A SIMPLE way to diagnose organophosphate poisoning in Gulf War veterans and
farmers may be just around the corner, claims a US scientist.
Mohamed Abou-Donia of Duke University Medical Center in Durham has found
antibodies to nerve proteins in the blood of a 5-year-old boy exposed to the OP
pesticide chlorpyrifos. The antibodies indicate damage to the nervous system
consistent with OP poisoning.
Groups campaigning for the British and US authorities to acknowledge the
illness caused by OPs have seized on the development as a possible way of
identifying affected people. “This is a significant breakthrough,” says
Elizabeth Sigmund of…
