Chemical Weapons Working Group
128 Main St. Berea KY 40403
859-986-7565 859-986-2695 (F)
www.cwwg.org
craig@cwwg.org
for more information contact:
Lois Kleffman: 859-986-0868
For immediate release: Monday, April 24, 2006
CWWG DIRECTOR TO RECEIVE HIGHEST INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD
SAN FRANCISCO--Tonight Craig Williams, Director of the KY-based Chemical Weapons
Working Group (CWWG), is to be awarded the prestigious 2006 Goldman Environmental Prize.
The $125,000 Prize, created by philanthropist Richard N. Goldman in 1990, is awarded
annually to six grassroots “environmental heroes”-one from each of six continental
regions. Often referred to as the “Nobel Prize for the Environment,” it is the
largest award of its kind in the world.
Mr. Williams, who organized the CWWG and has guided the national citizens' coalition for
15 years, was chosen to receive the award for North America. He is being honored for his
unprecedented success in effecting environmentally protective changes in Pentagon decisions
concerning destruction of the US stockpile of chemical weapons. Because of Mr. Williams'
non-stop diligence and strategic acuity, he and the CWWG were able to successfully convince
the world's biggest bureaucracy-the Pentagon-to stretch far beyond its historic mindset
and to:
· identify, test and deploy destruction technologies that are safe for the environment
and residents of affected communities, rather than the Army's preferred and dangerous option
of burning the weapons; and
· include citizens as participants in making decisions throughout the destruction
process. As one of six Prize recipients, Mr. Williams is among “the most
important people you have never heard of,” according to Mr. Goldman. “All
of them have fought, often alone and at great personal risk, to protect the environment
in their home countries. Their incredible achievements are an inspiration to all
of us.”
Mr. Williams said of receiving this year's Prize, “It is humbling for me to be in the
presence of my fellow recipients and to learn of their accomplishments. I know that all the
work represented by these dedicated citizens of the world has made it easier for each of us
to work for healthy environments in our own communities. Tonight, by awarding a few, the
important work of hundreds of thousands of people world wide will also be honored.”
Mr. Williams is to be presented with the award in the San Francisco Opera House at 5 p.m.
From California, the Prize recipients will travel to the nation's capitol on April 26 for a
press conference followed by a second Prize ceremony at the National Geographic Society.
This year's other winners are: Anne Kajir from Papua New Guinea; Olya Melen from Lviv,
Ukraine; Silas Siakor from Monrovia, Liberia; Tarcisio Feitosa Da Silva from Altamira,
Brazil; and Yu Xiaogang from Kunming, China.
Chemical Weapons Working Group
P.O. Box 467
Berea, KY 40403
606-986-7565 606-986-2695 (FAX)
kefwilli@acs.eku www.cwwg.org
for more information, contact:
Craig Williams, 606-986-7565
Paul Sullivan, 202-628-2700 ext. 162
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for immediate release: Thursday, September 24, 1998
GULF VETS RENEW THEIR CALL FOR A HALT TO INCINERATION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS; CITE NEW
TOXICITY DATA
At the 3rd Annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference, held in Washington, D.C.
September 18-21, Gulf War veterans signed a Resolution calling for the Pentagon to halt its
program of burning chemical warfare agents (CWA). Citing, among other things, the recent
National Research Council (NRC) report which found the Pentagon's current "safe" CWA exposure
standards to be inadequate and invalid, the Resolution stated that the Pentagon's
incineration program, based on these invalid standards, is "not protective of veterans,
workers, the general population and the environment."
"We have suspected for years that the Pentagon's exposure standards for these deadly
agents were outdated and now the NRC has concluded that not only are they outdated, they
are invalid, " said Paul Sullivan, Executive Director of the National Gulf War Resource
Center, a coalition of over 50 Gulf War veterans' groups across the nation. "According to
the NRC report, the Pentagon has known since at least 1994 that the standards are inadequate.
It's time for the Pentagon to work with the Chemical Weapons Working Group and the National
Gulf War Resource Center to ensure the adequate protection of soldiers and civilians.
Incineration of chemical weapons must be stopped," Sullivan added.
In its call for an end to incineration, the veterans' Resolution states the connection
between the low levels of uncombusted CWA particles routinely emitted from the Pentagon's
operating incinerators and the low-level nerve and mustard agent exposures in the Gulf which
an October 1997 Congressional report linked to Gulf War Illnesses.
The Resolution also cites the current alternatives development program and the acknowledged
ability of alternative technologies to "contain all disposal residues until they are deemed
safe for release."
