TheAlexJonesChannel December 02, 2010
Alex talks with Michael Braverman, the producer of Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory.
http://www.trutv.com/shows/conspiracy_theory/
"Great Lakes" -- NEW!
Premieres Fri, December 3 at 10P
They call it "Blue Gold." Water is the new oil. Once a human right, it's now a valuable commodity, and corporations and super-rich oil dynasties are believed to be buying up water rights, controlling nations and populations. Jesse looks into the possibility of these activities finding their way to American shores and uncovers what may be a plot to literally steal the Great Lakes.
Showing posts with label DU-Depleted Uranium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DU-Depleted Uranium. Show all posts
Monday, December 6, 2010
BUSH & NESTLE & ORDER OF THE GARTER: SCOOPING UP ALL FRESH WATER
SherrieLeaLaird December 03, 2010
This is not just about URANIUM...LISTEN!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-T051bpTx0
PART TWO REVEALS ORDER OF THE GARTER (which is the QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND ROTHSCHILDS...VIVENDI is rothschilds and own all water and waste and more!!!!)
ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT RED ALERT.
MUST HEAR ALL OF IT
and PART TWO.
FOR 100 bucks a year THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND HAS ALL THE FRESH WATER. THE ELITE are ROYALTY IN ONLY THEIR OWN EYES and they want you, the servant slave to obey!!!!! WILL YOU???? fuck no.
It's better to go down fightng like a FREEMAN in the name of GOD YAHWEH
This is not just about URANIUM...LISTEN!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-T051bpTx0
PART TWO REVEALS ORDER OF THE GARTER (which is the QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND ROTHSCHILDS...VIVENDI is rothschilds and own all water and waste and more!!!!)
ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT RED ALERT.
MUST HEAR ALL OF IT
and PART TWO.
FOR 100 bucks a year THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND HAS ALL THE FRESH WATER. THE ELITE are ROYALTY IN ONLY THEIR OWN EYES and they want you, the servant slave to obey!!!!! WILL YOU???? fuck no.
It's better to go down fightng like a FREEMAN in the name of GOD YAHWEH
Worldwide Water Conspiracy - Jesse Ventura
tatoott1009 December 03, 2010
As producer Michael Braverman announced yesterday, what was once an episode just dealing with schemes to profit off the Great Lakes has now expanded into a startling exposé of the dangerous toxins being added to our water by design. Now known as the "Worldwide Water Conspiracy," tonight's episode of Conspiracy Theory with Gov. Jesse Ventura will take on water privatization, false scarcity profit schemes, the effects of fluoride, lithium and uranium in drinking water and much more. "WORLDWIDE WATER CONSPIRACY" PREMIERES TONIGHT, FRIDAY DEC. 3 AT 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST.
Scarcity, perceived or real, drives the value of commodities, and many people say water is the next oil. The Great Lakes consist of more than 20% of Earth's surface fresh water, but the levels are dropping. Some streams and groundwater sources have already dried up, and a shortage of clean drinking water could prove to be one of the 21st Century's greatest bubbles.
Now, Gov. Ventura's investigation reveals that foreign companies are stealing water from the Great Lakes, imposing upon one of the American public's greatest assets. Already, the scale of schemes to privatize water and make big profit on a clear necessity are astounding. The TruTV team has learned that the Nestle Corporation is one of the firms tapping this water to sell in bottled water and other products. Moreover, it has circumvented public access points to the lakes by stashing its pumps 12 miles away from the shore of Lake Michigan-- in a private game preserve where no one can see them and little scrutiny is likely to arise.
Moreover, Ventura has uncovered a novel way of siphoning this "blue gold." Giant floating water bags have been implemented to create huge "water trains" and profiteers are using them to ship America's fresh water to foreign countries like China. If the multinational corporations are not stopped, they'll take our "champagne water" and leave us to drink the toilet water. Think it can't happen here? In countries like Bolivia, where private companies have taken control of the water, ordinary people have already had to protest against the police state in order to simply collect rainwater for basic needs. Now, the right to collect rainwater has been challenged here in the United States as well.
But the Conspiracy Theory episode stumbles upon an even greater danger lurking in the water. Testing shows that numerous deadly toxins have been found in the majority of America's tap water, and it's no accident. Could population control through forced mass medication in water be underway? This form of control was discussed in sitting-White House Science Czar John P. Holdren's book Ecoscience as far back as 1977.
The team learns that male birth rates are dropping all over the world. To find out why, Ventura & co. speak with radiation exposure expert Leuren Moret who drops the bombshell that uranium-- yes uranium-- is found in our drinking water and is triggering a mass-feminization in the population via a hormonal-chemical assault. The New York Times reported in 2009 that some 49 million Americans are drinking water contaminated with chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium. Further, in 2010, the State of Texas was caught covering up dangerous and illegal levels of uranium in its water supplies that can cause cell mutations and cancer. Other chemicals including fluoride further raise suspicions about who is controlling what goes into our bodies, and why.
There is every reason to believe that Big Brother wants ordinary Americans calm and docile, unable to resist their system. Is that why government experts and leading bio-ethicists are advocating adding dose amounts of lithium to municipal water districts? Lithium is commonly to used to sedate patients suffering from bi-polar disorder, and the agenda has been put forward ostensibly to reduce suicides in the population. However, issuing a mass dose to the population is not only dangerous, as the amount affects people differently, but a form of true medical tyranny.
http://www.infowars.com/shocker-feminizing-uranium-fluoride-lithium-in-water-to-be-exposed-on-ventura-tv-show/
As producer Michael Braverman announced yesterday, what was once an episode just dealing with schemes to profit off the Great Lakes has now expanded into a startling exposé of the dangerous toxins being added to our water by design. Now known as the "Worldwide Water Conspiracy," tonight's episode of Conspiracy Theory with Gov. Jesse Ventura will take on water privatization, false scarcity profit schemes, the effects of fluoride, lithium and uranium in drinking water and much more. "WORLDWIDE WATER CONSPIRACY" PREMIERES TONIGHT, FRIDAY DEC. 3 AT 10 PM EST / 9 PM CST.
Scarcity, perceived or real, drives the value of commodities, and many people say water is the next oil. The Great Lakes consist of more than 20% of Earth's surface fresh water, but the levels are dropping. Some streams and groundwater sources have already dried up, and a shortage of clean drinking water could prove to be one of the 21st Century's greatest bubbles.
Now, Gov. Ventura's investigation reveals that foreign companies are stealing water from the Great Lakes, imposing upon one of the American public's greatest assets. Already, the scale of schemes to privatize water and make big profit on a clear necessity are astounding. The TruTV team has learned that the Nestle Corporation is one of the firms tapping this water to sell in bottled water and other products. Moreover, it has circumvented public access points to the lakes by stashing its pumps 12 miles away from the shore of Lake Michigan-- in a private game preserve where no one can see them and little scrutiny is likely to arise.
Moreover, Ventura has uncovered a novel way of siphoning this "blue gold." Giant floating water bags have been implemented to create huge "water trains" and profiteers are using them to ship America's fresh water to foreign countries like China. If the multinational corporations are not stopped, they'll take our "champagne water" and leave us to drink the toilet water. Think it can't happen here? In countries like Bolivia, where private companies have taken control of the water, ordinary people have already had to protest against the police state in order to simply collect rainwater for basic needs. Now, the right to collect rainwater has been challenged here in the United States as well.
But the Conspiracy Theory episode stumbles upon an even greater danger lurking in the water. Testing shows that numerous deadly toxins have been found in the majority of America's tap water, and it's no accident. Could population control through forced mass medication in water be underway? This form of control was discussed in sitting-White House Science Czar John P. Holdren's book Ecoscience as far back as 1977.
The team learns that male birth rates are dropping all over the world. To find out why, Ventura & co. speak with radiation exposure expert Leuren Moret who drops the bombshell that uranium-- yes uranium-- is found in our drinking water and is triggering a mass-feminization in the population via a hormonal-chemical assault. The New York Times reported in 2009 that some 49 million Americans are drinking water contaminated with chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium. Further, in 2010, the State of Texas was caught covering up dangerous and illegal levels of uranium in its water supplies that can cause cell mutations and cancer. Other chemicals including fluoride further raise suspicions about who is controlling what goes into our bodies, and why.
There is every reason to believe that Big Brother wants ordinary Americans calm and docile, unable to resist their system. Is that why government experts and leading bio-ethicists are advocating adding dose amounts of lithium to municipal water districts? Lithium is commonly to used to sedate patients suffering from bi-polar disorder, and the agenda has been put forward ostensibly to reduce suicides in the population. However, issuing a mass dose to the population is not only dangerous, as the amount affects people differently, but a form of true medical tyranny.
http://www.infowars.com/shocker-feminizing-uranium-fluoride-lithium-in-water-to-be-exposed-on-ventura-tv-show/
Monday, November 1, 2010
Strontium
The Basics
Who discovered strontium?
In 1790 Adair Crawford and William Cruikshank first detected non-radioactive strontium in the mineral strontianite in Scotland. Metallic strontium was isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy.
Radioactive Sr-90, like many other radionuclides, was discovered in the 1940s in nuclear experiments connected to the development of the atomic bomb.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where does strontium-90 come from?
Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors, and in nuclear weapons. Strontium-90 is found in waste from nuclear reactors. It can also contaminate reactor parts and fluids. Large amounts of Sr-90 were produced during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and dispersed worldwide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What are the properties of strontium-90?
Non-radioactive strontium and its radioactive isotopes have the same physical properties. Strontium is a soft metal similar to lead. Strontium is chemically very reactive, and is only found in compounds in nature.
When freshly cut, it has a silvery luster, but rapidly reacts with air and turns yellow. Finely cut strontium will burst into flame in air. Because of these qualities, it is generally stored in kerosene.
Strontium-90 emits a beta particle with, no gamma radiation, as it decays to yttrium-90 (also a beta-emitter). Strontium-90 has a half-life of 29.1 years. It behaves chemically much like calcium, and therefore tends to concentrate in the bones and teeth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is strontium-90 used for?
Strontium-90 is used as a radioactive tracer in medical and agricultural studies. The heat generated by strontium-90's radioactive decay can be converted to electricity for long-lived, portable power supplies. These are often used in remote locations, such as in navigational beacons, weather stations, and space vehicles.
Strontium-90 is also used in electron tubes, as a radiation source in industrial thickness gauges, and for the treatment of eye diseases. Controlled amounts of strontium-90 have been used as a treatment for bone cancer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exposure to Strontium-90
How does strontium-90 get into the environment?
