MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

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concluded that there is no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome, and that one pathway of subsequent illness
could be the “perceived” risk of chemical attack and that this “psychological” effect might be contributing to
the increased level of ill‐health in Gulf War veterans. This was disproved by a 1999 study carried out for the
US Defense Department by Dr Beatrice Golomb for the Rand Corporation which found that pyridostigmine
bromide tablets (NAPPS) that the troops were forced to take could not be ruled out as causative (see
Denigration by Design? Volume II (Up‐date), November 1999: http://tinyurl.com/byn3fn).
UK soldiers were given ten vaccines plus five or six undeclared (and unknown) injections (all records of
which have been destroyed or kept by the Ministry of Defence); US soldiers had seventeen vaccines by
injection. No informed consent was given by the soldiers. All the toxic substances to which Gulf War
veterans were exposed affect the central nervous system and – with the exception of depleted uranium –
they also affect the peripheral nervous system; some affect the autonomic nervous system, the
cardiovascular system and the blood. By 1999, 9,000 previously fit and healthy Gulf War veterans had died,
by which time there were 230,000 medical cases.
In 2008 Wessely et al were conclusively shown to be wrong about Gulf War Syndrome: a report
commissioned by the US Congress from The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses,
chaired by JH Binns and authored by Beatrice Golomb, Daniel Clauw et al (Gulf War Illness and the Health
of Gulf War Veterans: Scientific Findings and Recommendations; Washington DC; US Government Printing
Office, www.va.gov/RAC‐GWVI) concluded that Gulf War Illness is causally related to exposure to
organophosphates and pyridostigmine bromide (PB / NAPPS tablets). This is a proven example of
misattribution by Wessely et al.
Wessely has been shown to be equally wrong about the Camelford drinking water incident, which he
dismissed as mass hysteria. In July 1988 twenty tonnes of aluminium sulphate were pumped into the
drinking water supplies of the Cornish town of Camelford. Ninety minutes later, a 140‐square mile area was
affected by Britain’s worst water pollution. Residents and visitors immediately suffered distressing
symptoms including nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea, stinging eyes, mouth ulcers that took weeks to heal,
skin rashes, peeling skin and lips sticking together, followed by musculoskeletal pains, malaise and
impairment of memory and concentration. In some cases, hair, skin and nails turned blue; bone showed
stainable aluminium over six months later.
In the Camelford incident, initially seven people died, 25,000 people suffered serious health effects and
40,000 animals were affected (The Ecologist 1999:20:6:228‐233). It is since thought that at least 20 people
died from drinking the contaminated water (Sue Reid, Daily Mail, 14 th December 2007).
An article by Bernard Dixon in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 1995:311:395), based on a “re‐assessment” of
the Camelford incident by psychiatrists Anthony David and Simon Wessely (Psychosomatic Research
1995:39:1‐9) stated: “mass hysteria was largely responsible for the furore” and claimed that David and Wessely’s
article “helps to sort out facts from fiction”. David and Wessely’s article found that anxiety was the cause of
the symptoms and that there was no evidence of long‐term adverse effects on health as a consequence of the
water contamination. Typically,“sensational reporting” by the media was held to be a significant factor.
Although noting that some peoples’ hair, skin and nails turned blue, in their paper Wessely and his co‐
author Anthony David claimed that the “somatic” symptoms were the result of heightened perception of
normal and benign symptoms and irresponsible reporting by the press, though they did not explain by what
mechanism hysteria affects animals.
In 1999 it was conclusively shown by Paul Altmann et al that there was objective evidence of considerable
organic brain damage compatible with the known effects of exposure to aluminium and that it was this
exposure, not anxiety or hysteria, which was the cause of the symptoms exhibited by those who had been
exposed to the contaminated water (BMJ 1999:319:807‐811).