium, sarin nerve agents, organophosphate pesticides, and less likely oil well fire, Anthrax vaccine and combat stress.

Cancer

Different researches of the Department of VA have been made on the link between cancers and use chemicals agents during the Gulf War. Indeed, these studies show a correlation between the rising number of cancer mortality and the veterans mobilized during the Gulf War.

Moreover, an article of Al-Monitor published in 2021 point out the link between the rise of cancer cases, military and chemical polluantes and oil/ gas industries that released polluantes during the process of extraction.

However, the link between cancer and the Gulf war is a correlation and not a direct link.

Posttraumatic Stress disorder [edit]

In 1995, incidences of posttraumatic stress disorder were high in Kuwait. Approximately 27 percent of Kuwaiti has this psychiatric disorder. 66 percent of those with diagnosable post-traumatic disorder were still dreaming nightmares about some war events. In addition, many boys were dreaming different dreams about Saddam trying to kill them or hurt their families. A documentary movie about affected families was made. A boy saw his father tortured then killed by the Iraqi soldiers; after this the boy lost the ability to speak. Another affected victim has speech problems because Iraqi soldiers forced her to watch her two sons killed.^{[citation needed]}

Fertility [edit]

Some studies point out a link between fertility problems and the Gulf wars. US veterans form the Gulf Wars faced risks of infertility. Indeed, a research shows that deployed veterans during the Gulf wars faced issues concerning fertility, conceptions or live births, and pregnancy fathered problems.

In time of war, the fertility of the population is also affected. Researches show that the fertility trend in Iraq was in decline, and the war emphasize this trend. Moreover, the use of chemicals weapons affected the population fertility. The case of Fallujah is an example of the impacts of the war on fertility. The city of Fallujah had been bomb during the war and chemicals agents were used. Todays, doctors and researchers found that there is an increase in congenital defects and infertility. Many children were born with nervous system problems.