§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Ivor Caplin) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
As part of the Government's commitment to investigate Gulf veterans' illnesses openly and honestly, data on mortality of veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf conflict are regularly published. The most recent figures, for the period 1 April 1991 to 31 December 2003, were published on 15 January 2004. The key tables from that publication are set out below. Table 1 gives the causes of death to UK Gulf veterans over that period; table 2 shows the deaths due to malignant neoplasms among UK Gulf veterans. As with previous information, 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 age, gender, service, regular/reservist status and rank who were not deployed.
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Table 1: Deaths to UK Gulf veterans1 1 April 1991–31 December 2003 Causes2 ICD Chapter Cause of death Gulf Era Mortality Rate Ratio 95% Confidence Interval All deaths 632 643 0.98 (0.88–1.09) All cause coded deaths 619 627 0.98 (0.88–1.10) I — XVI Disease-related causes 265 321 0.82 (0.70–0.97) I Infectious and parasitic diseases 6 3 1.99 (0.43–12.30) II Cancers 115 130 0.88 (0.68–1.14) III Endocrine and immune disorders 1 6 0.17 (0.00–1.37) V Mental disorders 13 16 0.81 (0.36–1.79) VI Diseases of the nervous system and sense organs 10 11 0.90 (0.34–2.35) VII Diseases of the circulatory system 88 113 0.77 (0.58–1.03) VIII Diseases of the respiratory system 11 8 1.37 (0.50–3.92) IX Diseases of the digestive system 16 20 0.80 (0 39–1.62) IV, X—XVI All other disease-related causes3 5 14 0.36 (0.10–1.04) EXVII External causes of injury and poisoning 354 306 1.15 (0.99–1.35) Railway accidents 4 1 3.98 (0.39–196.03) Motor vehicle accidents 124 101 1.22 (0.93–1.60) Water transport accidents 5 1 4.98 (0.56–235.34) Air and space accidents 26 19 1.36 (0.73–2.60) Other vehicle accidents 0 1 0.00 (0.00–38.81) Accidental poisoning 14 15 0.93 (0.42–2.06) Accidental falls 8 8 1.00 (0.33–3.04) Accidents due to fire/flames 0 2 0.00 (0.00–5.30) Accidents due to natural environmental factors 2 2 1.00 (0.07–13.73) Accidents due to submersion/suffocation/foreign bodies 17 7 2.42 (0.95–6.89) Other accidents 32 30 1.06 (0.62–1.81) Late effects of accident/injury 0 2 0.00 (0.00–5.30) Suicide and injury undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted 113 108 1.04 (0.79–1.37) Homicide 6 5 1.19 (0.30–4.95) Injury resulting from the operations of war 3 4 0.75 (0.11–4.41) Other deaths for which coded cause data are not yet available 9 12 Overseas deaths for which cause data are not available 4 4 Notes
1 Service and Ex-Service personnel only.
2 Causes have been coded to the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th revision (ICD-9), 1977.
3 Includes cases with insufficient information on the death certificate to provide a known cause of death.
Table 2: Deaths due to Malignant neoplasms among UK Gulf veterans 1 April 1991–31 December 2003 Major anatomical sites and specific sites with at least 5 deaths in one of the cohorts ICD Chapter Anatomical site Gulf Era Mortality Rate Ratio 95% Confidence Interval 140–149 Malignant neoplasms of lip, oral cavity and pharynx 6 4 1.49 (0.35–7.19) 150–159 Malignant neoplasms of digestive organs and peritoneum of which: 25 31 0.80 (0.45–1.40) 150 Malignant neoplasms of oesophagus 9 4 2.24 (0.62–9.95) 153 Malignant neoplasms of colon 4 11 0.36 (0.08–1.22) 160–165 Malignant neoplasms of respiratory and intrathoracic organs of which: 17 26 0.65 (0.33–1.25) 162 Malignant neoplasms of trachea, bronchus and lung 15 24 0.62 (0.30–1.24) 170–175 Malignant neoplasms of bone, connective tissue, skin and breast of which: 16 14 1.14 (0.52–2.52) 172 Malignant neoplasms of skin 7 6 1.16 (0.33–4.18) 179–189 Malignant neoplasms of genitourinary organs 4 7 0.57 (0.12 –2.24) 190–199 Malignant neoplasms of other and unspecified sites of which: 23 31 0.74 (0.41–1.31) 199 Malignant neoplasms of brain 15 15 1.00 (0.45–2.18) 200–208 Malignant neoplasms of lymphatic and haematopoietic tissue of which: 21 14 1.49 (0.72–3.17) 200–202 Lymphomas 10 8 1.24 (0.44–3.63) 204–208 Leukaemias 9 6 1.49 (0.47– 5.10) 235–239 Neoplasm of uncertain behaviour or unspecified nature 3 3 1.00 (0.13– 7.43)