Strontium-90 was widely dispersed in the 1950s and 1960s in fall out from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. It has been slowly decaying since then so that current levels from these tests are very low.
Strontium-90 is also found in waste from nuclear reactors. It is considered one of the more hazardous constituents of nuclear wastes. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant also introduced a large amount of Sr-90 into the environment. A large part of the Sr-90 was deposited in the Soviet Republics. The rest was dispersed as fallout over Northern Europe and worldwide. No significant amount of stronium-90 reached the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does strontium-90 change in the environment?
As strontium-90 decays, it releases radiation and forms yttrium-90 (Y-90), which in turn decays to stable zirconium. The half-life of Sr-90 is 29.1 years, and that of Yttrium-90 is 64 hours. Sr-90 emits moderate energy beta particles, and Y-90 emits very strong (energetic) beta particles. Strontium-90 can form many chemical compounds, including halides, oxides, and sulfides, and moves easily through the environment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do people come in contact with strontium-90?
Everyone is exposed to small amounts of strontium-90, since it is widely dispersed in the environment and the food chain. Dietary intake of Sr-90, however, has steadily fallen over the last 30 years with the suspension of nuclear weapons testing. People who live near or work in nuclear facilities may have increased exposure to Sr-90. The greatest concern would be the exposures from an accident at a nuclear reactor, or an accident involving high-level wastes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does strontium-90 get into the body?
People may inhale trace amounts of strontium-90 as a contaminant in dust. But, swallowing Sr-90 with food or water is the primary pathway of intake.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does strontium-90 do once it gets into the body?
When people ingest Sr-90, about 70-80% of it passes through the body. Virtually all of the remaining 20-30% that is absorbed is deposited in the bone. About 1% is distributed among the blood volume, extracellular fluid, soft tissue, and surface of the bone, where it may stay and decay or be excreted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Effects of Strontium-90
How can strontium-90 affect people's health?
Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.
Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to Sr-90. The risk depends on the concentration of Sr-90 in the environment, and on the exposure conditions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a medical test to determine exposure to strontium-90?
The most common test for exposure to strontium-90 is a bioassay, usually by urinalysis. As with most cases of internal contamination, the sooner the test is taken after ingesting or inhaling the contaminant, the more accurate the results will be. Most major medical centers should be capable of performing this test.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protecting People from Strontium-90
How do I know strontium if I'm near strontium-90?
Although you are exposed to tiny amounts of strontium-90 from past accidents and weapons testing, you cannot sense its presence. You need specialized equipment to detect Sr-90.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can I do to protect myself and my family from strontium-90?
Strontium-90 dispersed in the environment, like that from atmospheric weapons testing, is almost impossible to avoid. You may also be exposed to tiny amounts from nuclear power reactors and certain government facilities. The more serious risk to you (though it is unlikely), is that you may unwittingly encounter an industrial instrument containing a Sr-90 radiation source. This is more likely if you work in specific industries:
scrap metal sorting, sales and brokerage
metal melting and casting
municipal landfill operations.
Radioactive Source Reduction and Management This site describes EPA's activities to reduce the use of radioactive sources in industry, track exisitng sources and recover orphan sources.
What is EPA doing about strontium-90?
EPA protects people and the environment from Sr-90 by establishing standards for the clean-up of contaminated sites, by setting limits on the amount of Sr-90 (and other radionuclides) that may be released to the air, and by setting limits on the amount of strontium-90 (and other radionuclides) that may be present in public drinking water.
EPA uses its authority under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (commonly known as "Superfund") to set standards for the clean-up of existing contaminated sites. Cleanups must meet all environmental requirements that are relevant or applicable, including state regulations and regulations issued in connection with other federal environmental laws.
When these types of regulations are unavailable, or not protective enough, EPA sets site-specific cleanup levels. Site-specific standards limit the chance of developing cancer because of exposure to a site-related carcinogen (such as strontium-90) to between one in 10,000 and one in 1,000,000.
Superfund: EPA Radiation Guidances and Reports This site provides information on radionuclides at Superfund sites.
EPA's Superfund Hotline: 1-800-424-9346 or 1-800-535-0202
EPA uses its Clean Air Act authority to set limits on the amount of radionuclides, such as Sr-90, that may be released to the air.
RadNESHAPSThis site provides information on EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Radionuclides.
EPA uses its Safe Drinking Water Act authority to establish maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for beta emitters, such as strontium-90, in public drinking water. The MCL for beta emitters is 4 millirem per year or 8 picoCuries per liter of water.
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
Who discovered strontium?
In 1790 Adair Crawford and William Cruikshank first detected non-radioactive strontium in the mineral strontianite in Scotland. Metallic strontium was isolated in 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy.
Radioactive Sr-90, like many other radionuclides, was discovered in the 1940s in nuclear experiments connected to the development of the atomic bomb.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where does strontium-90 come from?
Strontium-90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors, and in nuclear weapons. Strontium-90 is found in waste from nuclear reactors. It can also contaminate reactor parts and fluids. Large amounts of Sr-90 were produced during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and dispersed worldwide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What are the properties of strontium-90?
Non-radioactive strontium and its radioactive isotopes have the same physical properties. Strontium is a soft metal similar to lead. Strontium is chemically very reactive, and is only found in compounds in nature.
When freshly cut, it has a silvery luster, but rapidly reacts with air and turns yellow. Finely cut strontium will burst into flame in air. Because of these qualities, it is generally stored in kerosene.
Strontium-90 emits a beta particle with, no gamma radiation, as it decays to yttrium-90 (also a beta-emitter). Strontium-90 has a half-life of 29.1 years. It behaves chemically much like calcium, and therefore tends to concentrate in the bones and teeth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is strontium-90 used for?
Strontium-90 is used as a radioactive tracer in medical and agricultural studies. The heat generated by strontium-90's radioactive decay can be converted to electricity for long-lived, portable power supplies. These are often used in remote locations, such as in navigational beacons, weather stations, and space vehicles.
Strontium-90 is also used in electron tubes, as a radiation source in industrial thickness gauges, and for the treatment of eye diseases. Controlled amounts of strontium-90 have been used as a treatment for bone cancer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Exposure to Strontium-90
How does strontium-90 get into the environment?
Strontium-90 was widely dispersed in the 1950s and 1960s in fall out from atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. It has been slowly decaying since then so that current levels from these tests are very low.
Strontium-90 is also found in waste from nuclear reactors. It is considered one of the more hazardous constituents of nuclear wastes. The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant also introduced a large amount of Sr-90 into the environment. A large part of the Sr-90 was deposited in the Soviet Republics. The rest was dispersed as fallout over Northern Europe and worldwide. No significant amount of stronium-90 reached the U.S.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does strontium-90 change in the environment?
As strontium-90 decays, it releases radiation and forms yttrium-90 (Y-90), which in turn decays to stable zirconium. The half-life of Sr-90 is 29.1 years, and that of Yttrium-90 is 64 hours. Sr-90 emits moderate energy beta particles, and Y-90 emits very strong (energetic) beta particles. Strontium-90 can form many chemical compounds, including halides, oxides, and sulfides, and moves easily through the environment.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do people come in contact with strontium-90?
Everyone is exposed to small amounts of strontium-90, since it is widely dispersed in the environment and the food chain. Dietary intake of Sr-90, however, has steadily fallen over the last 30 years with the suspension of nuclear weapons testing. People who live near or work in nuclear facilities may have increased exposure to Sr-90. The greatest concern would be the exposures from an accident at a nuclear reactor, or an accident involving high-level wastes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How does strontium-90 get into the body?
People may inhale trace amounts of strontium-90 as a contaminant in dust. But, swallowing Sr-90 with food or water is the primary pathway of intake.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does strontium-90 do once it gets into the body?
When people ingest Sr-90, about 70-80% of it passes through the body. Virtually all of the remaining 20-30% that is absorbed is deposited in the bone. About 1% is distributed among the blood volume, extracellular fluid, soft tissue, and surface of the bone, where it may stay and decay or be excreted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Effects of Strontium-90
How can strontium-90 affect people's health?
Strontium-90 is chemically similar to calcium, and tends to deposit in bone and blood-forming tissue (bone marrow). Thus, strontium-90 is referred to as a "bone seeker." Internal exposure to Sr-90 is linked to bone cancer, cancer of the soft tissue near the bone, and leukemia.
Risk of cancer increases with increased exposure to Sr-90. The risk depends on the concentration of Sr-90 in the environment, and on the exposure conditions.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there a medical test to determine exposure to strontium-90?
The most common test for exposure to strontium-90 is a bioassay, usually by urinalysis. As with most cases of internal contamination, the sooner the test is taken after ingesting or inhaling the contaminant, the more accurate the results will be. Most major medical centers should be capable of performing this test.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protecting People from Strontium-90
How do I know strontium if I'm near strontium-90?
Although you are exposed to tiny amounts of strontium-90 from past accidents and weapons testing, you cannot sense its presence. You need specialized equipment to detect Sr-90.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What can I do to protect myself and my family from strontium-90?
Strontium-90 dispersed in the environment, like that from atmospheric weapons testing, is almost impossible to avoid. You may also be exposed to tiny amounts from nuclear power reactors and certain government facilities. The more serious risk to you (though it is unlikely), is that you may unwittingly encounter an industrial instrument containing a Sr-90 radiation source. This is more likely if you work in specific industries:
scrap metal sorting, sales and brokerage
metal melting and casting
municipal landfill operations.
Radioactive Source Reduction and Management This site describes EPA's activities to reduce the use of radioactive sources in industry, track exisitng sources and recover orphan sources.
What is EPA doing about strontium-90?
EPA protects people and the environment from Sr-90 by establishing standards for the clean-up of contaminated sites, by setting limits on the amount of Sr-90 (and other radionuclides) that may be released to the air, and by setting limits on the amount of strontium-90 (and other radionuclides) that may be present in public drinking water.
EPA uses its authority under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (commonly known as "Superfund") to set standards for the clean-up of existing contaminated sites. Cleanups must meet all environmental requirements that are relevant or applicable, including state regulations and regulations issued in connection with other federal environmental laws.
When these types of regulations are unavailable, or not protective enough, EPA sets site-specific cleanup levels. Site-specific standards limit the chance of developing cancer because of exposure to a site-related carcinogen (such as strontium-90) to between one in 10,000 and one in 1,000,000.
Superfund: EPA Radiation Guidances and Reports This site provides information on radionuclides at Superfund sites.
EPA's Superfund Hotline: 1-800-424-9346 or 1-800-535-0202
EPA uses its Clean Air Act authority to set limits on the amount of radionuclides, such as Sr-90, that may be released to the air.
RadNESHAPSThis site provides information on EPA's National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Radionuclides.