"It's time for the Pentagon to finally admit that burning CWA places veterans, workers and
civilians at unnecessary risk and to deploy instead technologies known to be safer and
thus more protective," commented Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons
Working Group, a national coalition of groups supporting alternatives to incineration.
"Despite the serious nature of low-level exposures to CWA, understood only too well by Gulf
War veterans, the Army chooses to continue its incineration program as if there is no link
between such exposures, Gulf War Illnesses and public health protection."
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A copy of the Gulf War veterans' Resolution is available from the CWWG's office.
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for immediate release, Monday, November 24, 1997
VETERANS WARN OF "GULF WAR ILLNESS AT HOME; "OPPOSE ARMY PLANS TO INCINERATE CHEMICAL
WEAPONS IN U.S.
As inspectors return to Iraq to assure that weapons of mass destruction are not being
produced, veterans of the Gulf War are calling on the Pentagon to abandon its plan to
burn 26,000 tons of chemical weapons at eight bases upwind of 180 million U.S. citizens.
More than two dozen organizations representing Gulf War veterans endorsed a resolution
opposing the current Pentagon chemical weapons incineration program and advocating safe
disposal of chemical weapons at a recent meeting in Atlanta.
"Just as in the Gulf War where the Pentagon has denied any human health risk from exposure
to low levels of chemical agents, the Government continues to claim there will be no
health impacts from chemical weapons incineration in the U.S.," said Paul Sullivan,
Executive Director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, a coalition of Gulf War
Veterans groups. Sullivan added, "The claim that alarms from these facilities are false,
mimics the pattern of denial, deception and incompetence witnessed during and since the
Gulf War." The Army is currently testing chemical weapons incinerators in Tooele, Utah,
and on Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. Both plants have repeatedly been shut down because
of agent leaks and other major malfunctions.
The groups' resolution charged that "low level exposure to nerve and mustard agents
alone or in combination with other toxic compounds are highly suspected as being the
cause or contributing significantly to the illnesses of thousands of Gulf War Veterans"
and noted "there are non-incineration alternative technologies available that will not
result in the release of chemical warfare agents and other toxics into the environment."
The Chemical Weapons Convention, which the U.S. has signed and ratified, calls for the
destruction of lethal agents but does not specify how this task will be accomplished. The
Pentagon chose incineration in the early 1980's and has not changed its plans despite
evidence of health risks and the development of several alternative technologies.
"As we saw in the Gulf War, the Pentagon's safe exposure standards on nerve and mustard
agent are outdated by more than 15 years and do not adequately protect workers, civilians
and their environment," added Craig Williams, spokesman for the Chemical Weapons Working
Group (CWWG), a national coalition of groups supporting alternatives to incineration. "The
Army must abandon its fixation on burning these dangerous materials and pursue the
technologies that can destroy chemical weapons more safely."
Several groups representing veterans of Viet Nam, where agent orange exposure caused
long-term health effects, also supported the anti-incineration resolution.
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Statement of James J. Tuite III
Interdisciplinary Sciences Director
Chronic Illness Research Foundation at the Annual Press Conference of the Chemical
Weapons Working Group
Washington, DC
April 21, 1997
The following is a quote from a letter I received from a sick Gulf War veteran in 1994.
"We had gas alarms go off several times, We were told they were all false alarms.
We noticed what we thought were missiles streaking across the sky. We were told these
were shooting stars. We heard loud explosions in the sky and saw bright flashes of light.
We were told these were sonic booms."
That veteran is now suffering from Gulf War syndrome.
During the Senate Banking Committee investigation, I received similar deceptive answers
from Administration, Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency officials when
they were questioned regarding the exposure of our soldiers to chemical warfare agents.
It had been the position of the Department of Defense since mid-1993 that no chemical
agents were detected and that no chemical munitions were forward deployed in areas
occupied by US forces. The facts continued to argue otherwise.
Veterans' testimony and studies and reports from before, during and after the war all
indicate that the troops were exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents from fallout
and other collateral agent releases at many locations.
On June 21, 1996, the Department of Defense finally admitted that chemical weapons were
deployed in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations and that they were improperly destroyed
by US troops after the war. But even with this admission, they continue to insist that
only a small number of troops may have been exposed. While they are currently saying that
we should think in terms of "big" numbers--more than 21,000--some estimates of possible
exposures from this event alone are currently as high as 130,000.
We know from prior animal research and human occupational exposures research that many of
the compounds to which the veterans were exposed have been linked to damaged DNA repair
mechanisms and damage to the proteins and enzymes that regulate many neuro-immune processes.
We know the troops were exposed to these nerve and blister warfare agents as well as
many other toxic compounds that by themselves or in combination have been shown to result
in chronic illnesses and cancers.
