Depleted uranium symptoms linked to U.S. soldier's mysterious death

[elehhhhna]

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Depleted uranium symptoms linked to U.S. soldier's mysterious death

Tank Driver’s Death Certificate Consistent With Depleted Uranium Poisoning. Medical Indications Raise Questions Whether Pentagon Misled Congress and Families of Dead Soldiers by Employing ‘Pneumonia’ and ‘Cigarette-Smoking’ Claims To Cover Up Prior-Knowledge Of DU Safety Issues and Negligence

by Tom Flocco


Army Sergeant Michael Lee Tosto died mysteriously in Iraq on June 17, 2003.

Atlantic, North Carolina -- November 9, 2003 (TomFlocco.com) -- “Why couldn’t they just decontaminate his wedding ring and send it back to the family,” Janet Tosto told us in a phone interview. Her son, Army sergeant Michael Tosto, 24, of Apex, NC, a tank operator with the 35th Regiment, First Armored Division in Baghdad, died mysteriously in Iraq on June 17--just 48 hours after presenting what the surgeon general’s office deemed as “flu-like symptoms exhibiting pneumonia.” Just prior to death, Tosto’s mother told us he was said to be working guard duty and check-points around Baghdad, adding that “Michael’s military death certificate says he died from pulmonary edema and pericardial effusion .”

A study of these and other symptom presentations related to Tosto’s death via statements from a number of university research medical professionals reveals that his cause of death is also consistent with depleted uranium poisoning. Given parallel symptoms, serious questions arise as to whether the Pentagon is acting as a damage control team--protecting the Defense Department against congressional probes or civil procedure for negligence and prior-knowledge--after years of multiple Gulf War-linked depleted uranium warnings.

Military officials will not discuss DU ties to ill and dead soldiers. But parents and spouses with legitimate thoughts of legal action linked to negligent troop deaths recently heard President Bush reiterate his quest for tort reform against “junk lawsuits.” Bush was asking aggrieved Americans to “learn to differentiate between politics and reality” in filing their frivolous civil actions. (10-28-2003, Press Conference, White House Rose Garden) However, growing evidence and cause-of-death symptom interpretations point to a White House strategy to head off inevitable military tort claims against the government. This, as George W. attempts to convince Congress to provide a shield of “tort reform” protection around defense industry corporate contractors--key providers of presidential and congressional fiduciary encouragement. Curiously, around 500 died in Gulf War I; but nearly 10,000 are now dead--in the prime of life--just 12 years later.

SYMPTOMS OF TWO GULF WARS

http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?na...order=0&thold=0

[happynewyear]

1. thousands more will arrive home sick

and what a fiasco! Too bad no one pays attention to the depleted uranium problems; I guess they just do not care. It is horrible and I feel really awful about it for those that have been exposed. Can you imagine what it must be like living in Iraq? It is totally contaminated thanks to the USA. :grr:

:kick:

[soothsayer]

2. yup, our warfighters have been in-country so long, they are going to

REALLY feel the effects this time. Poor Iraqis can't escape it at all.

[Justin54B20L]

3. I know about this subject all too well.

Hello everyone, first off I'd like to say that I love the forums and am happy to be a proud veteran supporting Kerry/Edwards.

As for the DU poisoning, I was a 54B (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical weapons expert) in the U.S. Army and that I have really been an advocate of how dangerous this stuff can really be. As chief expert in my unit I have long tried to explain to my fellow soldiers and superiors of the great dangers of coming into contact with this material. I have worked with the 35th while I was stationed in Germany back in '98 and I know that 1AD loves to exclusively use DU ammunition for its Abrams and Bradley's.

As long as it is encased in its projectile form, its fairly safe, however after the ammunition is spent this stuff becomes a living nightmare, more so in a sandy and dusty environment like Iraq. After hitting a solid object DU shears into fine particles, like finely grated cheese. Walking around the area which the round impacted, you can see black dust on the ground, unfortunately this can be kicked up into the air by merely walking around.

