Released yesterday by the Department of Defense (DOD) Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses and the RAND Corporation, this 385-page report concluded that the drug Pyridostigmine Bromide, or "PB," could not be ruled out as a possible cause for some of the illnesses veterans of the Gulf War have reported. PB was given to approximately 250,000 US troops sent to the Persian Gulf between 1990 and 1991 as a protection against potential Iraqi use of the nerve agent soman. More than 100,000 of the nearly 700,000 US troops serving in the Gulf have reported a wide range of recurring illnesses. No definitive cause has been found for these ailments. Users can read the full text of the report by chapter in HTML format at the DOD GulfLink site, although the figures and tables are not yet available online.