Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established

[k-robjoe]

"The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research has found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.

Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.

Now however, Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns has established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations, triggering a whole slew of protein replication errors, some of which can lead to various cancers. Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained. While other heavy metals are known to bind to DNA, Stearns and her team were the first to identify this characteristic with uranium."

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060307010324data_trunc_sys.shtml

[FogerRox]

1. ARG . . . KNR

[PDJane]

2. And, of course,

The United States is the only country in the world to actually use nuclear weapons. Other countries have them, but they haven't actually used them.

Add uranium to the list of WMD the US employs in the middle east, too.........

[Igel]

6. That's just false.

We're the only country to have intentionally used them on a population. If that's implied by "weapons", then the comment is true, but beside the point.

The USSR used them for canal building and large construction projects, releasing a fair amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. They also had a kind of radiologic bomb whose fall-out wiped out a few villages up in the Urals (long before Chernobyl').

[mom cat]

3. I sure hope that this study can help. It is far too late for those already

affected.

[k-robjoe]

4. Blowing in the wind

"RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.
Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-2047373%2C00.html

[TheWraith]

7. This is an outlier.

The effect only happened in radiation detectors in one particular part of the UK, which would imply a local source. The conclusion of the "environmental scientists" is very questionable science.

[TheBaldyMan]

5. Was this in any doubt ? the evidence supporting genetic damage from DU

is long standing. The Balkans and the first Gulf War left so much of the stuff in the enviroment that it was hard to ignore all the birth defects that happened after the weapons were used. Depleted uranium is a heavy metal so is very probably chemically toxic as well, like lead or mercury.

[Tigress DEM]

8. Seeing results that support a hypothesis and PROVING it are different.

You have to be able to rule out other possible causes etc...

Plus with classifification on documents the bushits fear would make them look bad being extended and with other various coverups it's very hard to get the core facts to prove what anyone who isn't blind can see just using common sense.

[TheBaldyMan]

10. sorry tigress, when I see lots of deformed newborns begin to appear

within a few miles of places where DU rounds have been used in Kuwait, Iraq and the Balkans I don't need really need to wait for the results from a lab. The radiological and biochemical causes might not have been investigated but the clinical evidence is already there.#

on edit: anyone with a pre-college training in the biological effects of radiation or heavy-metal poisoning would advise against the use of DU weapons beforehand.

[Tigress DEM]

16. Yeah, and a sane and rational administration would error on the safe side.

If there was even the slightest possiblity that depleted uranium would cause these problems, a sane and rational administration would cease and desist.

A sane and rational administration would find it important to clean up toxic jet fuel that is leeching into California's water table and showing up in cow's milk and lettuce in quanties high enough to advise pregnant women to caution. It won't harm adults out right, but there is a proven effect of the jet fuel on the thyroid of infants and the possiblity of severe deformity. But we do not have a sane and rational administration.

We have an administration that has given their version of the truth to people and they will stick to it until we shove the facts so hard up their collective rears that they can use them for dental floss. I don't have a problem with doing it that way - other than people are still suffering until we can get these bozos out of office.

[TheWraith]

11. Not exactly.

The evidence isn't as clear-cut as most people make it. It's been long presumed that uranium is a potential mutagen, since it's a heavy metal, and all other heavy metals are mutagenic as well.

That's mainly what this study confirms: that the forms of uranium whose radioactivity is nearly nonexistent--unrefined ore, and depleted uranium--can still cause DNA alteration. So it's not a galloping shock, but is good to know.

Cause and effect becomes a bit more tricky. There's been no significant data from the Balkans to indicate the same kind of circumstantial case thats seen in Iraq. This might be due to the fact that there were considerably fewer of the uranium-bearing penetrator shells used there. Alternatively, there are a number of other potential toxic sources from the first Gulf War that could be responsible: mercury-bearing vaccines, atmospheric fallout from oil-well fires, and contamination from destroyed chemical weapons depots, to name a few. So evidence of a link between uranium and potential genetic damage, yes. Evidence that uranium is definitely causing genetic damage and other maladies to people in theater, no, at least not yet.

[TheBaldyMan]

12. DU is very harmful if it is ingested or inhaled,

the biological effects of any radiocative material are greatly increased if, for instance, some material become lodged in a cut or other break in the skin. It can also be inhaled via soot from a burning vehicle that has been KO'd by a DU shell. When in direct contact with tissue, in these cases sub-cutaneous or in direct contact with the lining of the lung, the risk for radiological damage is much higher than normal.

I used to advise people that if they were in a combat zone and passed through smoke from a vehicle they should wear respirators. Any wounds or scratches should be cleansed of all dirt and an waterproof dressing applied and maintained until healed. Contamination from dust around a suspect KO'd vehicle was very problematic unless you had ready access to some form of decontamination equipment. Dust could be ingested by swallowing in saliva or in food.

Anyone who has even been on exercise, never mind operations, can see how impractical some of these measures could be.

Sadly, a recent report by the British army found that DU in aerosol form could pass through the filters on the standard issue respirator I don't recall if there was a partial reduction in the levels or if the filter had no effect, what the biological effects of this may be remains unknown.

[5X]

15. Bullshit, the radioactivity in NOT nearly non-existent. n/t

[TheWraith]

9. A basic summary of what this means.

Study confirms that uranium, like other heavy metals, has the potential to alter DNA--not just the radioactive effect of refined uranium (which is low to begin with), but the metallic properties of minimally active forms like uranium ore and depleted uranium. Like pretty much any other mutagenic agent, this can cause various forms of cancer, etc., in addition to the effects of either short term or long term heavy metal poisoning.

[populistdriven]

13. I would be nice if the exact type of damage would fingerpint it as DU

Have any researchers studying this disappeared mysteriously?

[donsu]

14. the number of trolls on this thread is amazing

the bushmilhousegang must be terrified over the truth of depleted uranium getting wide exposure.