§ Baroness Massey of Darwenasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the latest figures for deaths of Gulf veterans and among the control group. [HL1298]
§ Lord BachFigures for Gulf veterans' mortality from 1 April 1991 to 30 June 2002 were published on 24 July 2002 (WA 81–82) in answer to a Question by my noble friend Lord Elder. The latest data, as at 31 December 2002, are shown in Table 1 below. As before, the data for Gulf veterans are compared to those of a control group, known as the Era cohort, which is made up of Armed Forces personnel of a similar age, gender, service and rank who were not deployed. Table 2 provides a detailed breakdown of deaths from cancer (malignant neoplasm) by anatomical site.
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Table 1 Deaths of UK Gulf veterans (Note: 1) 1 April 1991–31 December 2002 Causes (coded to ICD-9) (Note: 2) ICD Chapter Cause of death Gulf Era3 Mortality Rate Ratio4 III Endocrine and immune disorders 1 4 0.25 V Mental disorders 12 15 0.80 VI Diseases of the nervous system and sense organs (Note 5) 10 9 1.11 VII Diseases of the circulatory system 75 102 0.73 VIII Diseases of the respiratory system 10 6 1.66 IX Diseases of the digestive system 14 18 0.77 IV, X-XVI All other disease-related causes (Note 6) 2 11 0.18 EXVII External causes of injury and poisoning 338 290 1.16 Railway accidents 4 1 3.98 Motor vehicle accidents 118 97 1.21 Water transport accidents 5 1 4.97 Air and space accidents 25 19 1.31 Other vehicle accidents 0 1 0.00 Accidental poisoning 12 14 0.85 Accidental falls 8 7 1.14 Accidents due to fire/flames 0 2 0.00 Accidents due to natural environmental factors 2 2 1.00 Accidents due to submersion/suffocation/foreign bodies 17 7 2.42 Other accidents 31 29 1.06 Late effects of accident/injury 0 2 0.00 Suicide and injury undetermined whether accidental 107 100 1.07 Homicide 6 4 1.49 Injury resulting from the operations of war 3 4 0.75 Other deaths for which coded cause data are not yet available 5 4 Overseas deaths for which cause data are not available 3 4 Notes:
1. Service and Ex-Service personnel only.
2. World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision 1977.
3. The Era group comprises 53,143 personnel, randomly sampled from all UK Armed Forces personnel in service on 1 January 1991 and who did not deploy to the Gulf. This group is matched to the 53,409 Gulf veterans to reflect the socio-demographic and military composition of the Gulf cohort in terms of age, gender, Service (Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force), officer/other rank status, regular,' reservist status, and a proxy measure for fitness.
4. Mortality rate ratios differ marginally from the crude deaths ratio owing to some small differences between the Gulf and Era cohorts.
5. These figures include 4 deaths from Motor Neurone Disease amongst the Gulf cohort and 3 in the Era group.
6. Includes cases with insufficient information on the death certificate to provide a known cause of death.
Table 2 Deaths due to neoplasms among UK Gulf veterans: 1 April 1991–31 December 2002 (Major anatomical sites (coded to ICD-9)1 IDC 9 Site Gulf Era 140–239 All neoplasms 97 109 140–149 Malignant neoplasm of lip, oral cavity and pharynx 3 4 150–159 Malignant neoplasm of digestive organs and peritoneum 21 25 160–165 Malignant neoplasm of respiratory and intrathoracic organs 15 24 170–175 Malignant nepolasm of bone, connective tissue, skin and breast 14 10 179–189 Malignant neoplasm of genitourinary organs 2 6 190–199 Malignant neoplasm of other and unspecified site 20 27 200–208 Malignant neoplasm of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue 19 11 239 Unspecified nature 3 2 1World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision, Geneva, 1977.