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The DoD’s Force Health Protection and Readiness operation
has set up three chemical/biological exposure databases.
It is DoD’s responsibility to collect and validate
chem/bio exposures to service members while on active duty
and to maintain these databases. It is the responsibility
of the VA to inform veterans about their exposures and the
benefits to which they may be entitled, and to advise these
veterans of procedures to follow if they have health concerns.
One
database—now basically complete—contains
more than 6,300 names of veterans who participated in mustard
and lewisite experiments in the 1940s. Some 4,600 of these
veterans were exposed to mustard or lewisite. Data were collected
in the mid-1990s; DoD does not have dose information.
The
second database—not necessarily complete—has
more than 6,440 names of veterans who participated in the
Project 112/SHAD tests between 1963 and 1973. Work on this
database commenced in 2000 and ended in 2003, although DoD
says it will “continue to pursue all leads from veterans.” Individual
exposure data are not part of the database, as many documents
are still classified.
The third database, which contains approximately
10,000 names including some 1,800 who participated in tests
with no active agent involved, deals with a variety of other
chem/bio exposures between World War II and today. These
include: LSD exposures; experiments at Edgewood Arsenal and
Fort Detrick in Maryland; and experiments at nineteen total
locations, information about which DoD is obtaining at the
Edgewood Historical Office, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Dugway
Proving Ground in Utah, and other sites. DoD does have detailed
exposure, treatment, and test information in this database.
In
these tests, more than four hundred different compounds were
involved. They included 46 chemical agents; biological agents
and experimental vaccines; hallucinogens, including LSD;
treatments, including atropine; and drugs such as Benadryl,
Ritalin, and Dapsone.
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©2006-
2011, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910