Veterans groups have been highly critical of the Defense Department for not investigating chemical exposures earlier and more aggressively.
Weather, warheads analyzed
The conference, which also brought in representatives from the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, went into exhaustive detail on the study, explaining how meteorological data and warhead reconstructions were used to estimate the number of soldiers exposed.
Prevailing wind conditions on the date of the weapons destruction at Khamisiyah ammunition depot helped investigators determine how far nerve gas might have been spread.
By rebuilding warheads, investigators learned how much of the nerve gas could have been spread around, and in what form. The warheads, they found, held less nerve gas than originally believed each could have held no more than 6.3 kg of the gas, not 8 kg as originally thought. This would have made for a total of no more than 1,882 gallons of agent in the pit.
Not the solution for Gulf War illness
The Pentagon, working with the CIA, has found no clear link between the chemical exposures and the unexplained illnesses, but many veterans still believe chemical or possibly biological weapons are to blame.
Many of the veterans have complained of medical problems such as fatigue, sleep disorders, headaches and pain in the joints and muscles.
For more than five years after the war, the Pentagon strongly denied there was any evidence that American troops had been exposed to chemical weapons.
But in June 1996, the Pentagon acknowledged that the demolition of the Khamisiyah depot in southern Iraq in March 1991 had resulted in the release of toxic chemical agents in the vicinity of American troops. Pentagon officials said, however, they didnt know the degree of exposure or the number of troops affected.
