"Depleted Uranium Will Pollute Iraq For 4.5 Billion Years"

[G_j]

Bush insures his legacy (ignoring global warming isn't enough it seems)

----------
http://www.casavaria.com/contour/updates/environment/04-0526-DU.htm

DEPLETED URANIUM WILL POLLUTE IRAQ FOR 4.5 BILLION YEARS
26 May 2004

The President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute has called for a comprehensive cleanup initiative in Iraq, aimed at reducing the danger posed by Depleted Uranium, left over from artillery shells launched against Basra, Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the NPRI, Uranium 238, the radioactive isotope present in Depleted Uranium, has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. That means that the level of radioactivity of the molecules in a mass of Depleted Uranium will be halved only after 4.5 billion years. This means that land contaminated with DU spilled from exploding artillery shells, used by the US military against enemy tanks, artillery depots and fortifications, will still be radioactive and uninhabitable 4.5 billion years from now.

Dr. Caldicott told C-SPAN's Washington Journal today that after DU was used against Basra in 1991, there has been a five-fold increase in childhood cancer rates, with a shocking increase in birth defects. She also said that food throughout Europe is still radioactive, due to Strontium 90 contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, highlighting the need to reduce the level of radioactive human products in the environment.

The NPRI release calls for an immediate cleanup effort in Iraq, for the Pentagon to directly fund and execute tests of buildings and to remove all radioactive materials and bury them underground. There has also been a growing chorus of calls for testing of military personnel who had served in the Gulf War, and now in Iraq and Afghanistan. To this day, according to Dr. Caldicott, the Pentagon has refused to test any of its combat veterans' urine for contamination by Depleted Uranium.

..more..

[leftchick]

1. but is was all so worth it!

saddam was a bad, bad man don't you know? :puke:

[billyskank]

2. If it has a half-life of 4.5bn years,

it must be very low-level radiation, because highly radioactive substances release all their radiation quickly and have short halflives IIRC.

[rock]

3. But then, we can move back in

Right?

[slor]

4. Oh goody...

and just about when the deficit is paid off too!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

5. it will come full circle

[indigobusiness]

6. These people are nuts...

who don't acknowledge the deleterious effects from DU in the environment.

They are out of touch with an understanding of the natural world.

The quote below, about not seeing anything in the science indicating long-term health problems, is reminiscent of what was said by "scientists" about agent-orange in Nam.

The windblown poison dust of Iraq will, eventually, encircle the Earth.
...
snip

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production. It strengthens ammunition and gives weapons twice the range of ones using other heavy metals. Tanks made with depleted uranium have proven impenetrable by enemy weapons, the Pentagon said.

There has been controversy about it since its use during the Gulf War and the Balkans conflict, including some claims that European soldiers may have developed leukemia after being exposed to the material in Kosovo in 1999.

"We don't see anything from the science" indicating long-term health problems to people exposed to depleted uranium in the environment, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Defense Department's deputy director for deployment health support.

An ongoing study of 70 Gulf War veterans who were hit by weapons using depleted uranium in "friendly fire" incidents has found no major health problems for the soldiers or their 35 children, Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick said research on potential long-term impacts is continuing.

"We are looking at it scientifically. We are keeping an open mind to it," he he said in an interview.

snip

http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/NewsArticle.cfm?NewsID=1604

[G_j]

7. "We are keeping an open mind to it"

that is a lie and he knows it, what they are doing is covering it up, just like agent orange.

[indigobusiness]

8. So open...

their brain fell out.

[Massacure]

9. lmao, depleted uranium doesn't make land uninhabitable.

DU is 40% less radioactive than normal uranium you find in the ground. Soldiers don't get sick from the fact DU is radioactive. They get sick because it is a heavy metal just like lead.

By switching from lead to DU the military jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. It really isn't much better or much worse. If the military were worried about the environment and soldier health, then they would use Tungsten. However Tungsten is more expensive than DU. It it just as effective at killing though.

[G_j]

10. BUT

when DU is exploded into minute particles of dust, those particles lodge in people's lungs etc. causing major health problems.
You may have forgotten what form this DU is in after being used in munitions.

[Massacure]

15. No. I'm aware. I said that DU is dangerous because it is a heavy metal.

But it won't make a area a radioactive waste dump. It'll just be a normal waste dump. :P

[G_j]

18. Experts Warn of Radioactive Battlefields

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=20113

IRAQ:
Experts Warn of Radioactive Battlefields

Katherine Stapp

Concerns are growing about the presence of depleted uranium and other toxins in Iraq following a rash of illnesses among U.S. troops and the discovery by a reporter that radiation levels in parts of Baghdad are extremely elevated.

NEW YORK, Sep 12 (IPS) - Concerns are growing about the presence of depleted uranium and other toxins in Iraq following a rash of illnesses among U.S. troops and the discovery by a reporter that radiation levels in parts of Baghdad are extremely elevated.
<snip>

These fears were heightened when a correspondent for the 'Christian Science Monitor' took a Geiger counter to parts of Baghdad that had been subjected to heavy shelling by U.S. troops. He found radiation levels 1,000 to 1,900 times higher than normal in residential areas where children were playing nearby.

<snip>
While some studies on the effects of DU have been inconclusive, others determined that it raises the risk of childhood cancers, birth defects and other long-term health damage.

''The Pentagon's own published studies have shown adverse health effects,'' said Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, which published an analysis of the available scientific research on DU in July.
<snip>

[indigobusiness]

11. Natural uranium has never been enriched. DU has.

It comes from spent nuclear fuel rods. It is not less radioactive, even after being "depleted".