EPA uses its Safe Drinking Water Act authority to establish maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for beta emitters, such as strontium-90, in public drinking water. The MCL for beta emitters is 4 millirem per year or 8 picoCuries per liter of water.
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
Nuclear Waste ByProduct: Possible Chemtrail Connection
We are So Fucked. Strontium-90 is a Nuclear Waste By Product that binds well with aluminum. and no where to dump it. Is this part of what is in the Chemtrails? Yahweh/Jesus !!!!!!!!!!!! Help US Now We Quantum Pray!
From didiridooo:
Nov 01, 2010
chemtrail possible significant connection
Our problem is a little more involved than we think.
I was talking to a friend about the new movie: What in the world are they spraying" and told him about the aluminum, strontium and barium found test samples. He used to work for Nasa but he is not a chemist. Here is what he said:
Presently, there is a problem with disposing of nuclear waste .[ Strontium-90 (Sr-90) is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors, and weapon's grade munitions manufacturing. Strontium-90 is found in waste from nuclear reactors. Large amounts of Sr-90 were produced during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and dispersed worldwide. One interesting side note is that one of the other elements that Sr-90 attaches itself to or binds to quite readily is aluminum
So it is highly probable that the Strontium being found in samples is actually nuclear waste and since it costs too much money to bury it and there is too much of it and not enough space somebody has devised a way to dispose of certain parts of the nuclear waste by binding it with aluminum or barium and mixing it with a slurry of other liquids that then it can be diffused as aircraft spray. There has been enough coverage in the news about nuclear waste disposal facilities such a Yucca Mt, 81 miles NE of Las Vegas having a long waiting duration, or backlog for the storage of nuclear waste. In other words, these facilities don't know what to do with it.
So it could be that Aluminum is being use as a binder (?) and Barium might be used here as a catalyst (?) and their purpose is to dump something that costs too much to dispose of thu normal means: Strontium.
What to do? Find the locations where these aircraft are leaving from then you will probably find the companies or corporations that deal with nuclear waste disposal and or hazardous chemical disposal. If you find those companies, you are likely to find those nuclear waste products there. And if you find the products there, then the next question is where is coming from? It is reverse engineering. Find out where it is coming from and how it is transported. Also use a Geiger counter for testing. Then it is easier to stop.
Remember even if their motive is not get rid of their waste, you cannot change the fact that one of these elements might be a byproduct of the nuclear industry. They might have some other sinister agendas, but at least you can trace the SOURCE.
Reference: http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
Enough with trying to convince the trolls and paid dissuaders. We must become proactive.
From didiridooo:
Nov 01, 2010
chemtrail possible significant connection
Our problem is a little more involved than we think.
I was talking to a friend about the new movie: What in the world are they spraying" and told him about the aluminum, strontium and barium found test samples. He used to work for Nasa but he is not a chemist. Here is what he said:
Presently, there is a problem with disposing of nuclear waste .[ Strontium-90 (Sr-90) is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors, and weapon's grade munitions manufacturing. Strontium-90 is found in waste from nuclear reactors. Large amounts of Sr-90 were produced during atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s and dispersed worldwide. One interesting side note is that one of the other elements that Sr-90 attaches itself to or binds to quite readily is aluminum
So it is highly probable that the Strontium being found in samples is actually nuclear waste and since it costs too much money to bury it and there is too much of it and not enough space somebody has devised a way to dispose of certain parts of the nuclear waste by binding it with aluminum or barium and mixing it with a slurry of other liquids that then it can be diffused as aircraft spray. There has been enough coverage in the news about nuclear waste disposal facilities such a Yucca Mt, 81 miles NE of Las Vegas having a long waiting duration, or backlog for the storage of nuclear waste. In other words, these facilities don't know what to do with it.
So it could be that Aluminum is being use as a binder (?) and Barium might be used here as a catalyst (?) and their purpose is to dump something that costs too much to dispose of thu normal means: Strontium.
What to do? Find the locations where these aircraft are leaving from then you will probably find the companies or corporations that deal with nuclear waste disposal and or hazardous chemical disposal. If you find those companies, you are likely to find those nuclear waste products there. And if you find the products there, then the next question is where is coming from? It is reverse engineering. Find out where it is coming from and how it is transported. Also use a Geiger counter for testing. Then it is easier to stop.
Remember even if their motive is not get rid of their waste, you cannot change the fact that one of these elements might be a byproduct of the nuclear industry. They might have some other sinister agendas, but at least you can trace the SOURCE.
Reference: http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/strontium.html
Enough with trying to convince the trolls and paid dissuaders. We must become proactive.
UN bans Chemtrails Except USA, Aerosol Crimes WeatherModification GeoEngineering
LisaMarie B:
oh the UN Now Admits chemtrails are going on, It is Not a Conspiracy any longer. but what are they going to do about it?
Well We can Hope, atleast they are Admitting it now. but i dont trust them. The UN is about useless. There are Wars and Crimes there of still going on and the People of Gaza are Still Walled up in the open air concentration camp. Its All for Show.
Lisa Dutton:
I find it hard to believe also, I don't see any of these demonic agencies banning anything , until Yahweh bans them all off this planet.
EXOMATRlXTV October 30, 2010
UPDATE3: (unfold) @thetruthergirls rant: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DDRLwnK6-bg ~credits video: http://youtube.com/willywill1984 "What in The World are They Spraying?" G Edward Griffin Chemtrails PartT 1 of 7 http://youtube.com/watch?v=foS3B4IIQRU
The Chemtrails controversy is no longer deemed as a "conspiracy theory" by the mainstream media news. The United Nations has called for the end of "Geo-engineering (Chemtrailing) due to fears of disrupting nature. In this video, I share the article covering this breaking news and a few videos exposing the obvious in your face truth about chemtrailing taking place in our society. This is a victory for the truth movement, but it doesn't end just here. Every day is a battle and information is key.
oh the UN Now Admits chemtrails are going on, It is Not a Conspiracy any longer. but what are they going to do about it?
Well We can Hope, atleast they are Admitting it now. but i dont trust them. The UN is about useless. There are Wars and Crimes there of still going on and the People of Gaza are Still Walled up in the open air concentration camp. Its All for Show.
Lisa Dutton:
I find it hard to believe also, I don't see any of these demonic agencies banning anything , until Yahweh bans them all off this planet.
EXOMATRlXTV October 30, 2010
UPDATE3: (unfold) @thetruthergirls rant: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DDRLwnK6-bg ~credits video: http://youtube.com/willywill1984 "What in The World are They Spraying?" G Edward Griffin Chemtrails PartT 1 of 7 http://youtube.com/watch?v=foS3B4IIQRU
The Chemtrails controversy is no longer deemed as a "conspiracy theory" by the mainstream media news. The United Nations has called for the end of "Geo-engineering (Chemtrailing) due to fears of disrupting nature. In this video, I share the article covering this breaking news and a few videos exposing the obvious in your face truth about chemtrailing taking place in our society. This is a victory for the truth movement, but it doesn't end just here. Every day is a battle and information is key.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Chernobyl disaster
LisaMarie: Was it an Accident? humm, I wonder. prolly not.
Chernobyl disaster
Excerpts:
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The disaster occurred on 26 April 1986, at reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near the town of Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), during an unusual and (as carried out) unsafe systems test at low power. A sudden rapid growth in power output took place, and when an attempt was made for emergency shutdown, an unexpected and more extreme spike in power output occurred which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air and they ignited; the resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, with over 336,000 people resettled. According to official post-Soviet data,[1] about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.[2]
The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. A 2006 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, led by the World Health Organization (WHO) states, "Among the 134 emergency workers involved in the immediate mitigation of the Chernobyl accident, severely exposed workers and fireman during the first days, 28 persons died in 1986 due to ARS(Acute Radiation Syndrome), and 19 more persons died in 1987-2004 from different causes. Among the general population affected by Chernobyl radioactive fallout, the much lower exposures meant that ARS cases did not occur". It is estimated that there were 4,995 additional deaths, between 1991 -1998, among the approximately 60,000 most highly exposed people.[3][4]
The nearby city of Pripyat was not immediately evacuated after the incident.
Only after radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden[42] over one thousand miles from the Chernobyl Plant did the Soviet Union admit that an accident had occurred. Nevertheless, authorities attempted to conceal the scale of the disaster. For example, in evacuating the city of Pripyat, the following warning message was read on local radio: "An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the atomic reactors has been damaged. Aid will be given to those affected and a committee of government inquiry has been set up." This message gave the false impression that any damage or radiation was localized.
The government committee was eventually formed as announced to investigate the accident. It was headed by Valeri Legasov who arrived at Chernobyl in the evening of 26 April. By the time Legasov arrived, two people have died and 52 were in the hospital. By the night of 26–27 April — more than 24 hours after the explosion — Legasov's committee had ample evidence showing extremely high levels of radiation and a number of cases of radiation exposure. Based on the evidence at hand, Legasov's committee had to acknowledge the destruction of the reactor and order the evacuation of Pripyat.
The evacuation began at 2 p.m. on 27 April. To speed up the evacuation, the residents were told to bring what was only necessary since the authorities said it would only be temporary and would last approximately three days. As a result, most of the residents left most of their personal belongings which can still be found today at Pripyat. An exclusion zone of 30 km (19 mi) remains in place today
International spread of radioactivity
Four hundred times more radioactive material was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. However, compared to the total amount released by nuclear weapons testing during the 1950s and 1960s, the Chernobyl disaster released 100 to 1000 times less radioactivity.[64] The fallout was detected over all of Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula.[65][66][67]
The initial evidence that a major release of radioactive material was affecting other countries came not from Soviet sources, but from Sweden, where on the morning of 28 April[68] workers at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant (approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) from the Chernobyl site) were found to have radioactive particles on their clothes.[69] It was Sweden's search for the source of radioactivity, after they had determined there was no leak at the Swedish plant, that at noon on April 28 led to the first hint of a serious nuclear problem in the western Soviet Union. Hence the evacuation of Pripyat on April 27, 36 hours after the initial explosions, was silently completed before the disaster became known outside the Soviet Union. The rise in radiation levels had at that time already been measured in Finland, but a civil service strike delayed the response and publication.[70]
Contamination from the Chernobyl accident was scattered irregularly depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union. However, the 2006 TORCH report stated that half of the volatile particles had landed outside Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. A large area in Russia south of Bryansk was also contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine. Studies in surrounding countries indicate that over one million people could have been affected by radiation.[71]
Recently published data from a long-term monitoring program (The Korma-Report)[72] show a decrease in internal radiation exposure of the inhabitants of a region in Belarus close to Gomel. Resettlement may even be possible in prohibited areas provided that people comply with appropriate dietary rules.
