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MSD · 12-06-2004, 02:49 AM

Negative health effects of Depleted Uranium was #8 on the 2004 (covering stories from 2003) Project Censored list of neglected stories that were kept out of the news
http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/8.html

Quote:

Sources:
The Sunday Herald
March 30, 2003
Title: "US Forces' Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons is 'Illegal'"
Author: Neil Mackay

Hustler Magazine
June 2003
Title: "Toxic Troops: What our Soldiers Can Expect in Gulf War II"
Author: Dan Kaplevitz

Children of War
March 2003
Title: "The Hidden Killer"
Author: Reese Erlich

Faculty Evaluator: Rick Williams JD
Student Researcher: Darrel Jacks, Jason Spencer

British and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a UN resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.

Nobel Peace Prize candidate, Helen Caldicott, states that the tiny radioactive particles created when a DU weapon hits a target are easily inhaled through gas masks. The particles, which lodge in the lung, can be transferred to the kidney and other vital organs. Gulf War veterans are excreting uranium in their urine and semen, leading to chromosomal damage. DU has a half-life of 4.1 billion years. The negative effects found in one generation of US veterans could be the fate of all future generations of Iraqi people.

An August 2002 UN report states that the use of the DU weapons is in violation of numerous laws and UN conventions. Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagons DU project says "We must do what is right for the citizens of the world- ban DU." Reportedly, more than 9600 Gulf War veterans have died since serving in Iraq during the first gulf war, a statistical anomaly [emphasis added]. The Pentagon has blamed the extraordinary number of illnesses and deaths on a variety of factors, including stress, pesticides, vaccines and oil-well fire smoke. However, according to top-level U.S. Army reports and military contractors, "short-term effects of high doses (of DU) can result in death, while long-term effects of low doses have been implicated in cancer." Our own soldiers in the first Gulf War were often required to enter radioactive battlefields unprotected and were never warned of the dangers of DU. In effect, George Bush Sr. used weapons of mass destruction on his own soldiers. The internal cover-up of the dangers of DU has been intentional and widespread.

In addition to Doug Rocke, the Pentagon's original expert on DU, ex-army nurse Carol Picou has been outspoken about the negative effects of DU on herself and other veterans. She has compiled extensive documentation on the birth defects found among the Iraqi people and the children of our own Gulf War veterans. She was threatened in anonymous phone calls on the eve of her testimony to congress. Subsequently, her car, which contained sensitive information on DU, was mysteriously destroyed.

UPDATE BY DAN KAPELOVITZ

Just as "Toxic Troops: What Our Soldiers Can Expect in Gulf War II" hit the newsstands, the U.S. military was dropping a fresh batch of depleted-uranium tipped shells on Iraq. The story couldn't have been timelier; yet the mainstream media blatantly ignored Hustler's coverage of the hazards of depleted uranium (DU) and largely failed to report any DU-related stories.

Rather than being ashamed that a porn magazine was more willing than they were to publish the truth, major media outlets kidded themselves into believing that the story didn't need to be covered, claiming it was "old news." While it's true that there has been some limited coverage of DU ever since the first Gulf War, the average American has not heard of depleted uranium. Those who have most likely saw reports focusing on DU's awesome armor-piercing abilities, not its harmful long-term effects on people and the environment.

Had the mainstream media informed Americans about the hazards to the military men and women caused by our own government, U.S. citizens might not have been so gung-ho to again send our troops to Iraq. Instead, TV pundits constantly told the American people that we attacked the Iraqi people in order to "liberate" them. Thanks to U.S. efforts, the Iraqi population is now free to live in a radioactive battlefield.

As with the first Gulf War, there were relatively few immediate American casualties. But with each passing year, more and more Gulf War veterans are sick and dying, very possibly due to exposure to depleted uranium. The latest Persian Gulf conflict was basically a low-level nuclear war, and our new recruits are destined to suffer DU-related illnesses and fatalities.

While there has been grass-roots activism against the use of depleted uranium, the American military has ignored the concerns and have even discounted their own report, completed six months prior to the first Gulf War, that concluded that DU was indeed dangerous [emphasis added]. At least this time around, more soldiers seem to be aware of the possible hazards of DU and are taking precautions to avoid exposure. Some are even placing signs in Arabic to warn Iraqi children not to play with radioactive shells or on contaminated tanks. After the war, the British government, which also used DU weapons, asserted that it should help clean up the radioactive mess that it created. If the American media did its job exposing the truth, perhaps the U.S. government, which was responsible for most of the damage, would be shamed into sharing England's concerns.

