Depleted Uranium: The Invisible Threat the Pentagon Lies about

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Depleted Uranium: The Invisible Threat -
http://www.motherjones.com/news_wire/du.html

and try this site. lots of DU links & articles, reports -
Depleted Uranium Education Project -
http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du.htm


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Depleted Uranium: The Invisible Threat

New evidence that depleted uranium munitions may have sickened European and American soldiers who served in Kosovo and in the Gulf War is sparking a worldwide outcry. In 1999, the MoJo Wire was the first to report that the Pentagon had no plans to clean up the DU left behind in Kosovo, despite health concerns. Here's the original story from our archives, along with more resources on DU.

by j.j. richardson
Jan. 10, 2001
(Originally published June 23, 1999)


NATO's continued bombardment of Yugoslavia had several stated goals, one of which was the safe return of hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees. With refugees already pouring back over the borders, attention and concern now turn to the conditions facing returning refugees: bombed roads and bridges, burned villages, and an almost non-existent civil infrastructure. But there's another potential problem: depleted uranium (DU). The Pentagon has confirmed that it used DU in Kosovo. It has also confirmed it has no plans to clean it up.

Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead. As a result, ammunition made from DU can pierce just about any armor. But while it's an extremely effective an anti-tank weapon, DU does have a downside: It is radioactive and, in dust form, it can cause serious internal injuries.

A waste product of nuclear weapon manufacturing and reactor use, depleted uranium is only about half as radioactive as natural uranium. When used in combat, the uranium in the bullet or round ignites upon impact and, when it combines with oxygen, forms a toxic cloud of uranium oxide dust. Solid uranium is not harmful; DU is toxic only if the dust is inhaled or ingested, or if DU-contaminated shrapnel enters the body. Once oxidized, the dust -- which remains toxic to those who may inhale or ingest it -- settles in the immediate area and is also dispersed by wind and rain.

What risks does DU pose to returning refugees? It depends on who you ask. Predictably, the Pentagon denies that the DU used in Kosovo poses any danger to the refugees. Indeed, it cites a number of studies in support of its conclusion. But there are a number of critics who say, essentially, the Pentagon is lying.
Significantly, one of the biggest critics of the Pentagon's policy on DU is a former U.S. Army officer who was in charge of cleaning up DU after the Gulf War.

more.........lots more.......


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Online Resources


Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act of 2003 (H. R. 1483) To require certain studies regarding the health effects of exposure to depleted uranium munitions, to require the cleanup and mitigation of depleted uranium contamination at sites of depleted uranium munition use and production in the United States, and for other purposes.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.1483: (be sure to include the ending colon)

Gulf War Casualties and 'Depleted' Uranium: An Educational Campaign Providing Resources on Radioactive, Chemical and Biological Weapons
http://traprockpeace.org/depleteduranium.html

Children of the Gulf War Photo Exhibit
http://www.savewarchildren.org/exhibitPictures.html

Campaign Against Depleted Uranium
http://www.cadu.org.uk/

Low-level Radiation Campaign
http://www.llrc.org/

Veterans for Peace
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

Veterans Against Iraq War
http://www.vaiw.org

Veterans for Common Sense
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/

Vietnam Veterans Against War
http://www.vvaw.org/

Military Families Speak Out
http://www.mfso.org/

Attorneys protest 'illegal' war
http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20030327/LocalState/134282.shtml

Military Toxics Project: Depleted Uranium
http://www.miltoxproj.org/DU/DU_Titlepage/DU_Titlepage.htm

Trial of Ellen Murphy for protesting military use of depleted uranium
February 11 -12 , 2003, Bellingham, Washington
http://www.bellinghampeace.org/album/2003/2003_02_11trial.html

Ellen Murphy's Pre-trial date
January 7, 2003, Bellingham, Washington
http://www.bellinghampeace.org/album/2003/2003_01_07ellen.html

Ellen Murphy's Court Appearance
http://www.bellinghampeace.org/album/2002/2002_12_17ellen.html

Wallingford Neighbors for Peace (WNFP)
http://groups.msn.com/wallingfordneighbors

SNOW Coalition
http://www.snowcoalition.org/

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1. How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers & Civilians with DU Weapons

Depleted Uranium
How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers & Civilians with DU Weapons

go to -
http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/mettoc.htm

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2. 2001 BBC article on Uranium arms

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1100332.stm

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3. DU use by NATO in Yugoslavia

http://www.vcp.nu/english/depleted_uranium.htm

quote -

"One "hot particle" of this DU material in the lungs is equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour for life. It is impossible to remove, so the lung gradually irradiates the victim until death ensues.”


THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) BULLETS AND BOMBS BY NATO FORCES IN YUGOSLAVIA

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08/04/1999
The public at large, both in UK and in Yugoslavia, are unaware that 30 mm bullets being fired by A-10 anti-tank aircraft and probably all Tomahawk Cruise missiles in this action contain depleted uranium (DU).

