| http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml
Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S.
depleted uranium
SOUTHERN DEMILITARIZED ZONE, Iraq -- On the
"Highway of Death," 11 miles
They also are radiating nuclear energy.
Today, nearly 12 years after the use of the
super-tough weapons was
Although the Pentagon has sent mixed signals
about the effects of
Depleted uranium is a problem in other former
war zones as well.
With another war in Iraq perhaps imminent,
scientists and others are
THE DANGERS Depleted uranium, known as DU, is a highly
dense metal that is the
Uranium, a weakly radioactive element, occurs
naturally in soil and
The desert around the vehicles was 100 times
more radioactive than
But the radioactivity is only one concern about DU munitions. A second, potentially more serious hazard is
created when a DU round
Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can
pollute the environment and
Studies show it can remain in human organs for years. The U.S. Army acknowledges the hazards in a
training manual, in which it
Just six months before the Gulf War, the Army
released a report on DU
Infantry were identified as potentially receiving
the highest exposures,
The report also warned that public knowledge
of the health and
But today the Pentagon plays down the effects.
Officials refer queries
The report also said, "Gulf War exposures to
depleted uranium (DU) have
In response to written queries, the Defense
Department said, "The U.S.
It said DU munitions are "war reserve munitions;
that is, used for
In addition to Iraq and Bosnia, DU munitions
were used in Kosovo and
Parker, who first raised the DU issue in the
United Nations in 1996,
She said there are four rules derived from
all of humanitarian law
•Weapons may only be used in the legal field
of battle, defined as legal
•Weapons can only be used for the duration
of an armed conflict. A
•Weapons may not be unduly inhumane. •Weapons may not have an unduly negative effect
on the natural
"Depleted uranium fails all four of these rules," Parker said last week. On Oct. 17, 2001, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.,
introduced a bill
More than a year later, the bill -- co-sponsored
by Reps. Anibal
THE STUDIES Gulf War veterans faced a wide array of potentially
toxic materials
Of the 696,778 troops who served during the
recognized conflict phase
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, director of the private,
non-profit Uranium Medical
The study is believed to be the first to look
at inhaled DU among Gulf
The study, which examined British, Canadian
and U.S. veterans, all
That no governmental study has been done on
inhaled DU "amounts to a
THE ACTIVIST Dr. Doug Rokke was an Army health physicist
assigned in 1991 to the
Today, in poor health, he has become an outspoken
opponent of the use of
"DU is the stuff of nightmares," said Rokke,
who said he has reactive
Rokke and his primary team of about 100 performed
their cleanup task
Rokke said: "Verified adverse health effects
from personal experience,
"This whole thing is a crime against God and humanity." Speaking from his home in Rantoul, Ill., where
he works as a substitute
Rokke, an Army Reserve major who describes
himself as "a patriot to the
"Since 1991, numerous U.S. Department of Defense
reports have said that
"Their arrogance is beyond comprehension,"
he said. "We have spread
"DU is a snapshot of technology gone crazy."
BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ At the Saddam Teaching Hospital in Basra, Dr.
Jawad Al-Ali, a
The photos represent the surge in birth defects
-- in 1989 there were 11
There were photos of infants born without brains,
with their internal
Cancer has increased dramatically in southern
Iraq. In 1988, 34 people
On a tour of one ward of the hospital, doctors
pointed out boys and
There was one notable exception, a young boy
whose family was able to
Al-Ali said it defies logic to absolve DU of
blame when veterans of the
"The cause of all of these cancers and deformities
remains theoretical
Iraqi doctors in Tokyo accuse U.S. of Gulf
War 'crime'
The likelihood of people developing cancer
increased 10 times in the
Jawad Kadhim Al-Ali and Husam Al-Din Said-Jormakly,
both university
In Basra, with its population of some 1.7 million,
the probability of
The doctors claimed that children were most
susceptible to cancer and
As a result, the probability of pregnant women
giving birth to deformed
Al-Ali said the use of depleted uranium bullets
was a crime ranking closely
Said-Jormakly called on the Japanese public
for help as he said that the
During their stay here until early December,
both doctors will talk with
|
To learn more ...
