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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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
COMBUSTION PRODUCTS
HEALTH HAZARDS
FIRES
RISK ASSESSMENT
KUWAIT
OIL WELLS
COMBUSTION
ASHES
FIRE FIGHTING
GASES
HOSPITALS
HYDROCARBONS
LABORATORY ANIMALS
MILITARY PERSONNEL
PARTICLES
PERSIAN GULF
PUBLIC HEALTH
TOXICITY
ANIMALS
ARABIAN SEA
ASIA
BUILDINGS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
FLUIDS
HAZARDS
INDIAN OCEAN
MAMMALS
MAN
MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS
MIDDLE EAST
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PERSONNEL
PRIMATES
RESIDUES
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
VERTEBRATES
WELLS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
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290200 - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics & Sociology