Allegations of Biological Weapons Use - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 275

ples in Thailand and analyzed them for trichothecenes, reporting toxin
in 5 people with no exposure to alleged chemical attacks. British gov-
ernment scientists reported trichothecenes in the environment and in
stored foodstuff in Thailand. Thus there is no reason to doubt that tricho-
thecenes can be found naturally in Southeast Asia, and that trichothe-
cene poisoning may be a seasonally significant medical problem in refu-
gee camps, combat zones, and other disrupted areas. 111
There also seems to have been insufficient effort to consider infectious
disease or deficiency disorders as alternative explanations for symptoms
attributed to trichothecenes. For instance, gastrointestinal hemorrhage
can be caused by bacterial necrotic enteritis, a disease mainly of children
but occasionally of adults, which has been reported in Southeast Asia
since 1967. An outbreak in a Thai refugee camp in 1982 sickened 62
Khmer (Cambodian) children, of whom 36 died. Bloody diarrhea, one of
the symptoms that the US attributed to trichothecenes, was nearly uni-
versal among victims; vomiting was common, and bloody vomit (another
alleged symptom of trichothecene poisoning) was present in about 10
percent. 112
Conclusion
The evidence for toxin weapon use by the USSR and client states was vo-
luminous but unreliable—and masses of poor evidence do not add up to
good evidence. Much eyewitness testimony appears to be badly contami-
nated by interviewer biases and expectations, and by cultural and linguis-
tic ambiguities. No physical evidence from attack sites of chemical agents
other than trichothecenes was reported, and the trichothecene results
could not be replicated, an outcome that negates their significance. No
delivery devices were recovered. No medical evidence unambiguously
supports the claims. The trichothecenes detected in biomedical samples
may have also been false positives; if not, they could readily have been
the result of dietary intoxication, not toxin warfare. Infections may have
caused symptoms attributed to trichothecene intoxication.
Clearly, the evidence for toxin warfare in Southeast Asia or Afghani-
stan, or even for chemical attacks more generally, is insufficiently robust
to sustain such serious charges. Nevertheless, the absence of definitive
evidence is not proof that attacks did not take place, and many analysts