WSU to Study Iraq Toxins' Effect by Bert Caldwell Research to
examine how exposure might damage offspring of soldiers
Washington State University scientists will use a $1.7 million
grant to study what multi-generation genetic damage might be
done by toxins U.S. troops could encounter in Iraq. The research
using laboratory rats, not humans, will be the first for the
military to examine the epigenetic effects of pesticides,
herbicides and other compounds, said lead scientist Michael
Skinner, director of the university's Center for Reproductive
Biology. Previous studies have looked at the health effects of
other substances, notably the Agent Orange used to defoliate
jungles in Vietnam, on the soldiers directly exposed, he said,
not on their children or grandchildren. "The science really had
not caught up with the trans-generational stuff," said Skinner,
one of several WSU pioneers in the field of epigenetic, or
multi-generational, inheritance. Besides herbicides and
pesticides – which and in what combinations ha