In Western Europe, precautionary measures taken in response to the radiation included seemingly arbitrary regulations banning the importation of certain foods but not others. In France some officials stated that the Chernobyl accident had no adverse effects.[citation needed]. Official figures in southern Bavaria in Germany indicated that some wild plant species contained substantial levels of caesium, which were believed to have been passed onto them by wild boars, a significant number of which had already contained radioactive particles above the allowed level, consuming them.[73]
Health of plant workers and local people
In the aftermath of the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of whom 31 died within the first three months.[76][77] Most of these were fire and rescue workers trying to bring the accident under control, who were not fully aware of how dangerous exposure to the radiation in the smoke was. Whereas, the World Health Organization's report 2006 Report of the Chernobyl Forum Expert Group from the 237 emergency workers who were diagnosed with ARS, ARS was identified as the cause of death for 28 of these people within the first few months after the disaster. There were no further deaths identified in the general population affected by the disaster as being caused by ARS. Of the 72,000 Russian Emergency Workers being studied, 216 non cancer deaths are attributed to the disaster, between 1991 and 1998. The latency period for solid cancers caused by excess radiation exposure is 10 or more years, thus at the time of the WHO report being undertaken the rates of solid cancer deaths were no greater than the general population.Some 135,000 people were evacuated from the area, including 50,000 from Pripyat.
Rivers, lakes and reservoirs
Earth Observing-1 image of the reactor and surrounding area in April 2009The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located next to the Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnipro River reservoir system, one of the largest surface water systems in Europe. The radioactive contamination of aquatic systems therefore became a major issue in the immediate aftermath of the accident.[78] In the most affected areas of Ukraine, levels of radioactivity (particularly radioiodine: I-131, radiocaesium: Cs-137 and radiostrontium: Sr-90) in drinking water caused concern during the weeks and months after the accident. After this initial period, however, radioactivity in rivers and reservoirs was generally below guideline limits for safe drinking water.[78]
Bio-accumulation of radioactivity in fish[79] resulted in concentrations (both in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union) that in many cases were significantly above guideline maximum levels for consumption.[78] Guideline maximum levels for radiocaesium in fish vary from country to country but are approximately 1,000 Bq/kg in the European Union.[80] In the Kiev Reservoir in Ukraine, concentrations in fish were several thousand Bq/kg during the years after the accident.[79] In small "closed" lakes in Belarus and the Bryansk region of Russia, concentrations in a number of fish species varied from 0.1 to 60 kBq/kg during the period 1990–92.[81] The contamination of fish caused short-term concern in parts of the UK and Germany and in the long term (years rather than months) in the affected areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia as well as in parts of Scandinavia.[78]
Groundwater
Map of radiation levels in 1996 around Chernobyl.Groundwater was not badly affected by the Chernobyl accident since radionuclides with short half-lives decayed away long before they could affect groundwater supplies, and longer-lived radionuclides such as radiocaesium and radiostrontium were adsorbed to surface soils before they could transfer to groundwater.[82] However, significant transfers of radionuclides to groundwater have occurred from waste disposal sites in the 30 km (19 mi) exclusion zone around Chernobyl. Although there is a potential for transfer of radionuclides from these disposal sites off-site (i.e. out of the 30 km (19 mi) exclusion zone), the IAEA Chernobyl Report[82] argues that this is not significant in comparison to current levels of washout of surface-deposited radioactivity.
Flora and fauna
After the disaster, four square kilometers of pine forest in the immediate vicinity of the reactor turned reddish-brown and died, earning the name of the "Red Forest".[83] Some animals in the worst-hit areas also died or stopped reproducing. Most domestic animals were evacuated from the exclusion zone, but horses left on an island in the Pripyat River 6 km (4 mi) from the power plant died when their thyroid glands were destroyed by radiation doses of 150–200 Sv.[84] Some cattle on the same island died and those that survived were stunted because of thyroid damage. The next generation appeared to be normal.[84]
A robot sent into the reactor itself has returned with samples of black, melanin-rich radiotrophic fungi that are growing on the reactor's walls.[85]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
Chernobyl disaster
Excerpts:
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and is the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
The disaster occurred on 26 April 1986, at reactor number four at the Chernobyl plant, near the town of Pripyat in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), during an unusual and (as carried out) unsafe systems test at low power. A sudden rapid growth in power output took place, and when an attempt was made for emergency shutdown, an unexpected and more extreme spike in power output occurred which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. This event exposed the graphite moderator components of the reactor to air and they ignited; the resulting fire sent a plume of radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Northern Europe. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia had to be evacuated, with over 336,000 people resettled. According to official post-Soviet data,[1] about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.
The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.[2]
The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. A 2006 report prepared by the Chernobyl Forum, led by the World Health Organization (WHO) states, "Among the 134 emergency workers involved in the immediate mitigation of the Chernobyl accident, severely exposed workers and fireman during the first days, 28 persons died in 1986 due to ARS(Acute Radiation Syndrome), and 19 more persons died in 1987-2004 from different causes. Among the general population affected by Chernobyl radioactive fallout, the much lower exposures meant that ARS cases did not occur". It is estimated that there were 4,995 additional deaths, between 1991 -1998, among the approximately 60,000 most highly exposed people.[3][4]
The nearby city of Pripyat was not immediately evacuated after the incident.
Only after radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden[42] over one thousand miles from the Chernobyl Plant did the Soviet Union admit that an accident had occurred. Nevertheless, authorities attempted to conceal the scale of the disaster. For example, in evacuating the city of Pripyat, the following warning message was read on local radio: "An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the atomic reactors has been damaged. Aid will be given to those affected and a committee of government inquiry has been set up." This message gave the false impression that any damage or radiation was localized.
The government committee was eventually formed as announced to investigate the accident. It was headed by Valeri Legasov who arrived at Chernobyl in the evening of 26 April. By the time Legasov arrived, two people have died and 52 were in the hospital. By the night of 26–27 April — more than 24 hours after the explosion — Legasov's committee had ample evidence showing extremely high levels of radiation and a number of cases of radiation exposure. Based on the evidence at hand, Legasov's committee had to acknowledge the destruction of the reactor and order the evacuation of Pripyat.
The evacuation began at 2 p.m. on 27 April. To speed up the evacuation, the residents were told to bring what was only necessary since the authorities said it would only be temporary and would last approximately three days. As a result, most of the residents left most of their personal belongings which can still be found today at Pripyat. An exclusion zone of 30 km (19 mi) remains in place today
International spread of radioactivity
Four hundred times more radioactive material was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. However, compared to the total amount released by nuclear weapons testing during the 1950s and 1960s, the Chernobyl disaster released 100 to 1000 times less radioactivity.[64] The fallout was detected over all of Europe except for the Iberian Peninsula.[65][66][67]
The initial evidence that a major release of radioactive material was affecting other countries came not from Soviet sources, but from Sweden, where on the morning of 28 April[68] workers at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant (approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) from the Chernobyl site) were found to have radioactive particles on their clothes.[69] It was Sweden's search for the source of radioactivity, after they had determined there was no leak at the Swedish plant, that at noon on April 28 led to the first hint of a serious nuclear problem in the western Soviet Union. Hence the evacuation of Pripyat on April 27, 36 hours after the initial explosions, was silently completed before the disaster became known outside the Soviet Union. The rise in radiation levels had at that time already been measured in Finland, but a civil service strike delayed the response and publication.[70]
Contamination from the Chernobyl accident was scattered irregularly depending on weather conditions. Reports from Soviet and Western scientists indicate that Belarus received about 60% of the contamination that fell on the former Soviet Union. However, the 2006 TORCH report stated that half of the volatile particles had landed outside Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. A large area in Russia south of Bryansk was also contaminated, as were parts of northwestern Ukraine. Studies in surrounding countries indicate that over one million people could have been affected by radiation.[71]
Recently published data from a long-term monitoring program (The Korma-Report)[72] show a decrease in internal radiation exposure of the inhabitants of a region in Belarus close to Gomel. Resettlement may even be possible in prohibited areas provided that people comply with appropriate dietary rules.
In Western Europe, precautionary measures taken in response to the radiation included seemingly arbitrary regulations banning the importation of certain foods but not others. In France some officials stated that the Chernobyl accident had no adverse effects.[citation needed]. Official figures in southern Bavaria in Germany indicated that some wild plant species contained substantial levels of caesium, which were believed to have been passed onto them by wild boars, a significant number of which had already contained radioactive particles above the allowed level, consuming them.[73]
Health of plant workers and local people
In the aftermath of the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of whom 31 died within the first three months.[76][77] Most of these were fire and rescue workers trying to bring the accident under control, who were not fully aware of how dangerous exposure to the radiation in the smoke was. Whereas, the World Health Organization's report 2006 Report of the Chernobyl Forum Expert Group from the 237 emergency workers who were diagnosed with ARS, ARS was identified as the cause of death for 28 of these people within the first few months after the disaster. There were no further deaths identified in the general population affected by the disaster as being caused by ARS. Of the 72,000 Russian Emergency Workers being studied, 216 non cancer deaths are attributed to the disaster, between 1991 and 1998. The latency period for solid cancers caused by excess radiation exposure is 10 or more years, thus at the time of the WHO report being undertaken the rates of solid cancer deaths were no greater than the general population.Some 135,000 people were evacuated from the area, including 50,000 from Pripyat.
Rivers, lakes and reservoirs
Earth Observing-1 image of the reactor and surrounding area in April 2009The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located next to the Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnipro River reservoir system, one of the largest surface water systems in Europe. The radioactive contamination of aquatic systems therefore became a major issue in the immediate aftermath of the accident.[78] In the most affected areas of Ukraine, levels of radioactivity (particularly radioiodine: I-131, radiocaesium: Cs-137 and radiostrontium: Sr-90) in drinking water caused concern during the weeks and months after the accident. After this initial period, however, radioactivity in rivers and reservoirs was generally below guideline limits for safe drinking water.[78]
Bio-accumulation of radioactivity in fish[79] resulted in concentrations (both in western Europe and in the former Soviet Union) that in many cases were significantly above guideline maximum levels for consumption.[78] Guideline maximum levels for radiocaesium in fish vary from country to country but are approximately 1,000 Bq/kg in the European Union.[80] In the Kiev Reservoir in Ukraine, concentrations in fish were several thousand Bq/kg during the years after the accident.[79] In small "closed" lakes in Belarus and the Bryansk region of Russia, concentrations in a number of fish species varied from 0.1 to 60 kBq/kg during the period 1990–92.[81] The contamination of fish caused short-term concern in parts of the UK and Germany and in the long term (years rather than months) in the affected areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia as well as in parts of Scandinavia.[78]
Groundwater
Map of radiation levels in 1996 around Chernobyl.Groundwater was not badly affected by the Chernobyl accident since radionuclides with short half-lives decayed away long before they could affect groundwater supplies, and longer-lived radionuclides such as radiocaesium and radiostrontium were adsorbed to surface soils before they could transfer to groundwater.[82] However, significant transfers of radionuclides to groundwater have occurred from waste disposal sites in the 30 km (19 mi) exclusion zone around Chernobyl. Although there is a potential for transfer of radionuclides from these disposal sites off-site (i.e. out of the 30 km (19 mi) exclusion zone), the IAEA Chernobyl Report[82] argues that this is not significant in comparison to current levels of washout of surface-deposited radioactivity.