Now, the very same individuals who misled Congress about the exposure of our veterans to
chemical warfare agents, and who are associated with withholding vital information that
delayed research into their exposures, are telling US civilians that incineration and
low-level exposure to many of the very same compounds is safe.
The Department of Defense tells our veterans that they will research the effects of these
exposures and their possible relationship between Gulf War-related illnesses and at the
same time tells citizens living near the stockpile sites, "It is safe."
No studies have been done to assess the impact of simultaneous exposures to these agents,
their combustion by-products, agricultural pesticides and chlorinated hydrocarbons,
despite an abundance of published scientific evidence to suggest that there is exposure
synergy among these compounds--and despite the fact that many or all of these potential
health threats exist in the vicinity of the stockpile sites.
They have done no dynamic exposure studies, provided no assurances, shown no good faith
and simply say trust us. Trust is a valuable commodity and must be earned.
The Army has not earned our trust. Similar guarantees have been provided in the past to
residents around the earlier generations of testing and incineration sites. Canvases of
the areas around the Tooele/Dugway sites, sites of previous testing and incineration,
indicate that a pattern of cancers and chronic illnesses is emerging in Utah. Similar
situations are being reported at several of the other sites.
Attempts to have epidemiological data collected to assess the impact of past exposures
in the areas where many of these depots are located have simply been rebuffed.
The Air Force continues to deny that Agent Orange is harmful, yet Vietnam veterans suffer
from statistically significant incidences of myeloma cancer, sarcomas, lymphomas and
prostate cancer--cancers epidemiologically associated with occupational exposures to
synthetic chemicals.
Many Vietnam veterans have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder--a
non-specific diagnosis based on symptoms that constitute a subset of those associated
with the neuropsychiatric effects of toxic exposures. Despite a history of proven toxic
exposure, these veterans do not receive toxicological examinations.
The Gulf War veterans receive the same inadequate care and are destined to develop similar
disorders.
The citizens around the stockpile sites are asking for appropriate research to be
conducted and for closed-loop disposal. The military seems to want to do neither.
The Gulf War experience suggests that we should all be concerned about these exposures
to our veterans and our citizens. Congress--which has been quick to exploit the Gulf
War coverup to get publicity--has been abysmally slow in directly addressing the
threats and health problems being confronted by our veterans and their own constituents.
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Statement of Jerry J. Buccafusco PhD.
Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Medical College of Georgia at the Annual Press Conference of the Chemical Weapons
Working Group
Washington, DC
April 21, 1997
Organophosphorus agents have a wide use in medicine, agriculture and unfortunately in
the arsenal of chemical weapons. However, it is the latter two uses that have been
associated with significant toxicity and lethality to humans. With the demise of the
chlorohydrocarbon insecticides such as DDT, the use of the organophosphorus insecticides
which are chemically-related to chemical warfare agents, has become prevalent. Along with
the manufacture and deployment of the more lethal nerve agents this class of drug has
prompted concern regarding not only their acute toxicity, but also the possibility that
low-level, chronic exposure to these compounds is associated with subtle forms of
chronic illness. The most recent event to bring such concern to the forefront was the
Persian Gulf conflict wherein significant numbers of returning veterans continue to
complain of the cluster of symptoms termed the Persian Gulf Illness. Gulf War personnel
had ample opportunities to undergo repeated exposure to drugs related to the
organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitors. These included the liberal use of personal
insecticides, the use and over-use of pyridostigmine bromide--a potential nerve
agent protectant, and the direct exposure to Iraqi chemical nerve agents. But it is the
agricultural setting that has provided the little that is known regarding the consequence
of chronic sub-toxic exposure to the organophosphorus pesticides. In fact, many of the
symptoms reported by agricultural workers who had been subjected to repeated
low-level intoxication are similar to those reported by Gulf War veterans. One of the more
prevalent and troubling of the symptoms reported by both groups is the subtle cognitive
impairment characterized by forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating.
Our research at the MCG has focused on human disorders of cognition, or thinking, and
memory, and it was the memory loss attributed to Persian Gulf Illness that we
initially chose to address. Funded by a grant from the US Army over the past two
years, we have developed a rat model in which chronic low-level exposure to an
organophosphorus agent produced a subtle but reproducible memory impairment for as long
as 3 weeks after termination of the exposure. Moreover, this protracted memory impairment
was accompanied by a delayed recovery of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is targeted
by chemical warfare agents.
