NIOSH testimony on Kuwait before the subcommittee on hospitals and health care, committee on veterans' affairs by J. S. Andrews, September 16, 1992
The testimony summarizes potential adverse health effects related to service in the Persian Gulf as presented by the Department of Health and Human Services. An estimated 9,000 workers from 43 different countries battled the burning oil wells in Kuwait from February 1991 through early November 1991 when the last was capped. Exposures and health effects in US military personnel, Kuwaiti citizens, and fire fighters were described. The hazards to the soldiers were largely dependent on the concentration of the pollutants in the air near the camps. Fortunately, the plume from the fires rose up to 10,000 and 12,000 feet, mixed with the air and then dispersed for several thousand miles downwind over a period of several weeks. The particles and gases contained in the plume were diluted as the plume travelled. Even so, some minor respiratory problems were present among the soldiers. Some of the hydrocarbons measured at low concentrations have been shown to produce cancer in laboratory animals only when present at higher levels of exposure. Based on the exposure information gathered, the author concludes that there will not likely be a detectable increase in lung cancer in Gulf War Veterans as a result of the oil well fires.
- Research Organization:
- National Inst. for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 7117851
- Report Number(s):
- PB-93-120525/XAB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
ANIMALS
ARABIAN SEA
ASHES
ASIA
BUILDINGS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
FIRE FIGHTING
FIRES
FLUIDS
GASES
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HOSPITALS
HYDROCARBONS
INDIAN OCEAN
KUWAIT
LABORATORY ANIMALS
MAMMALS
MAN
MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS
MIDDLE EAST
MILITARY PERSONNEL
OIL WELLS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PARTICLES
PERSIAN GULF
PERSONNEL
PRIMATES
PUBLIC HEALTH
RESIDUES
RISK ASSESSMENT
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TOXICITY
VERTEBRATES
WELLS