Flora and fauna
After the disaster, four square kilometers of pine forest in the immediate vicinity of the reactor turned reddish-brown and died, earning the name of the "Red Forest".[83] Some animals in the worst-hit areas also died or stopped reproducing. Most domestic animals were evacuated from the exclusion zone, but horses left on an island in the Pripyat River 6 km (4 mi) from the power plant died when their thyroid glands were destroyed by radiation doses of 150–200 Sv.[84] Some cattle on the same island died and those that survived were stunted because of thyroid damage. The next generation appeared to be normal.[84]
A robot sent into the reactor itself has returned with samples of black, melanin-rich radiotrophic fungi that are growing on the reactor's walls.[85]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster
Monday, November 30, 2009
Depleted Uranium Dust -Far Worse Than 9-11
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan
by Doug Westerman
Global Research, May 3, 2006
Vital Truths and Information Clearing House
Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over 100 million dollars.
Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe. People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan:
"Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer".
"Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.",
"We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters."
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY.
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report " on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust " was also deliberately suppressed.
The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military.
In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying,
"The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body."
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada.
PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:,
"Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity."
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated:
"When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy,"
After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others"including Rokke himself"developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems.
"We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.
Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases."
Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases?
Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.
"That's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way."
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the "micron size" or smaller, he said.
When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific:
"I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."
When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat " sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable.
Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported.
Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it normal?" The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on the following website
Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated:
"Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA."
Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the "Baghdad Diaries" wrote:
"Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia."
"The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas."
This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it's 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.
I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that.
"In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."
By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.
Dr. Hardan also states:
"I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we
Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn"t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.
Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.
Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have medical problems.
Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted.
Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers.
If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month.
"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing.
In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects.
Dr. Durakovic's UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation.
"This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times.
"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said
"They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law."
(NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?
"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.
It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust's crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading.
The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners.
Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours.
The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.
"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. "Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.
"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.
Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan.
How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that "this could cause "500,000 potential deaths". This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a significant problem".
The AEA's calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq's total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq.
What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.
He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians?
Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers.
Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage.
She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill.
In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn"t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority?
The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion.
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN
Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England.
UMRC's Field Team found 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.
Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before.
Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months.
In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. "We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination."
In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill.
How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads:
"The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium."
In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
"A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.
The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing.
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According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".
There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.
The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers).
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.
Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals.
CONCLUSIONS:
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place.
Global Research Articles by Doug Westerman
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2374
by Doug Westerman
Global Research, May 3, 2006
Vital Truths and Information Clearing House
Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over 100 million dollars.
Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S. Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia, suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe. People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan:
"Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer".
"Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.",
"We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the war. When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people have been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we were accused of being Saddam supporters."
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University, and one of the founding editors of USA TODAY related the following to DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has since been replaced as editor of USA TODAY.
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report " on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust " was also deliberately suppressed.
The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable, according to some sources even within the military.
In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying,
"The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body."
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada.
PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have malignancies.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted uranium after the first Gulf War states:,
"Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity."
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the fine dust. He stated:
"When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy,"
After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most others"including Rokke himself"developed serious health problems. Rokke now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and kidney problems.
"We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War. Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.
Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to make troops seriously ill in most cases."
Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in nearly all cases?
Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.
"That's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way."
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the "micron size" or smaller, he said.
When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things and killing people, Falk was more specific:
"I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people."
When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic energy is converted to heat " sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From 40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in cigarette smoke and therefore respirable.
Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported.
Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it normal?" The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on the following website
Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated:
"Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA."
Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the "Baghdad Diaries" wrote:
"Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia."
"The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas."
This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I (Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near major population centers). So, it's 5-6 times worse now than it was when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U. which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately 30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered throughout Iraq.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.
I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that.
"In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."
By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.
Dr. Hardan also states:
"I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we
Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries who can help. The U.S. Military doesn"t want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.
Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.
Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in 1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability. This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56 percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have medical problems.
Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo tribunal, guided by the principles of International Criminal Law and International Humanitarian Law, found President George W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi, reported in The Japan Times that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the "tribunal also issued recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons that indiscriminately harm people." Although this was a "Citizen's Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their determination that international laws have been violated and a war crimes conviction is warranted.
Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches, constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers.
If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire company is due to return home later this month.
"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were military police not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing.
In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust. In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of the children conceived after the war had birth defects.
Dr. Durakovic's UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf. Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of radiation.
"This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The Japan Times.
"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said
"They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by using weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under international law."
(NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit,a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and painful death?
"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1,000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.
It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust's crystalline structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading.
The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners.
Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades, dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely excreted by the body within 24 hours.
The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.
"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher. "Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.
"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.
Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams. Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses floating around Iraq and Afghanistan.
How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict. It calculated that "this could cause "500,000 potential deaths". This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a significant problem".
The AEA's calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were fired in the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely that the local population would have been exposed to any significant amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of Iraq's total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is greater than Iraq.
What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.
He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain, difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of depleted uranium dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan civilians?
Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple cancers.
Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them for storage.
She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill.
In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq, wouldn"t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority?
The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court found President Bush guilty of war crimes.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion.
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN
Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples, transporting them to an independent research lab in England.
UMRC's Field Team found 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.
Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during Operation Enduring Freedom. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian studies before.
Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure. These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness, memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days or months.
In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination; concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. "We took both soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They were beyond our wildest imagination."
In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill.
How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC field report reads:
"The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the civilian population presents symptoms consistent with internal contamination by uranium."
In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
"A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.
The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases. Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing.
------------------------------------
According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states "The total of 109 casualties exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium". Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".
There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.
The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers).
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to 10 years."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.
Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals.
CONCLUSIONS:
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place.
Global Research Articles by Doug Westerman
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=2374
Depleted Uranium, The Emerging Radiation Crisis in Iraq and US Students
For OpEdNews: Don Lieber - Writer
November 24, 2009
Depleted Uranium, The Emerging Radiation Crisis in Iraq and US Students: Vermont Takes Lead with Divestment
On Oct 24, The Board of Trustees at the University of Vermont adopted a resolution, without fanfare, to divest the University's investment funds from companies involved in the production of depleted uranium weapons (DU), citing the weapon's "indescriminate use" and "broad adverse effects to human health and the environment" 1)
This appears to be the first large University system in the United States to take this step, as reports are increasing out of Iraq suggesting an emerging radiation crisis in areas where these highly radioactive weapons have been used.
Many health professionals and scientists, including a former director of the Army's "Depleted Uranium Project" in Iraq, are documenting a dramatic rise in birth defects, cancers, genetic mutations and other conditions consistant with severe radiation exposure from Fallujah and Basra - where major battles included the use of DU weapons by US forces. Disturbing photos show grotesque malformations including huge hydroencephaly (enlarged heads), webbed fingers and eyelids, and severe organ protrusions (photos available at cited reference) 2)
DU weapons have been the subject of ongoing concern from experts and activists who have warned about the serious health risks posed from the highly radiactive materials used in their manufacture. Military analysts acknowledge their effective battlefiled applications - particularly as armour and concrete penetrating 'bunker busters', and the government has consistantly refuted the health concerns.
The University did not not identify publically the names of the manufactures involved nor their investors, but said the divestment would focuson the known "three main producers" and their financers. The three largest producers of DU weapons in the United States, are General Dynamics, ATK Alliance Systems, and Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee. Their US financers include Bank of America, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and many more, according to several DU watchdog groups. 3)
Two of the areas in Iraq reporting significant radiation exposure are Fallujah and Basar, sites of major battles where DU weapons were used.
Saud Al-Azzawi, an environmental engineer who has been involved in several epidemiological research studies in the Basra region, said "A few years after exposure to (DU) contamination, multifold increase of malignancies, congenital malformations, miscarriages, children leukemia, and sterility cases have been registered in suburb areas of Basra and other surrounding areas". 4)
The Army has repeatedly denied any link between Depleted Uranium and high rates of cancer or other conditions in Iraq. "There is not really any danger, at least that we know about, for the people of Iraq," said Lt. Col. Michael Sigmon, deputy surgeon for the US Army's V Corps. 5), 6)
Individual experts from the military, however, have contradicted the official denial.
Dr Alexandra C. Miller of the Armed Forces Radiological Research Institute reported that DU has significant carcinogenic potential, is mutagenic and genotoxic. Another expert, Dr. Doug Rokke, who was the director of the Army's Depleted Uranium Project in Iraq in 2003 (charged to study how to safegaurd U.S. troops from DU and properly dispose of DU material) - has become a leading advocate for a total ban on their use. 7,8).
A brief search of Army practice suggests further contradictions to its own public denial of health risks:
Army and Defense Department regulations prohibit the use of DU munitions during training. 9)
U.S. troops are instructed to avoid any sites where DU weapons have been used — destroyed tanks, exploded bunkers, etc.—and to wear masks if they do have to approach. 10)
The U.S. removed over 6,000 tons of DU contaminated soil from Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf war. The contaminated material was brought back to the US for disposal to a radioactive waste managment company, the American Ecology Corporation, based in Bosie. Army trucks hit by 'friendly' DU fire in Iraq also had to be brought back to radioactive waste disposal facilities in the U.S. 11)
And - perhaps the striking example - the Army has built a new, state-of the art hospital in Basra specializing in advanced pediactric cancer treatment.
It is the first hospital of its kind in Iraq - a multi-million dollar, 90-bed unit - built to serve an area known for significant DU weapon use by US forces.
The Department of Defense website, in touting the Army's humanitarian efforts, cites the high cancer rates in the region without making reference to any potential causes. 12)
Fallujah - another area where US forces used considerable DU munitions during the battles in 2004 - now is also reporting an observable rise in birth defects and other radiation-related conditions. A report sent to the UN General Assembly on October 12, 2009, by Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Iraq's Minister of Women's Affairs, stated that 24% of the babies born in Fallujah General Hospital in September 2009 died within their first week of life. Of the remainder of the babies who survived beyond the first week of life, a full 75% were reported born with deformaties.