If you inhale the dust you are effectively inhaling alpha and beta radiation. Once this stuff gets into your body, it doesn't leave. Ever. There is no cure, there is no removal of DU from your body, short of its natural decomposition, which I understand its half-life to be up-wards of 20,000 years. We were instructed, that if someone dies of DU inhalation sickness, that that person is to be treated a radioactive hazardous waste. Unfortunately it sounds like that Sgt. Tosto will be regarded as such.

The government knows all too well about the dangers of DU, but they like to tell the public otherwise. My heart goes out to Sgt. Tosto's family for their loss and I hope his death sheds more light onto the dangers of this substance.

[happynewyear]

4. welcome to the DU Justin54B20L!!!

Great 2nd post btw! :hi: :hi: :hi: !!! and WELCOME! :D

:kick:

[Justin54B20L]

5. Thanks and I'm glad to be here :)

I look forward to posting a whole lot more. :)

[hlthe2b]

6. Yes... A big welcome!

:toast:

Sadly, it will be our legacy for Iraqi civilians as well....

[Justin54B20L]

7. Not just for Iraqi civillians, Kwuaiti civillians too

What do think happend to all those vehicles and bodies that were destroyed on the infamous "Highway of Death." They all reside in a giant parking lot in northern Kwuait with all the dead bodies buried in a section of it. Its all radioactive waste and is never to be moved.

[indigobusiness]

14. What about Afghanistan?

Please start a thread explaining the hazards of DU. It has fallen on many deaf ears around here.

Welcome, Justin.

[hlthe2b]

15. Good point....

Heavens... Every day we prove to the world that WE are the Good Guys, right? :mad:

[seemslikeadream]

9. Thank you Justin54B20L

for being here. Some people are still in denial.

DU - The stuff of nightmares
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=849944

:hi:

[newyawker99]

11. Hi Justin54B20L!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Eloriel]

13. So glad you're here, Justin

DU (our kind, not your kind :evilgrin: ) has a small but noisy contingent of very articulate and knowledgeable-sounding folks who inevitably find any and every DU thread to pontificate about how "safe" it really, REALLY is.

I hope you'll be around just as tenaciously to tell them different.

Welcome to DU. And thanks for serving.

[MadHound]

16. Hey Justin, good to see you, and a great post

It is nice to see somebody else around here with rad experience. I've been preaching about this hazard for years now, yet there are still people who dismiss the whole notion of DU. I work at a research reactor, yet have people telling me I'm full of shit. Nice to see somebody else who has the experience with this nightmare. Perhaps we can spread the message together.

One other point I'd like to add is that DU is a heavy metal, and like all heavy metals, it is quite toxic, even in small quantities. This too adversely effects anybody coming into contact with the stuff. Perhaps, depending on the quantity, quicker than the radiation does.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. from Thom Hartman's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" about D.U.

page 151 - 153

Nuclear Waste Goes to War

A new variation on this took place in the wars between 1991 and 2003 against Iraq and in Bosnia. Over 700,000 tons of "depleted uranium" (D.U.) had accumulated around the world, waste products from the production of electricty in nuclear power plants and the manufacture of atomic bombs.

"Depleted" uraniumreally isn't depleted anything -"depleted uranium" is an Orwellian newspeak term used to describe the element U-238, which emits alpha radiation. Its couisin, U-235 emits mostly gamma rays. (Gamma rays easily penetrate flesh,whereas alpha particles are rapidly blocked. This seems like good news, but alpha particles are about 20 times genotoxic - likely to cause cancer or cell death - than gamma rays. They require closer proximity, however - such as being ingested or inhaled - to assert their radioactive toxicty.)


