Guardian (UK): Army shells pose cancer risk in Iraq (DU)

[BlueEyedSon]

Depleted uranium causing high radioactivity levels

Antony Barnett, public affairs editor
Sunday December 14, 2003
The Observer

Depleted uranium shells used by British forces in southern Iraqi battlefields are putting civilians at risk from 'alarmingly high' levels of radioactivity.
Experts are calling for the water and milk being used by locals in Basra to be monitored after analysis of biological and soil samples from battle zones found 'the highest number, highest levels and highest concentrations of radioactive source points' in the Basra suburb of Abu Khasib - the centre of the fiercest battles between UK forces and Saddam loyalists.

Readings taken from destroyed Iraqi tanks in Basra reveal radiation levels 2,500 times higher than normal. In the surrounding area researchers recorded radioactivity levels 20 times higher than normal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1106687,00.html

[soothsayer]

1. there are a whole lot of naysayers here who say DU shells are safe

I'm not one of 'em. I think it's TERRIBLE that the US uses them when other countries forbid them.

Our military sucks in terms of the environment. I find that unacceptable.

Get ready for a whole bunch more gulf war syndrome soldiers...and the poor civilians, too. Birth defect city.

[pans11]

2. General Clark

That one thing that I heard General Clark say on C-span that I don't agree with, He said that DU shells wasn't harmful.

[frank frankly]

3. Clark supporters, please forward this article to the campaign

no offense intended

[cosmicaug]

4. WHO web site on DU

http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/du/en/

Linked from the above:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/

There's other stuff at the United Nations websites that casts D.U. as relatively safe but I wouldn't know how to go about finding it at the moment.

[soothsayer]

5. i wonder why other countries have banned it then?

godnoze it's effective weaponry

[Wolfetone]

12. du

Yes, well, how about the WHO? http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/en/Report_WHO_depleted_uranium_Eng.pdf Several studies have investigated the environmental consequences of depleted uranium at testing sites and firing ranges, most notably in the US, for example at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Yuma and Nellis bases, as well as in the Gulf states following the Gulf War. Similarly, various medical studies have been initiated and a growing body of literature is now publicly available. State of knowledge literature reviews were examined by the mission as part of the preparations for the activities undertaken in Kosovo. Two particularly relevant observations were drawn from the literature:

First, the low radioactive content of depleted uranium compared to natural uranium;

Second, the lack of authoritative epidemiological and radio-biological evidence that demonstrates the initiation of cancer or serious dysfunction of organs through exposure to depleted uranium. The scientific literature is unambiguous with regard to the relative radioactivity of depleted uranium. An object composed of depleted uranium contains lower radioactivity than one with the same concentration of natural uranium (as discussed in section 2). WHO issued a fact sheet on depleted uranium in January 2001 (WHO 2001); it provides an interpretation of the consequences of depleted uranium. The fact sheet points out that no radiation-related increases in leukaemia have been found in uranium workers and that in war zones, even under extreme conditions, the inhalation of dust and smoke will only result in a small increase in radiation exposure. It also points out that the accepted latency period before the clinical identification of leukaemia from any ionizing radiation or other relevant exposures is at least two to five years. This is a period longer than has elapsed since the end of the Kosovo conflict in mid-1999.

[AngryAmish]

6. The US will continue to use the Dep. Ur.

Bush* wants everyone in Iraq to get cancer...All the easier to steal their oil.

[seventhson]

7. And the faster GI's die the cheaper it is for Bush to give them medical

treatment. Like cigaret smokers - high mortality means less time and cost for treatment.

Bush and Clark are very smart and wise on these cost saving devices (Depleted Uranium)

Gulf war syndrome. Gulf War syndrome II. Depleted Uranium.

And I would NOT be surprised if the flu we have now is related to the mutation of viruses globally affected by atmospheric releases from these DU bombings floating globally.

[Djinn]

8. when you're dodging cluster bombs

and other unexploded ordinance - long term health problems like cancer maybe loose their edge

[Eureka]

9. Nice Flag :-) n/t

[Djinn]

11. thanks - nice name!

I got a PM the other day asking what the flag represented - didn't mention it is now mainly seen on the blue singleted guts of blokes in far north pubs!

[tlcandie]

10. Japan Times...hundreds to thousands of times the normal levels

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20031122b3.htm

<snip>
Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation. But he must wait another three months before getting the final results, he said.

Durakovic spent 19 years as a military doctor for the U.S. Defense Department, and studied the health of veterans after the 1991 Gulf War.
<snip>

<snip>
The Pentagon has admitted using some 300 tons of depleted uranium during the Gulf War. Durakovic puts the amount used in the latest war on Iraq at 1,700 tons.
<snip>

<snip>
We analyzed the urine of American war veterans" of the 1991 Gulf War, he said. "Nine years after (my initial tests), they are still positive."
<snip>