•For earlier stories on the P-I's trip to
Iraq, go to
seattlepi.nwsource.com/iraq2002/
OTHER LINKS
•U.S. Department of Defense: www.defenselink.mil/
•The National Gulf War Resource Center, Inc.: www.ngwrc.org/Dulink/du_link.htm
•Uranium Medical Research Centre: www.umrc.net/
Dr. Doug Rokke, a U.S. Army health physicist
assigned to help clean up
depleted uranium after the Persian Gulf War,
will speak in Seattle on
Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at University Baptist
Church, Northeast 47th
Street and 12th Avenue Northeast. Rokke is
on a six-state speaking tour
sponsored by The Interfaith Network of Concern
for the People of Iraq,
and co-sponsored by the Traprock Peace Center
in Deerfield, Mass.
P-I foreign desk editor Larry Johnson can be
reached at 206-448-8035 or larryjohnson@seattlepi.com
===========================================================================
Excerpt
from a paper "Propaganda for DU -- a Crime against Humankind" by
Piotr Bein and Pedja Zoric to "Facts about
DU" conference, Prague, Czech
Republic, November 2001,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/du-watch/files/DUPraha.doc;
revised for a
monograph "Environmental Politics of the 21st
Century" being prepared by
Faculty of Political Sciences, University
of Belgrade.
{Copyright Piotr Bein and Pedja Zoric, 2002}
For years, standard textbooks on radioactivity
state that a thin piece of
paper or the skin can stop alpha particles
– the main radioactivity of DU,
emitted by uranium 238 atoms. So they are
not dangerous to the body as long
they remain external. However, if they are
inhaled or enter the body with
food or through open wounds, they become exceptionally
dangerous, since they
emit much energy to each cell, seriously damaging
it. Although beta
particles penetrate tissue to the depth of
several centimetres, the
resulting biological damage is significantly
smaller compared to that of
alpha particles. Gamma and X-ray radiation
is weakened by the tissue only to
a small degree. The biological effect of one
absorbed quantum of this
radiation in the tissue is the same as from
one quantum of beta radiation.
The standard texts are also clear that long-term
effects of accumulated
small exposures transfer to future generations.
Every dose is harmful and
can cause cancer or genetic changes after
years, therefore one must always
avoid unnecessary exposure and maintain doses
in smallest quantities
possible.
The risks posed by depleted uranium (U238)
and a mix of uranium isotopes
with majority U238 are similar. Official US
and UK government documents have
been warning about toxic-radioactive risks
of depleted uranium, as follows,
- A 1983 literature study by the Batelle Pacific
Nothwest Laboratory for the
US Department of the Army, clearly discerns
the two types of DU risk: "The
chemical toxicity is the critical limit for
soluble uranium compounds, and
the critical organ is the kidney. Insoluble
compounds present a
[radiological] hazard primarily to the lungs
[...] The exposure limits for
toxicity are more conservative than most of
the radiological limits and thus
protect from either type of insult."
- In 1984, US Federal Aviation Agency document
cautions the investigators of
aircraft crashes against the hazard from DU
in counterweights of civilian
airplanes: particles inhaled or ingested are
toxic and can cause long-term
irradiation of the internal tissue.
- Six months before the Gulf War, a Science
Applications International
Corporation report wrote, "Short-term effects
of high doses can result in
death, while long-term effects of low doses
have been implicated in cancer."
- Shortly after the Gulf War in March 1991,
a memo from US Defence Nuclear
Agency stated that alpha particles emitted
from DU dust created from
exploded DU ammunition pose a health risk,
but beta particles from DU
shrapnel and from intact DU bullets are a
serious hazard to health.