Statistics from the same hospital in 2002 - six months prior to start of the 'shock and awe' attacks of 2003 (which included DU weapons) - recorded 530 live births with only six dying in the first week and only one deformity. 13)
An important detail of DU risk to humans is that the most dangerous form of exposure is inhalation (rather than contact). This happens when DU weapons 'aerosolize' upon impact. A single particle of inhaled DU can expose the surrounding tissue to radiation 800 times the annual dosage considered safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the entire body. (Authors Note: The US Army has no established protocols for diagnosing, nor treating soldiers with suspected inhaled DU). 14)
Several sources place the amount of DU used in US weapons since 2003 at over 1,600 tonnes: this amount would create a staggering, uncountable amount of particles to be dispersed in the soil, water and air. 15) This corresponds to studies now showing local soil, water and air which now show radiation levels 'hundreds to thousands of times' above what occurs naturally. An American reporter from the Christian Science Moniter described that radiation meters which his crew brought to the region went "off the scale" in some areas. 16)
The emerging reports out of Iraq have been virtually absent in the United States media, with scant attention in European media - two recent reports in the Guardian (UK) being notable exceptions. 17)
Largely out of the US press, however, some governments and humanitarian organizations are reacting.
The government of Belgium in 2007 became the first nation to ban "all weapons" which contain Depleted Uranium. In 2008 the European Parliament adapted a resolution for both a moratorium and an international treaty to ban them . The International Coalition to Ban UraniumWeapons, based in Manchester, is seeking an international ban modeled after the Ottawa Landmine-Ban Treaty and has called upon the United Nations to do so.
And at least one U.S. University has voted to cease doing business with producers of a weapon which one former nuclear expert from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory described as a "a dirty bomb...in every way". 18)
So what led the students in Vermont to ask the University to divest - on an issue relatively unknown in the United States - at a time when any number of pressing issues could well have merited more publicized attention?
"At UVM social and political activism are both things that are taken very seriously" said Hillary Walton, the student journalist who first wrote about the divestment vote in the campus newspaper The Vermont Cynic. The University's culture indeed appears to welcome student social activism, perhaps more than most US universities: It previously created a Socially Responsible Investing Work Group which is composed of students, faculty, administration, and staff: all have equal vote in deciding which issues to bring before the Trustees. Previous divestment resolutions have passed regarding tobbaco and the human rights in Sudan. 19)
Whether other US Universities follow Vermont's lead on DU weapons and the emerging radiation crisis in Iraq remains to be seen.
In their October 22 divestment resolution, the University Trustees said "... The University's policy of fiscal prudence shall not preclude the consideration of moral, ethical and social criteria in determining which companies to invest." 20)
It appears that the CEOs and Board of Directors at General Dynamics, ATK Alliance Sytems, and Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee - along with their their US Banking partners and Army contractors - have it the other way around.
Don Lieber is an independent journalist whose previous works have been published with the Associated Press, the United Nations, The Willamette Week (Portland Ore.), The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and others.
FOOTNOTES
1) Budget, Finance and Investment Minutes, Board of Trustees Meeting, University of Vermont, October 22-24, 2009. click here
2) click here
Explicit and disturbing photos of children displaying severe symptoms associated with radition exposure as collected by Iraq hospital officials, and health researchers, can be seen at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html
3) International Coalition to Ban Depleted Uranium. http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/docs/32.pdf
According to the ICBDU, the three main producers of DU weapons are:
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems,
Michael S. Wilson President,
11399 16th Court North, Suite 200
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
Main Number: (727) 578-8100 (727) 578-8100
Fax Number: (727) 578-8119
Web Site:http://www.gd-ots.com/
ATK Armament Systems
Amanda Covington, Director of Communications
Clearfield, Utah
Phone: 801-779-4625 801-779-4625
ATK Alliance Systems - Corporate Headquarters
7480 Flying Cloud Drive,Minneapolis, MN 55344
Phone: 952-351-3000 952-351-3000
atk.corporate@atk.com
Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, Inc.
Jonesborough, Tennessee.
1367 Old State Route 34,
Jonesborough, TN 37659
(423) 753-1200 (423) 753-1200
(423) 753-8645 (FAX)
4) Remarks given by Souadd Al-Azzawi, Associate Professor of engineering, Kuala Lumpur International Conference to Criminalise War, Putra World Trade Centre, 28-31 October 2009
5) Remains of Toxic Bullets Litter Iraq.
Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, May 15, 2003.
6 ) The government's denial also applies to thousands of returning US soldiers also exposed to DU fallout in Iraq. For a detailed account of this, see: Paul Zimmerman, Depleted Uranium and the Mismanagement of Gulf War Veterans, as published November 20, 2009, in TruthOut,org http://www.truthout.org/1120097.
Authors note: The Army has "no code" (i.e., established protocols) for the testing, diagnosing, or treatment suspected exposure from inhalation of DU - despite the awareness that this is most dangerous form of DU exposure (unlike 'contact' exposure, such as shrapnel, for which the Army has extensive diagnosing and treatment protocols).
See: Memorandum for Commanders,
26 June 2007,
Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium,
Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here
7) Alexandra C. Miller, Mike Stewart, Rafael Rivas, Robert Marlot, and Paul Lison, Depleted Uranium internal contamination: Carcinogenisis and Leukeinogenisis in Vivo. Proc. American Association of Cancer Research. Volume 46, 2005.
8)The War Against Ourselves: Interview with Dr. Doug Rokke, Yes!Magazine, March 31, 2003. Dr. Rokke's public speeches on DU are available on YouTube. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VkpR-wka8.
9) Army Installation Management Command, Pacific Region Information Booklet "Depleted Uranium in Hawaii"
10) Peterson, Remains of Toxic Bullets, Christian Science Monitor, as cited.
11) Peterson, Remains of Toxic Bullets, and Al-Azzawi, Remarks, as cited.
12) U.S. Department of Defense News Website, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54623
13). http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=6744&blz
14) Rosali Bertell, Depleted Uranium: All the questions about DU and Gulf War Syndrome are not yet answered. International Journal of Health Service 36(3), 503-520, 2006, and Memorandum for Commanders, 26 June 2007, Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium, Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here)
As described in Bertell et.al, DU weapons, when they combust upon impact, create clouds of highly toxic, microscopic particles of radioactive uranium oxide which can be inhaled. The particles enter the lungs, cross the lung-blood barrier and gain entrance to tissue cells. Once in the cells, DU - a heavy metal - disrupts DNA and RNA functions, among other functions linked to the development of chronic diseases, tumors and cancer. Scientific details on the biology and epidimiology of DU exposure is reviewed in Depleted Uranium Contamination: Iraq: An overview, August 31, 2006. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3116, and multiple other sources as cited in this article.
15) Memorandum for Commanders, 26 June 2007, Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium, Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here
16) http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jid/jid040402.
For a detailed account of DU use in Iraq, see Depleted Uranium Contamination: Iraq: An overview, August 31, 2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3116
17) Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan
by Doug Westerman, Global Research.ca, May 3, 2006 and multiple sources.
18) Marion Falk, a former physicist who worked on nuclear weapons at the government's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, told Agence France Press that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. "That's exactly what they are," Falk said "They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way." click here
19) Board Votes to Divest from Cluster Ammunitions
By Hillary Walton
The Vermont Cynic, November 16, 2009
20) Budget, Finance and Investment Minutes, Board of Trustees Meeting, University of Vermont, October 22-24, 2009. click here
Don Lieber is an independent journalist. His works have been published by the Associated Press, the United Nations, the International Campaign to Ban the Use of Landmines, Willamette Week (Portland Oregon), the Coalition to Ban the Use of Child (more...)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Depleted-Uranium-The-Emer-by-Don-Lieber-091124-39.html
November 24, 2009
Depleted Uranium, The Emerging Radiation Crisis in Iraq and US Students: Vermont Takes Lead with Divestment
On Oct 24, The Board of Trustees at the University of Vermont adopted a resolution, without fanfare, to divest the University's investment funds from companies involved in the production of depleted uranium weapons (DU), citing the weapon's "indescriminate use" and "broad adverse effects to human health and the environment" 1)
This appears to be the first large University system in the United States to take this step, as reports are increasing out of Iraq suggesting an emerging radiation crisis in areas where these highly radioactive weapons have been used.
Many health professionals and scientists, including a former director of the Army's "Depleted Uranium Project" in Iraq, are documenting a dramatic rise in birth defects, cancers, genetic mutations and other conditions consistant with severe radiation exposure from Fallujah and Basra - where major battles included the use of DU weapons by US forces. Disturbing photos show grotesque malformations including huge hydroencephaly (enlarged heads), webbed fingers and eyelids, and severe organ protrusions (photos available at cited reference) 2)
DU weapons have been the subject of ongoing concern from experts and activists who have warned about the serious health risks posed from the highly radiactive materials used in their manufacture. Military analysts acknowledge their effective battlefiled applications - particularly as armour and concrete penetrating 'bunker busters', and the government has consistantly refuted the health concerns.
The University did not not identify publically the names of the manufactures involved nor their investors, but said the divestment would focuson the known "three main producers" and their financers. The three largest producers of DU weapons in the United States, are General Dynamics, ATK Alliance Systems, and Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee. Their US financers include Bank of America, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and many more, according to several DU watchdog groups. 3)
Two of the areas in Iraq reporting significant radiation exposure are Fallujah and Basar, sites of major battles where DU weapons were used.
Saud Al-Azzawi, an environmental engineer who has been involved in several epidemiological research studies in the Basra region, said "A few years after exposure to (DU) contamination, multifold increase of malignancies, congenital malformations, miscarriages, children leukemia, and sterility cases have been registered in suburb areas of Basra and other surrounding areas". 4)
The Army has repeatedly denied any link between Depleted Uranium and high rates of cancer or other conditions in Iraq. "There is not really any danger, at least that we know about, for the people of Iraq," said Lt. Col. Michael Sigmon, deputy surgeon for the US Army's V Corps. 5), 6)
Individual experts from the military, however, have contradicted the official denial.
Dr Alexandra C. Miller of the Armed Forces Radiological Research Institute reported that DU has significant carcinogenic potential, is mutagenic and genotoxic. Another expert, Dr. Doug Rokke, who was the director of the Army's Depleted Uranium Project in Iraq in 2003 (charged to study how to safegaurd U.S. troops from DU and properly dispose of DU material) - has become a leading advocate for a total ban on their use. 7,8).