Love Canal is "habitable".

DU info:
http://gulfwarvets.com/hot.htm
http://gulfwarvets.com/du.htm

[Massacure]

16. That website sure has a lot of credibility.

For all I know a high schooler could have made it.

DU is 40% less radioactive than natural uranium. That is a fact. People actually measure it with a Geiger Counter and compare it to that measured of natural uranium. That doesn't change the fact that it is a heavy metal; a heavy metal that will still kill you - just like lead killed many people. Lead doesn't contaminate a area for 4.5 billion years though. And I highly doubt DU will either.

DU is bad, but those people are distorting the facts to thing DU will cause another Chernobyl type incident.

[indigobusiness]

17. You are the one distorting the facts.

There are different types of radioactive toxicity.

Joyce Riley is impeccably credible. Not to mention the sources and papers she cites.

You are disputing the Veteran's Administration's admissions?

[NickB79]

20. What is the specific type of radioactive toxicity produced by DU?

Since it has a half-life of 4.5 BILLION years, any radiation it is emitting must be very, very low-intensity. If it were emitting radiation at high levels, it would decompose much more rapidly. Look at the half-life of plutonium: 24,000 yrs for Pu239, 14.4 yrs for Pu241. Both are very, very dangerous to human health, and decay very rapidly compared to DU. That rules out the most dangerous forms of radiation, such as gamma rays.

[indigobusiness]

25. See post #23

Dr. Charles Till - interview

Nuclear physicist and associate lab director at Argonne National Laboratory West in Idaho. He is co-developer of the Integral Fast Reactor, an inherently safe nuclear reactor with a closed fuel cycle.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/interviews/till.html

Not specifically about DU, but informative about nuclear radiation, etc.

[MadHound]

23. OK, let me explain this again

First off, let me start by saying that I am around, and work with DU everyday. I work at a nuclear reactor, a research reactor that ships out radiopharmaceuticals worldwide, and one of the materials we use for shielding these radioactive shipments, especially the real hot ones, is DU. It is a much more effective shield than lead.

DU, in its solid form, isn't a threat. It is a weak alpha and beta emitter, two types of radiation that is easily block by a thickness of paper, and even one's own skin. I wouldn't bring the stuff home and sleep with it, but I'm comfortable working around it.

The troubles with DU emerge when it is turned into dust by the military. On the front end of a missle, it is blown into a fine dust by the impact of the explosion. Thus, it becomes easily ingestible and inhalable. And that is when the troubles begin. DU, like any heavy metal, is highly toxic. It doesn't take much DU in a person to start making the effects of DU toxicity become appartent. Doesn't take much more before the person dies. That is the main problem with DU.

However, if one doesn't take in enough DU to kill you, you're still goin to have long term problems, especially if you inhaled the stuff. While being a low level alpha and beta wave emitter, it isn't dangerous from the outside, your skin will block these emissions. However, once inhaled or ingested, you have no skin to block these radiation emissions. Being a fine dust, DU tends to lodge in the out of the way places in the body, where there is little or no hope of getting it out. So there it sits, irradiating the tissue around it. Some it will kill, some it will mutate into cancerous cells, given enough time. Thus, while a soldier might survive the effects of the DU toxicity, later in life he will get to experience the joys of various strange and little known cancers.

Thus, DU gets to a person two ways, one fairly short term, one long term. What the US has done in Iraq with their dropping of thousands of tons of DU is set in motion a slow motion genocide that will effect not just the current population, but the generations to come. It will continue to invade the bodies of people for a long time, even though the DU itself will get buried by the dirt buildup of ages. Crops that grow in a soil that is dusted with DU could draw the mineral up into themselves, and you will have another generation ingesting the stuff. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

The US is simply engaging in another nuclear war, without the explosion or the quickness of the first one. But in the long term it could be even more deadly.

[G_j]

24. thank you!

your participation here is much appreciated!
I know we've been through this before here, but it is important that people 'get it'. thanks

[NickB79]

21. No, DU is not enriched

You can't enrich DU, because it is a byproduct of enrichment, not a product of it. In nature, uranium ore consists of primarily U-234 and U-235 isotopes, with U-234 predominating. DU (U-234) is seperated from U-235 in the process of enrichment, as unrefined uranium ore is not radioactive enough to fuel a nuclear reactor. U-235 is the more radioactive of the two elements; a fuel rod with excess U-234 will not sustain a fission reaction. You will have some U-234 left in the fuel rods, but the majority of it is processed out before it reaches that point.

It is in fact less radioactive after processing because the more radioactive U-235 has been seperated from the ore, leaving behind the less radioactive U-234.

[indigobusiness]

26. I stand corrected.

Thank you for that.

Perhaps you would debate MadHound. He has direct experience and firsthand information.

[progressoid]

12. D.U. is one of the biggest stories never told.

This will make agent orange look like a hangnail

[leftchick]

13. absolutely!

and will it ever be told here in the US?

[bobthedrummer]

14. US military families have been severely and profoundly affected by DU.

It is horrible.:argh:

[hangloose]

19. I can't believe the defense department and what they espouse

about DU. They have to much liability and vested interest in using this material. Where? Well over there, that's where. In places where the health of the population isn't much of a concern, like Iraq for instance. DU won't effect oil production and all those people just seem to get in the way.

[TyeDye75]

22. Thats OK

because the sun is going to explode in 4.5 billion years anyway. oy.