PROPOSED INDEPENDENT STUDY ABOUT DEPLETED URANIUM CONTAMINATION

The objective of our approach is to evaluate the possible
connection between unceasing symptoms in the Gulf War Veterans and
their body retention of Depleted Uranium.

The project will consist of the following components:

a)  A complete medical history and physical examination of each
patient entered in this protocol.

b)  Analysis of DU in the urine sample  by neutron activation
analysis and other methods under the supervision of an expert in
radiochemistry.

c)  Analysis of the endobronchial biopsy specimens for the presence
of DU and  histopathology analysis of the possible actinide induced
nodules.

d)  Histological, histochemical and radiochemical analysis of the
renal biopsy samples.

e)  Autoradiographic analysis of the bone samples , to study the
alpha and beta tracks in the target organs of Uranium  decay
products  in the compact bone.

f)  Results obtained from the study will be critically evaluated by
a team of experts including :

    1) A  licensed Physician with a specialty in Nuclear Medicine
    2) An expert experienced in Radiochemistry and Nuclear Physics
    3) A Physicist with special competence in internal dosimetry

The data will be used for presentation in the Peer Reviewed
Professional Journals and in the form of abstracts and
communications at national and international levels. The
objectivity of the findings will be scrutinised by conventional
statistical methods.

After the results have passed peer review and scientific scrutiny,
they will be  used to further the  better understanding  of the
Gulf War syndrome.

CURRENT PROGRESS (February 1999)

We have completed a pilot study using neutron  activation analysis
to determine levels of DU . The results were highly positive . With
this method we are able to discriminate between natural Uranium and
Depleted Uranium DU.

This is important because we can ingest small quantities of Uranium
and the body excretes it quickly through the digestive tract .
However when the body is exposed to  Uranium as inhaled particles
,  it can become lodged in the lungs and eventually find its way to
to other organs and bones causing major problems . The Uranium or
in this case DU breaks down and emits alpha particles along the way
which can create pathological changes in the body in many different
ways. Thus there is not one syndrome. 

It can create metabolic disease, tumours, kidney disease, leukemia,
immune deficiency etc.
The effects of radiation on the human body are very complex . That
is why specialists in internal contamination by radioisotopes are
essential. 
There is no one in the VA system with that kind of expertise.

The Baltimore VA DU program is no exception.

Our results were  presented in September 1998 in NY City at the
Conference on Low Level Radiation sponsored by the New York Academy
of Medicine and the STAR Foundation.

This year the results will be presented at several international
conferences in Europe and Canada.   

In the U.S , the VA and the CDC conferences have shown that they
have no serious interest in DU by ignoring these objective positive
results and by the convenient omission of any experts in Uranium
and actinides.


Miriam Ripley
Uranium Medical Project Co-ordinator