These changes were shown to occur specifically in the hippocampus, a portion of the
brain that is critical for new memory formation. Additionally, there was a loss of a
specific class of neurotransmitter receptors for acetylcholine--a brain substance that
helps solidify new memories. The number of acetylcholine receptors had declined by
over 50% and even after 3 weeks, the level had only slightly returned towards normal.
The relevance of these findings is based on the facts that (1) the dementia and memory
loss associated with Alzheimer's disease is accompanied by loss of acetylcholinesterase
and acetylcholine receptors in the hippocampus, (2) that the hippocampus is a brain
structure that is intimately involved in normal memory processes, and (3) that the
neurochemical changes that took place after chronic low-level organophosphorus exposure
appeared to parallel the memory loss in the animals. Our data go on to show that only a
particular form of memory -working memory (but not reference memory) is affected by OP
agents.
Our continuing studies are directed at more fully characterizing the behavioral and
neurochemical, and perhaps the neuropathological change associated with chronic OP
exposure. With this knowledge, we anticipate the development of novel approaches to the
treatment of the cognitive symptoms related to OP exposure whether it occurs on the
peanut field, or the battlefield.
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For immediate release: January 11, 1997
GULF WAR VETERANS, MEDICAL RESEARCHERS WARN OF EXPOSURE AT ARMY'S TOOELE CHEMICAL WEAPONS INCINERATOR
Salt Lake City--Leaders of Gulf veteran organizations joined chemical weapons
incinerator opponents today to warn that 180 million Americans living downwind of
proposed chemical weapons incinerators face the risk of agent contamination. The Pentagon
admits that small amounts of the kinds of nerve agent that may have contributed to
Gulf War illnesses are emitted in smokestack exhaust at the Tooele, Utah incinerator,
although it claims that the amounts are so low that citizens downwind shouldn't be
concerned.
Kim Smith said, "release of any amount of chemical warfare agent is unacceptable,
especially in light of growing evidence that exposure to chemical agents may be a
contributing factor to the illnesses more than 80,000 veterans are reporting. I am
concerned about the health of my children. It is unconscionable to me state regulators
allow this facility to continue to operate knowing that chemical agents are being
released into the environment, and knowing that two high level former managers have
stepped forward at the expense of their careers to say this facility is unsafe." Using
satellite imagery to demonstrate distances chemical warfare agents traveled during the
Gulf War, Jim Tuite former Senate investigator and Gulf War Veterans advocate, said it
should be assumed that during a major accident a plume of chemical agents could drift as
far as 300 kilometers downwind. Tuite said, "This means that as many as 180 million
Americans may live downwind from proposed chemical weapons incinerators should a
major accidental release occur. Salt Lake City is just twenty-five miles downwind of this
facility and we know that agent is being released from the smokestack."
New studies addressed in an abstract by The Journal of the American Medical Association
yesterday indicate an increased probability of agent exposure being connected to Gulf War
Syndrome. In studies done at the University of Texas Southwestern, researchers
concluded, "Our findings provide evidence of associations between symptoms in Gulf War
veterans and exposure to chemicals, including chemical nerve agents."
Gulf War Illnesses researcher, Howard Urnovitz, Ph.D., who is leading research on
immune damage caused by low level chemical agent exposure said, "Study after study
indicates that there is a link between low level exposure to chemical agents and chronic
health problems. There is no proven acceptable level of exposure to these chemicals."
Gulf War Veteran, Paul Sullivan, a spokesperson for the National Gulf War Resource
Center, who lives in Atlanta downwind from a proposed chemical weapons incinerator in
Anniston, Alabama, said, "The Pentagon told us there were no chemical weapons present
in the Persian Gulf. Then they said no one was exposed. This is the same Pentagon that is
telling citizens who live near its chemical weapons stockpiles that releases from incinerator
smokestacks won't hurt them. I would be skeptical."
Due to public opposition to incineration, cost overruns, and technical problems in the
Pacific and Utah, the Army announced its recommendation to abandon incineration in
Maryland and Indiana to pursue non-incineration technologies. Congress has funded and
mandated demonstration of safer, non-incineration technologies for assembled munitions,
such as those stored in Utah.
Craig Williams, spokesperson for the Chemical Weapons Working Group said,
"The Army is moving forward with safer technologies at stockpiles in Maryland and
Indiana. There is no excuse not to use safer technologies in Utah and at all chemical
weapons storage sites."Williams concluded, " Allowing the Pentagon to release low-levels
of chemical agent into communities across this country, in the face of increasing
evidence of harm, is not acceptable. How can President Clinton, the Pentagon and the
Congress claim to be sincere in their efforts to assist the Gulf War veterans and at
the same time allow the same agents to be released into civilian populations? It's
indefensible!"
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