§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are aware of any connection between the illnesses and birth defects suffered by the population of Halabja in northern Iraq following their exposure to toxic chemicals in 1986 (as reported on 23 February by the Channel 4 programme, "Dispatches") and the illnesses experienced by Gulf War veterans and others exposed to organophosphates. [HL835]
§ Lord GilbertThe Government are aware of the "Dispatches" programme "Saddam's Secret Time Bomb", shown on Channel 4 on 23 February 1998, which concerned the incidence of ill-health among the population of the area around the town of Halabja in northern Iraq. So far as the Government is aware, there have been no epidemiological studies of this population. 125WA It would, therefore, be premature to seek a connection between ill-health among this group and that among other groups, such as Gulf veterans.
There is still no medical or scientific consensus concerning Gulf veterans' illnesses, and we are not aware of any evidence showing an increased incidence of adverse reproductive outcomes in the families of Gulf veterans. However, an epidemiological study led by Dr. David Cowan, which was published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that there was no evidence that children born to US Gulf veterans were suffering from a higher than average incidence of birth abnormalities. An MoD-funded epidemiological study under Dr. Patricia Doyle at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is currently examining the reproductive health of UK Gulf veterans and the health of their children.
Epidemiological research is currently underway, sponsored jointly by the Department of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and the Health and Safety Executive, into the effects on human health of low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides in the context of the health concerns of some farm workers.