- In the early nineties, UK Atomic Energy Authority
warned that if all of
the DU fired by tanks in the Gulf War was
inhaled, "there could be half a
million deaths as a result by 2000." Tanks
fired only about 8% of all DU
used in that war.
- 1993 US General Accounting Office report
GAO/NSIAD-93-90 stated, "Inhaled
insoluble [uranium] oxides stay in the lungs
longer and pose a potential
cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU
dust can also pose both a
radioactive and toxicity risk."
- 1995 US Army Environmental Policy Institute
report warned,
"Toxicologically, DU poses a health risk when
internalized. Radiologically,
the radiation emitted by DU results in health
risks from both external and
internal exposures [...] If DU enters the
body, it has the potential to
generate significant medical consequences.“
- An incident involving pulverization of metallic
DU occurred at the Robins
Air Force Base, Georgia, in in 1999.
The following note was sent to the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission: "At 1000 on
07/26/99, USAF personnel were
performing maintenance on a C-141 cargo aircraft
aileron. A technician was
found using a hammer and chisel to remove
installed depleted uranium
counterweights from the aileron. This process
produced dust and debris which
was scattered by a nearby fan. The technician
using a hammer and chisel on
the depleted uranium was in violation of several
rules. Upon discovery of
this activity, the technician was told to
immediately stop work. The area
has been secured and decontamination procedures
initiated."
- January 2001, leak: UK Ministry of Defense
was secretly testing for
radiation poisoning among British soldiers
just months before it sent troops
to Kosovo. At the time the ministry was refusing
screening for Gulf War
veterans. The disclosure went much further
than an earlier leak that showed
only that officers knew 4 years earlier about
the risk of developing lung,
lymph and brain cancers from DU shells.
The industry is also well aware of the risks
from airborne contamination by
DU. Paul Loewenstein, vice president of Nuclear
Metals Inc. (now Starmet
Corporation, the prime US supplier of DU metal
and related products) wrote:
“The main hazard to health occurs in those
fabrication steps where finely
divided particles (dust or oxides) can become
airborne. In operations such
as melting and casting, machining, grinding,
pickling and heating without
using a protective atmosphere or vacuum, it
is essential to provide
extensive ventilation and to monitor worker’s
breathing zones. Vents and
fume hoods that protect workers are exhausted
through carefully monitored
filter systems. Workers must change footwear
and clothing when leaving areas
where finely divided uranium is present."
Boeing Corporation safety guide for DU counterweights
in aircraft and
missiles advises:
"4.1.2 Most
heavy metals, such as uranium, are toxic to humans depending on
the amount introduced into the body.
For short-term (acute) exposures, the
toxicological effects are the primary concern,
and acute exposures to
significant amounts of uranium may result
in kidney damage.
4.1.3 The principal
radiological hazard associated with uranium is due to
high linear energy transfer of the alpha particles
its radionuclides and
daughters emit. A chronic exposure to these
radionuclides result in an
increased risk of cancer, typically in the
bones, kidney, and lungs, since
these are the organs where uranium is deposited.
[...]
6.2.5 Airborne
Contamination
[I]t is possible for significant levels of
airborne contamination to result
from activity that vigorously disturbs the
surface, such as vigorous floor
sweeping in a contaminated area or a direct,
high-volume airflow across such
an area. Failure to control airborne
contamination could result in
inhalation of the contamination and spread
of contamination to other areas.
[...]
12.2.3 Wear a respirator [...] whenever entering
areas with airborne DU dust
particles."
==========================================
-----Original Message-----
From: MTap706180@aol.com [mailto:MTap706180@aol.com]
Sent: November 12, 2002 5:18 AM
To: du-watch@yahoogroups.com; du-list@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [DU-WATCH] Iraqi cancers, birth defects
blamed on U.S. depleted
uranium
Great photos and a graphic in the online story.
met
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Iraqi cancers, birth defects blamed on U.S.
depleted uranium
By LARRY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR