Well this is disconcerting. A scientist who works for the Naval War College (Mark Lyles) has been doing research on dust from the War Zones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. And the results appear to be disconcerting. All sorts of elevated levels of toxins are reported to have been found in the dust. Though I note I am still trying to track down all the publications associated with this article. The main news story about this in USA Today (Navy researcher links toxins in war-zone dust to ailments – USATODAY.com) does not report where these findings were published. I am working on tracking down that information.
Note see also
Note – here is a reference for some of the work by Lyles:
Lyles, M. B., Medical Geology: Dust Exposure and Potential Health Risks in
the Middle East. In International Seminars on Nuclear War and Planetary
Emergencies, 42th Session, Erice, Italy, August 19th – 24th, 2009. Editor R.
Ragaini, World Scientific Publishing Co. 497-502. 2010.