Defence secretary orders a review into military records and the Pentagon will increase support for veterans who could be at risk

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

More than 600 US service members told military medical staff that they believe they were exposed to chemical warfare agents in Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003, the New York Times has reported.

Pentagon officials said the department will now expand its outreach to veterans and establish a toll-free hotline for reporting potential exposures and seeking medical evaluation or care, the newspaper said.

Defence secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an internal review of military records after the Times reported in October that US troops encountered degraded chemical weapons from the 1980s that had been hidden or used in makeshift bombs.

The initial newspaper report disclosed that 17 service members had been injured by sarin or sulphur mustard agent, and several more came forward after the story appeared, the Times said Thursday.

The Army’s Public Health Command collects standardised medical-history surveys, known as post-deployment health assessments, which troops fill out as they complete combat tours, the newspaper reported.

Those who responded “yes” to a question about exposure to such warfare agents “Do you think you were exposed to any chemical, biological and radiological warfare agents during this deployment?” were asked to provide a brief explanation.

The review ordered by Hagel showed that 629 people answered “yes” to that question and also filled in a block with information indicating chemical agent exposure, Colonel Jerome Buller, a spokesman for the Army surgeon general, told the newspaper. Each person who answered the questionnaire would have received a medical consultation at the end of their combat tour, Buller said.

The Times reported that it was not clear why the military did not take further steps, such as including compiling the data as it accumulated over more than a decade, tracking veterans with related medical complaints, or circulating warnings about risks to soldiers and to the department of veterans affairs.