§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Dr. Lewis Moonie)Figures for Gulf veterans' mortality from 1 April 1991 to 30 June 2002 were published on 23 July 2002,Official Report, columns 909–10W in answer to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Gillian Merron). The latest data, as at 31 December 2002, are shown in Table 1 below. As before, the data for Gulf veterans are compared with that 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 to 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 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 corhort 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 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, 170–176 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 nepolasm of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue 19 11 239 Unspecified nature 3 2 1World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision, Geneva, 1977.