Facing a huge bill for "disposing" of (storing) millions of tons of U-238,(from nuclear waste sites & power plants) the U.S. and British goverments came up with a nifty solution. Because uranium is about 10% more massive than lead (tradionally use in manurfacturing of bullets,bombs and tank shells), its even more effienct at hitting and killing. It will penetrate through thicker layers of steel than will lead. And it's FREE!

Although the details are classified as a national secert, it appears that someone in the 1980's during the Reagan/Bush administrationthe government came up with the idea of using nuclear waste insteadof lead rounds (bullets) fired from cannons, helicopters, jet fighters and tanks. These varied in size from 7.6 mm calibar to over 120 mm. The 30 mm calibar, which can penetrate 7 cm of steel, was heaviely used in rounds fired from planes and attack helicopters, particularly agains tanks.

During the first Gulf war, over 10,000 rounds of 105 mm and 120 mm were used, and over 900,000 rounds in total. Balkin data, and data from the Iraq War, werenot available, although they are assumed to be larger than the ammounts first used in Iraq in 1991. Apparently many laser-guided bombs and cruise missiles also carried D.U. warheads. All told, the U.S. Army disposed of over 300 tons of D.U. by dropping or firing it at Iraq in the first Gulf war, and perhaps three times that much in 2003 the Iraq War.

This has considerably eased the burden of waste disposal for the U.S. nuclear industry, although it may also be responsible for hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming down with Gulf war illness symptoms that are eeirly reminiscent of radiation poisoning, and explosions of birth defects and cancers in both Kosovo and iraq.

How sad it is that we look at situations like this and are shocked but not surprised.

This is a MUST read by everyone

Welcome to DU :hi:

[Downtown Hound]

10. Here's a great animation on DU

Warning: it has graphic pictures.

www.bushflash.com/pl_lo.html

[indigobusiness]

12. Boeing plans on putting DU in their planes now.

Did that make LBN?

[MadHound]

17. LOL friend, Boeing and others have been putting DU in their planes

For years now. It is used as ballast, in order to equal out the weight of a plane and stablize its balance. DU is great for this purpose, since it is very dense, and thus you can have a great amount of weight taking up a small space. While there is a danger posed by this practice, the danger is relatively small. What would have to occur is for that the DU would have to be converted into a dust form during a plane crash. This is unlikely to happen, being as that most of the DU is placed in the rear of the plane, the least likely section to be exposed to explosive forces. Thus, if the DU is not turned to powder, it cannot be inhaled or ingested, which is when trouble starts. In solid form, DU is an alpha and beta emitter, which is blocked by the skin of humans. Thus humans aren't at risk. It is only when DU gets inside the human body that problems start, for there is no skin to block the emissions.

That is why using DU on the tip of explosive ordinace is so foolish. You turn the DU into dust, thus allowing it to be inhaled or ingested.

By the by, you probably pass DU once a month or more out on the highway. DU is an excellent shielding material for other radioactive substances, and is thus used in shipping radioactive materials. That next Fed Ex truck you pass could be carrying some.

[JohnyCanuck]

18. Concerns over DU and recent Canadian B747 crash in Halifax

Bill Fowler, an investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said the plane was likely equipped with DU as counterweights in its wings and rudder.

“A 747 may contain as much as 1,500 kilograms <3,300 lbs.> of the material,” the Canadian Press reported. It took 60 firefighters and 20 trucks about three hours to control the fire.

Fowler said: “there is no threat or concern” about DU exposure to those working on the wreckage.

“That’s baloney,” Marion Fulk, a retired staff scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Lab, told American Free Press. Fulk, 83, is currently researching how low-level ionizing radiation causes cancer, birth defects and a host of other health problems. Burning depleted uranium creates a “whole mess of oxides,” Fulk said, “which is what makes it so wicked biologically.”

www.americanfreepress.net/html/depleted_uranium.html

[indigobusiness]

20. WOW!!!

How do the lying bastards sleep at night?

[indigobusiness]

19. Thanks, The recent news item implied this was something new

thanks for your insight.