Gulf War Veterans: Mortality Figures

HL Deb 16 July 2003 vol 651 cc129-31WA

Lord Williams of Elvel

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What are the latest figures for deaths of 1990–91 UK Gulf War veterans. [HL4080]

Lord Bach

Mortality figures for the United Kingdom veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf conflict from 1 April 1991 to 31 December 2002 were published on 9 January 2003 (Official Report, cols. WA 158-WA 160). The latest data, as at 30 June 2003, are shown in Table 1 below. As before, the data for Gulf veterans are compared to that of a control group, known as the era cohort, which is made up of Armed Forces personnel of a similar size, age, gender, service, regular/reservist status and rank who were not deployed. Table 2 provides a detailed breakdown of deaths from cancer (neoplasm) by anatomical site.

On 24 July 2002 (WA 81–83) it was announced that the Ministry of Defence was discussing with the University of Manchester a detailed study of the factors underlying the figures for road traffic accident deaths. There are indications that the excess of motor vehicle accident deaths among Gulf veterans occurred principally during the first six years after the cessation of hostilities (to 31 March 1997) and that this trend has reversed in the following six years to 31 March 2003.

Furthermore, the numbers of incidents are relatively small, the information on each accident is insufficiently detailed to allow meaningful analysis and a considerable amount of time has elapsed since 1 April 1991. Therefore, following the advice of the experts that have been consulted, we have decided not to commission the proposed study.

Table 1

Deaths to UK Gulf veterans

(Note: 1) 1 April 1991–30 June 2003 Causes (coded to ICD-9) (Note: 2)

Mortality Rate
ICD Chapter	Cause of death	Gulf	Era3	Ratio4
	All deaths	600	613	0.97
	All cause coded deaths	586	599	0.97
I-XVI	Disease-related causes	243	300	0.81
I	Infectious and parasitic diseases	4	2	1.99
II	Cancers	105	124	0.84
III	Endocrine and immune disorders	1	6	0.20
V	Mental orders	13	15	0.86
VI	Diseases of the nervous system and sense organs (Note 5)	10	11	0.90
VII	Diseases of the circulatory system	82	106	0.77
VIII	Diseases of the respiratory system	11	6	1.82
IX	Diseases of the digestive system	15	18	0.83
IV, X-XVI	All other disease-related causes (Note 6)	2	12	0.17
EXVII	External causes of injury and poisoning	343	299	1.14
	Railway accidents	4	1	3.98
	Motor vehicle accidents	118	100	1.17
	Water transport accidents	5	1	4.98
	Air and space accidents	25	19	1.31
	Other vehicle accidents	0	1	0.00
	Accidental poisoning	14	15	0.93
	Accidental falls	8	8	1.00
	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
	Otheraccidents	31	29	1.06
	Late effects of accident/injury	0	2	0.00
	Suicide and injury undetermined whether	110	103	1.06
	accidentally or purposely inflicted Homicide	6	5	1.19
	Injury resulting from the operations of war	3	4	0.75
	Other deaths for which coded cause data are not yet available	11	10
	Overseas deaths for which cause data are not available	3	4

Notes:

1. 1. Service and ex-Service personnel only.
2. 2. World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision, 1997.
3. 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. 4. Mortality rate ratios differ marginally from the crude deaths ratio owing to some small differences between the Gulf and Era cohorts.
5. 5. These figures include four deaths from motor neurone disease amongst the Gulf cohort and three in the Era group.
6. 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 veterans

1 April 1991–30 June 2003

Major anatomical sites (coded to ICD-9)¹

ICD9	Site	Gulf	Era
140–239	All neoplasms	105	124
140–149	Malignant neoplasm of lip, oral cavity and pharynx	6	4
150–159	Malignant neoplasm of digestive organs and peritoneum	22	30
160–165	Malignant neoplasm of respiratory and intrathoracic organs	17	25
170–175	Malignant neoplasm of bone, connective tissue, skin and breast	14	13
179–189	Malignant neoplasm of genitourinary organs	3	7
190–199	Malignant neoplasm of other and unspecified site	21	29
200–208	Malignant neoplasm of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue	19	14
239	Unspecified nature	3	2

¹ World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision, Geneva, 1997.