The development of these radioactive weapons is based on the fact that uranium (atomic mass 238) is much denser than lead (atomic mass 207), and therefore its kinetic energy is sufficient to penetrate tank armour or concrete buildings more effectively than lead, prior to detonation. The design of the bullet is to incorporate a long thin cylinder of DU housed in a plastic sheath or "sabot". This means in turn that the very small leading edge of the bullet peirces with maximum impact. The same principle is used in Tomahawk Cruise missiles, with the aim of piercing concrete obstructions rather than metal.

The bullets were used in the Gulf War, and some 1 million of them still lie in the deserts of that region where subsequently the incidence of leukaemia's, cancer, and birth defects have risen sharply as a consequence of the ensuing environmental radiation. The amount of DU scattered around the Gulf war zone is given as 350 tonnes, but including the nose cones of Cruise missiles and helicopter rotors, the figure is nearer 750 tonnes.
This is 27 TBequerels of radioactivity, one fiftieth of the total alpha releases from Sellafield over its entire operating history. The same is happening in Bosnia where DU was also employed. Some 80,000 US Gulf War veterans now suffer from the so-called Gulf War syndrome, whose symptoms are identical to radiation sickness. The US military are well aware of this and are on record as confirming 2.5mGy/hr at the surface of a DU shell, a dose equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour. Each A-10 Thunderbolt 30mm cannon anti tank shell contains some 275g (10.1 Bq). A single 120mm Abrams tank DU shell contains 3kg of U-238 (111 MBq) of activity.

When DU bombs detonate, uranium oxide is formed in particulate of between 0.5 and 5 microns. These can be windborne several hundred miles or suspended electrostatically in the atmosphere. The half life of Uranium is 109 (ten to the ninth) years, so they do not decay. One "hot particle" of this DU material in the lungs is equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour for life. It is impossible to remove, so the donated lung gradually irradiates the victim until death ensues. In the use of DU both ground-based combatants and their targets are almost certain to suffer long term radiation sickness and premature death. The Pentagon view is that the short term effectiveness outweighs the long term situation, but this is in error.

more........................

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4. Depleted Uranium Killing Vets faster Than Bush Gets Troops Killed in Iraq

Depleted Uranium Killing Vets faster Than Bush Gets Troops
Killed In Iraq

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/07/268636.shtml

author: Yes Magazine
Depleted uranium exposure from the first gulf war is killing American veterans faster than Bush's war on Iraq is killing troops every day. Ten times as much depleted uranium munitions has been used in the second war on Iraq. The Pentagon continues to ignore the health effects of depleted uranium on its troops and war victims. Its suggestion? Duct tape. The Bush death legacy continues.


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The War Against Ourselves

An Interview with Major Doug Rokke



Doug Rokke has a PhD in health physics and was originally trained as a forensic scientist. When the Gulf War started, he was assigned to prepare soldiers to respond to nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare, and sent to the Gulf. What he experienced has made him a passionate voice for peace, traveling the country to speak out. The following interview was conducted by the director of the Traprock Peace Center, Sunny Miller, supplemented with questions from YES! editors.

QUESTION: Any viewer who saw the war on television had the impression this was an easy war, fought from a distance and soldiers coming back relatively unharmed. Is this an accurate picture?

ROKKE: At the completion of the Gulf War, when we came back to the United States in the fall of 1991, we had a total casualty count of 760: 294 dead, a little over 400 wounded or ill. But the casualty rate now for Gulf War veterans is approximately 30 percent. Of those stationed in the theater, including after the conflict, 221,000 have been awarded disability, according to a Veterans Affairs (VA) report issued September 10, 2002.

Many of the US casualties died as a direct result of uranium munitions friendly fire. US forces killed and wounded US forces.
We recommended care for anybody downwind of any uranium dust, anybody working in and around uranium contamination, and anyone within a vehicle, structure, or building that’s struck with uranium munitions. That’s thousands upon thousands of individuals, but not only US troops. You should provide medical care not only for the enemy soldiers but for the Iraqi women and children affected, and clean up all of the contamination in Iraq.
And it’s not just children in Iraq. It’s children born to soldiers after they came back home. The military admitted that they were finding uranium excreted in the semen of the soldiers. If you’ve got uranium in the semen, the genetics are messed up. So when the children were conceived—the alpha particles cause such tremendous cell damage and genetics damage that everything goes bad. Studies have found that male soldiers who served in the Gulf War were almost twice as likely to have a child with a birth defect and female soldiers almost three times as likely.


more..................


Originally published at:
http://www.yesmagazine.org/25environmentandhealth/rokke.htm

homepage: http://www.votetoimpeach.org/

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For more information on DU, see the WISE Uranium Project, www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium/; the National Gulf War Resource Center, www.ngwrc.org; or Veterans for Common Sense, www.veteransforcommonsense.org. Sunny Miller’s interview was originally broadcast on WMFO (Boston) in November 2002 and is available for re-broadcast at www.traprockpeace.org.