Resources:
International Action Center
www.iacenter.org
The IAC published the book Metal of Dishonor Depleted Uranium:
http://www.nuclearpolicy.org
The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex by Dr. Helen Caldicott
Military Toxics Project, http://www.miltoxproj.org/
National Gulf War Resource Center, http://www.ngwrc.org
Uranium Medical Research Center, http://www.umrc.net
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, http://www.cadu.org.uk

The issue made the #4 spot on this year's list

Quote:

URANIUM MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER, January 2003
Title: “UMRC’s Preliminary Findings from Afghanistan & Operation Enduring Freedom”
and
“Afghan Field Trip #2 Report: Precision Destruction- Indiscriminate Effects”
Author: Tedd Weyman, UMRC Research Team

AWAKENED WOMAN, January 2004
Title: “Scientists Uncover Radioactive Trail in Afghanistan”
Author: Stephanie Hiller

DISSIDENT VOICE, March 2004
Title: “There Are No Words…Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs”
Author: Bob Nichols

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, April 5,2004
Title: “Poisoned?”
Author: Juan Gonzalez

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
Title: “International Criminal Tribune For Afghanistan At Tokyo, The People vs. George Bush”
Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.

Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie

Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and occupying troops have been contaminated with astounding levels of radioactive depleted and non-depleted uranium as a result of post-9/11 United States’ use of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say surrounding countries are bound to feel the effects as well.

In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and found that 100% of the samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium (NDU) 400% to 2000% higher than normal levels [emphasis added]. The UMRC research team studied six sites, two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area. The civilians were tested four months after the attacks in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies.

NDU is more radioactive than depleted uranium (DU), which itself is charged with causing many cancers and severe birth defects in the Iraqi population–especially children–over the past ten years. Four million pounds of radioactive uranium was dropped on Iraq in 2003 alone. Uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces. Nine soldiers from the 442nd Military Police serving in Iraq were tested for DU contamination in December 2003. Conducted at the request of The News, as the U.S. government considers the cost of $1,000 per affected soldier prohibitive, the test found that four of the nine men were contaminated with high levels of DU, likely caused by inhaling dust from depleted uranium shells fired by U.S. troops. Several of the men had traces of another uranium isotope, U-236, that are produced only in a nuclear reaction process.

Most American weapons (missiles, smart bombs, dumb bombs, bullets, tank shells, cruise missiles, etc.) contain high amounts of radioactive uranium. Depleted or non-depleted, these types of weapons, on detonation, release a radioactive dust which, when inhaled, goes into the body and stays there. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Basically, it’s a permanently available contaminant, distributed in the environment, where dust storms or any water nearby can disperse it. Once ingested, it releases subatomic particles that slice through DNA.

UMRC’s Field Team found several hundred Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of radiation poisoning along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and disorientation.

At the Uranium Weapons Conference held October 2003 in Hamburg, Germany, independent scientists from around the world testified to a huge increase in birth deformities and cancers wherever NDU and DU had been used. Professor Katsuma Yagasaki, a scientist at the Ryukyus University, Okinawa calculated that the 800 tons of DU used in Afghanistan is the radioactive equivalent of 83,000 Nagasaki bombs. The amount of DU used in Iraq is equivalent to 250,000 Nagasaki bombs.

At the Uranium Weapons Conference, a demonstration by British-trained oncologist Dr. Jawad Al-Ali showed photographs of the kinds of birth deformities and tumors he had observed at the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra just before the 2003 war. Cancer rates had increased dramatically over the previous fifteen years. In 1989 there were 11 abnormalities per 100,000 births; in 2001 there were 116 per 100,000—an increase of over a thousand percent. In 1989 34 people died of cancer; in 2001 there were 603 cancer deaths. The 2003 war has increased these figures exponentially.

At a meeting of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan held December 2003 in Tokyo, the U.S. was indicted for multiple war crimes in Afghanistan, among them the use of DU [emphasis added]. Leuren Moret, President of Scientists for Indigenous People and Environmental Commissioner for the City of Berkeley, testified that because radioactive contaminants from uranium weapons travel through air, water, and food sources, the effects of U.S. deployment in Afghanistan will be felt in Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China and India. Countries affected by the use of uranium weapons in Iraq include Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, and Iran.

Look at the statements where I added emphasis. Almost 10,000 deaths among soldiers since the first Gulf War, a US Military report admitting that DU is harmful, and just for laughs, a war crimes indictment. I think that at least the US military report should be considered. If tungsten is a viable but more costly alternative, I think we should pay a little more for it.