A brief search of Army practice suggests further contradictions to its own public denial of health risks:
Army and Defense Department regulations prohibit the use of DU munitions during training. 9)
U.S. troops are instructed to avoid any sites where DU weapons have been used — destroyed tanks, exploded bunkers, etc.—and to wear masks if they do have to approach. 10)
The U.S. removed over 6,000 tons of DU contaminated soil from Kuwait after the 1991 Gulf war. The contaminated material was brought back to the US for disposal to a radioactive waste managment company, the American Ecology Corporation, based in Bosie. Army trucks hit by 'friendly' DU fire in Iraq also had to be brought back to radioactive waste disposal facilities in the U.S. 11)
And - perhaps the striking example - the Army has built a new, state-of the art hospital in Basra specializing in advanced pediactric cancer treatment.
It is the first hospital of its kind in Iraq - a multi-million dollar, 90-bed unit - built to serve an area known for significant DU weapon use by US forces.
The Department of Defense website, in touting the Army's humanitarian efforts, cites the high cancer rates in the region without making reference to any potential causes. 12)
Fallujah - another area where US forces used considerable DU munitions during the battles in 2004 - now is also reporting an observable rise in birth defects and other radiation-related conditions. A report sent to the UN General Assembly on October 12, 2009, by Dr Nawal Majeed Al-Sammarai, Iraq's Minister of Women's Affairs, stated that 24% of the babies born in Fallujah General Hospital in September 2009 died within their first week of life. Of the remainder of the babies who survived beyond the first week of life, a full 75% were reported born with deformaties.
Statistics from the same hospital in 2002 - six months prior to start of the 'shock and awe' attacks of 2003 (which included DU weapons) - recorded 530 live births with only six dying in the first week and only one deformity. 13)
An important detail of DU risk to humans is that the most dangerous form of exposure is inhalation (rather than contact). This happens when DU weapons 'aerosolize' upon impact. A single particle of inhaled DU can expose the surrounding tissue to radiation 800 times the annual dosage considered safe by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the entire body. (Authors Note: The US Army has no established protocols for diagnosing, nor treating soldiers with suspected inhaled DU). 14)
Several sources place the amount of DU used in US weapons since 2003 at over 1,600 tonnes: this amount would create a staggering, uncountable amount of particles to be dispersed in the soil, water and air. 15) This corresponds to studies now showing local soil, water and air which now show radiation levels 'hundreds to thousands of times' above what occurs naturally. An American reporter from the Christian Science Moniter described that radiation meters which his crew brought to the region went "off the scale" in some areas. 16)
The emerging reports out of Iraq have been virtually absent in the United States media, with scant attention in European media - two recent reports in the Guardian (UK) being notable exceptions. 17)
Largely out of the US press, however, some governments and humanitarian organizations are reacting.
The government of Belgium in 2007 became the first nation to ban "all weapons" which contain Depleted Uranium. In 2008 the European Parliament adapted a resolution for both a moratorium and an international treaty to ban them . The International Coalition to Ban UraniumWeapons, based in Manchester, is seeking an international ban modeled after the Ottawa Landmine-Ban Treaty and has called upon the United Nations to do so.
And at least one U.S. University has voted to cease doing business with producers of a weapon which one former nuclear expert from the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory described as a "a dirty bomb...in every way". 18)
So what led the students in Vermont to ask the University to divest - on an issue relatively unknown in the United States - at a time when any number of pressing issues could well have merited more publicized attention?
"At UVM social and political activism are both things that are taken very seriously" said Hillary Walton, the student journalist who first wrote about the divestment vote in the campus newspaper The Vermont Cynic. The University's culture indeed appears to welcome student social activism, perhaps more than most US universities: It previously created a Socially Responsible Investing Work Group which is composed of students, faculty, administration, and staff: all have equal vote in deciding which issues to bring before the Trustees. Previous divestment resolutions have passed regarding tobbaco and the human rights in Sudan. 19)
Whether other US Universities follow Vermont's lead on DU weapons and the emerging radiation crisis in Iraq remains to be seen.
In their October 22 divestment resolution, the University Trustees said "... The University's policy of fiscal prudence shall not preclude the consideration of moral, ethical and social criteria in determining which companies to invest." 20)
It appears that the CEOs and Board of Directors at General Dynamics, ATK Alliance Sytems, and Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee - along with their their US Banking partners and Army contractors - have it the other way around.
Don Lieber is an independent journalist whose previous works have been published with the Associated Press, the United Nations, The Willamette Week (Portland Ore.), The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and others.
FOOTNOTES
1) Budget, Finance and Investment Minutes, Board of Trustees Meeting, University of Vermont, October 22-24, 2009. click here
2) click here
Explicit and disturbing photos of children displaying severe symptoms associated with radition exposure as collected by Iraq hospital officials, and health researchers, can be seen at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html
3) International Coalition to Ban Depleted Uranium. http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/docs/32.pdf
According to the ICBDU, the three main producers of DU weapons are:
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems,
Michael S. Wilson President,
11399 16th Court North, Suite 200
St. Petersburg, FL 33716
Main Number: (727) 578-8100 (727) 578-8100
Fax Number: (727) 578-8119
Web Site:http://www.gd-ots.com/
ATK Armament Systems
Amanda Covington, Director of Communications
Clearfield, Utah
Phone: 801-779-4625 801-779-4625
ATK Alliance Systems - Corporate Headquarters
7480 Flying Cloud Drive,Minneapolis, MN 55344
Phone: 952-351-3000 952-351-3000
atk.corporate@atk.com
Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee, Inc.
Jonesborough, Tennessee.
1367 Old State Route 34,
Jonesborough, TN 37659
(423) 753-1200 (423) 753-1200
(423) 753-8645 (FAX)
4) Remarks given by Souadd Al-Azzawi, Associate Professor of engineering, Kuala Lumpur International Conference to Criminalise War, Putra World Trade Centre, 28-31 October 2009
5) Remains of Toxic Bullets Litter Iraq.
Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, May 15, 2003.
6 ) The government's denial also applies to thousands of returning US soldiers also exposed to DU fallout in Iraq. For a detailed account of this, see: Paul Zimmerman, Depleted Uranium and the Mismanagement of Gulf War Veterans, as published November 20, 2009, in TruthOut,org http://www.truthout.org/1120097.
Authors note: The Army has "no code" (i.e., established protocols) for the testing, diagnosing, or treatment suspected exposure from inhalation of DU - despite the awareness that this is most dangerous form of DU exposure (unlike 'contact' exposure, such as shrapnel, for which the Army has extensive diagnosing and treatment protocols).
See: Memorandum for Commanders,
26 June 2007,
Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium,
Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here
7) Alexandra C. Miller, Mike Stewart, Rafael Rivas, Robert Marlot, and Paul Lison, Depleted Uranium internal contamination: Carcinogenisis and Leukeinogenisis in Vivo. Proc. American Association of Cancer Research. Volume 46, 2005.
8)The War Against Ourselves: Interview with Dr. Doug Rokke, Yes!Magazine, March 31, 2003. Dr. Rokke's public speeches on DU are available on YouTube. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VkpR-wka8.
9) Army Installation Management Command, Pacific Region Information Booklet "Depleted Uranium in Hawaii"
10) Peterson, Remains of Toxic Bullets, Christian Science Monitor, as cited.
11) Peterson, Remains of Toxic Bullets, and Al-Azzawi, Remarks, as cited.
12) U.S. Department of Defense News Website, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54623
13). http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=6744&blz
14) Rosali Bertell, Depleted Uranium: All the questions about DU and Gulf War Syndrome are not yet answered. International Journal of Health Service 36(3), 503-520, 2006, and Memorandum for Commanders, 26 June 2007, Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium, Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here)
As described in Bertell et.al, DU weapons, when they combust upon impact, create clouds of highly toxic, microscopic particles of radioactive uranium oxide which can be inhaled. The particles enter the lungs, cross the lung-blood barrier and gain entrance to tissue cells. Once in the cells, DU - a heavy metal - disrupts DNA and RNA functions, among other functions linked to the development of chronic diseases, tumors and cancer. Scientific details on the biology and epidimiology of DU exposure is reviewed in Depleted Uranium Contamination: Iraq: An overview, August 31, 2006. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3116, and multiple other sources as cited in this article.
15) Memorandum for Commanders, 26 June 2007, Subject: Medical Management of Army Personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium, Department of the Army, Headquarters, US Army Medical Command. click here
16) http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jid/jid040402.
For a detailed account of DU use in Iraq, see Depleted Uranium Contamination: Iraq: An overview, August 31, 2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3116
17) Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq and Afghanistan
by Doug Westerman, Global Research.ca, May 3, 2006 and multiple sources.
18) Marion Falk, a former physicist who worked on nuclear weapons at the government's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, told Agence France Press that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb. "That's exactly what they are," Falk said "They fit the description of a dirty bomb in every way." click here
19) Board Votes to Divest from Cluster Ammunitions
By Hillary Walton
The Vermont Cynic, November 16, 2009
20) Budget, Finance and Investment Minutes, Board of Trustees Meeting, University of Vermont, October 22-24, 2009. click here
Don Lieber is an independent journalist. His works have been published by the Associated Press, the United Nations, the International Campaign to Ban the Use of Landmines, Willamette Week (Portland Oregon), the Coalition to Ban the Use of Child (more...)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Depleted-Uranium-The-Emer-by-Don-Lieber-091124-39.html
Sunday, July 5, 2009
U.S. Soldiers Are Sick of It - Depleted Uranium
Associated Press 08-12-06
NEW YORK -- It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills -- morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves.
Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done.
Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.
There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick.
In the sprawling bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, he has many caretakers. An internist, a neurologist, a pain-management specialist, a psychologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a dermatologist. He cannot function without his stupefying arsenal of medications, but they exact a high price.
"I'm just a zombie walking around," he says.
Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it -- thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead.
A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armor, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The United States has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective.
Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life.
At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk.
"We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' "
Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area.
But the medic knew something the others didn't. Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins.
"We got on the Internet," Reed said, "and we started researching depleted uranium."
Then they contacted The New York Daily News, which paid for sophisticated urine tests available only overseas.
Then they hired a lawyer.
Reed, Gerard Matthew, Raymond Ramos, Hector Vega, Augustin Matos, Anthony Yonnone, Jerry Ojeda and Anthony Phillip all have depleted uranium in their urine, according to tests done in December 2003, while they bounced for months between Walter Reed and New Jersey's Fort Dix medical center, seeking relief that never came.
The analyses were done in Germany, by a Frankfurt professor who developed a depleted uranium test with Randall Parrish, a professor of isotope geology at the University of Leicester in Britain.
The veterans, using their positive results as evidence, have sued the U.S. Army, claiming officials knew the hazards of depleted uranium, but concealed the risks.
The Department of Defense says depleted uranium is powerful and safe, and not that worrisome.
Four of the highest-registering samples from Frankfurt were sent to the VA. Those results were negative, Reed said. "Their test just isn't as sophisticated," he said. "And when we first asked to be tested, they told us there wasn't one. They've lied to us all along."
The VA's testing methodology is safe and accurate, the agency says. More than 2,100 soldiers from the current war have asked to be tested; only eight had DU in their urine, the VA said.
The term depleted uranium is linguistically radioactive. Simply uttering the words can prompt a reaction akin to preaching atheism at tent revival. Heads shake, eyes roll, opinions are yelled from all sides.
"The Department of Defense takes the position that you can eat it for breakfast and it poses no threat at all," said Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center, which helps veterans with various problems, including navigating the labyrinth of VA health care. "Then you have far-left groups that ... declare it a crime against humanity."
Several countries use it as weaponry, including Britain, which fired it during the 2003 Iraq invasion.
An estimated 286 tons of DU munitions were fired by the United States in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. An estimated 130 tons were shot toppling Saddam Hussein.
Depleted uranium can enter the human body by inhalation, the most dangerous method; by ingesting contaminated food or eating with contaminated hands; by getting dust or debris in an open wound, or by being struck by shrapnel, which often is not removed because doing so would be more dangerous than leaving it.
Inhaled, it can lodge in the lungs. As with imbedded shrapnel, this is doubly dangerous -- not only are the particles themselves physically destructive, they emit radiation.
A moderate voice on the divisive DU spectrum belongs to Dan Fahey, a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley, who has studied the issue for years and also served in the Gulf War before leaving the military as a conscientious objector.
"I've been working on this since '93 and I've just given up hope," he said. "I've spoken to successive federal committees and elected officials ... who then side with the Pentagon. Nothing changes."
At the other end are a collection of conspiracy-theorists and internet proselytizers who say using such weapons constitutes genocide. Two of the most vocal opponents recently suggested that a depleted-uranium missile, not a hijacked jetliner, struck the Pentagon in 2001.
"The bottom line is it's more hazardous than the Pentagon admits," Fahey said, "but it's not as hazardous as the hard-line activist groups say it is. And there's a real dearth of information about how DU affects humans."
There are several studies on how it affects animals, though their results are not, of course, directly applicable to humans. Military research on mice shows that depleted uranium can enter the bloodstream and come to rest in bones, the brain, kidneys and lymph nodes. Other research in rats shows that DU can result in cancerous tumors and genetic mutations, and pass from mother to unborn child, resulting in birth defects.
Iraqi doctors reported significant increases in birth defects and childhood cancers after the 1991 invasion.
Iraqi authorities "found that uranium, which affected the blood cells, had a serious impact on health: The number of cases of leukemia had increased considerably, as had the incidence of fetal deformities," the U.N. reported.
Depleted uranium can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust, which can by carried by wind and sandstorms.
In 2005, the U.N. Environmental Program identified 311 polluted sites in Iraq. Cleaning them will take at least $40 million and several years, the agency said. Nothing can start until the fighting stops.
Fifteen years after it was first used in battle, there is only one U.S. government study monitoring veterans exposed to depleted uranium. Number of soldiers in the survey: 32. Number of soldiers in both Iraq wars: more than 900,000.
The study group's size is controversial -- far too small, say experts including Fahey -- and so are the findings of the voluntary, Baltimore-based study. It has found "no clinically significant" health effects from depleted uranium exposure in the study subjects, according to its researchers.
Critics say the VA has downplayed participants' health problems, including not reporting one soldier who developed cancer, and another who developed a bone tumor.
So for now, depleted uranium falls into the quagmire of Gulf War Syndrome, from which no treatment has emerged despite the government's spending of at least $300 million.
About 30 percent of the 700,000 men and women who served in the first Gulf War still suffer a baffling array of symptoms very similar to those reported by Reed's unit.
Depleted uranium has long been suspected as a possible contributor to Gulf War Syndrome, and in the mid-90s, veterans helped push the military into tracking soldiers exposed to it.
But for all their efforts, what they got in the end was a questionnaire dispensed to homeward-bound soldiers asking about mental health, nightmares, losing control, exposure to dangerous and radioactive chemicals.
But, the veterans persisted, how would soldiers know they'd been exposed? Radiation is invisible, tasteless, and has no smell. And what exhausted, homesick, war-addled soldier would check a box that would only send him or her to a military medical center to be poked and prodded and questioned and tested?
It will take years to determine how depleted uranium affected soldiers from this war. After Vietnam, veterans, in numbers that grew with the passage of time, complained of joint aches, night sweats, bloody feces, migraine headaches, unexplained rashes and violent behavior; some developed cancers.
It took more than 25 years for the Pentagon to acknowledge that Agent Orange -- a corrosive defoliant used to melt the jungles of Vietnam and flush out the enemy -- was linked to those sufferings.
It took 40 years for the military to compensate sick World War II vets exposed to massive blasts of radiation during tests of the atomic bomb. In 2002, Congress voted to not let that happen again.
It established the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses -- composed of scientists, physicians and veterans' advocates. It reports to the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Its mandate is to judge all research and all efforts to treat Gulf War Syndrome patients against a single standard: Have sick soldiers been made better?
The answer, according to the committee, is no.
"Regrettably, after four years of operation neither the Committee nor (the) VA can report progress toward this goal," stated its December 2005 report. "Research has not produced effective treatments for these conditions nor shown that existing treatments are significantly effective."
And so time marches on, as do soldiers going to, and returning from, the deserts of Iraq.
Herbert Reed is an imposing man, broad shouldered and tall. He strides into the VA Medical Center in the Bronx with the presence of a cop or a soldier. Since the Vietnam War, he has been both.
His hair is perfect, his shirt spotless, his jeans sharply creased. But there is something wrong, a niggling imperfection made more noticeable by a bearing so disciplined. It is a limp -- more like a hitch in his get-along. It is the only sign, albeit a tiny one, that he is extremely sick
.
Even sleep offers no release. He dreams of gunfire and bombs and soldiers who scream for help. No matter how hard he tries, he never gets there in time.
At 54, he is a veteran of two wars and a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, where he last served as an assistant warden at the Riker's Island prison. He was in perfect health, he says, before being deployed to Iraq.
According to military guidelines, he should have heard the words depleted uranium long before he ended up at Walter Reed. He should have been trained about its dangers, and how to avoid prolonged exposure to its toxicity and radioactivity. He says he didn't get anything of the kind. Neither did other reservists and National Guard soldiers called up for the current war, according to veterans' groups.
Reed and the seven brothers from his unit hate what has happened to them, and they speak of it at public seminars and in politicians' offices. It is something no VA doctor can explain; something that leaves them feeling like so many spent shell rounds, kicked to the side of battle.
But for every outspoken soldier like them, there are silent veterans like Raphael Naboa, an Army artillery scout who served 11 months in the northern Sunni Triangle, only to come home and fall apart. Some days he feels fine. "Some days I can't get out of bed," he said from his home in Colorado.
Now 29, he's had growths removed from his brain. He has suffered a small stroke -- one morning he was shaving, having put down the razor to rinse his face. In that moment, he blacked out and pitched over. "Just as quickly as I lost consciousness, I regained it," he said. "Except I couldn't move the right side of my body." After about 15 minutes, the paralysis ebbed.
He has mentioned depleted uranium to his VA doctors, who say he suffers from a series of "non-related conditions." He knows he was exposed to DU. "A lot of guys went trophy-hunting, grabbing bayonets, helmets, stuff that was in the vehicles that were destroyed by depleted uranium. My guys were rooting around in it. I was trying to get them out of the vehicles."
No one in the military talked to him about depleted uranium, he said. His knowledge, like Reed's, is self-taught from the internet. Unlike Reed, he has not gone to war over it. He doesn't feel up to the fight. There is no known cure for what ails him, and so no possible victory in battle.
He'd really just like to feel normal again. And he knows of others who feel the same.
"I was an artillery scout, these are folks who are in pretty good shape. Your Rangers, your Special Forces guys, they're in as good as shape as a professional athlete.
"Then we come back and we're all sick."
They feel like men who once were warriors and now are old before their time, with no hope for relief from a multitude of miseries that has no name.
www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71585
NEW YORK -- It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills -- morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves.
Four hours later, Herbert Reed will swallow another 15 mg of morphine to cut the pain clenching every part of his body. He will do it twice more before the day is done.
Since he left a bombed-out train depot in Iraq, his gums bleed. There is more blood in his urine, and still more in his stool. Bright light hurts his eyes. A tumor has been removed from his thyroid. Rashes erupt everywhere, itching so badly they seem to live inside his skin. Migraines cleave his skull. His joints ache, grating like door hinges in need of oil.
There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick.
In the sprawling bureaucracy of the Department of Veterans Affairs, he has many caretakers. An internist, a neurologist, a pain-management specialist, a psychologist, an orthopedic surgeon and a dermatologist. He cannot function without his stupefying arsenal of medications, but they exact a high price.
"I'm just a zombie walking around," he says.
Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it -- thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead.
A shell coated with depleted uranium pierces a tank like a hot knife through butter, exploding on impact into a charring inferno. As tank armor, it repels artillery assaults. It also leaves behind a fine radioactive dust with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
Depleted uranium is the garbage left from producing enriched uranium for nuclear weapons and energy plants. It is 60 percent as radioactive as natural uranium. The United States has an estimated 1.5 billion pounds of it, sitting in hazardous waste storage sites across the country. Meaning it is plentiful and cheap as well as highly effective.
Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life.
At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk.
"We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' "
Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area.
But the medic knew something the others didn't. Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins.
"We got on the Internet," Reed said, "and we started researching depleted uranium."
Then they contacted The New York Daily News, which paid for sophisticated urine tests available only overseas.
Then they hired a lawyer.
Reed, Gerard Matthew, Raymond Ramos, Hector Vega, Augustin Matos, Anthony Yonnone, Jerry Ojeda and Anthony Phillip all have depleted uranium in their urine, according to tests done in December 2003, while they bounced for months between Walter Reed and New Jersey's Fort Dix medical center, seeking relief that never came.
The analyses were done in Germany, by a Frankfurt professor who developed a depleted uranium test with Randall Parrish, a professor of isotope geology at the University of Leicester in Britain.
The veterans, using their positive results as evidence, have sued the U.S. Army, claiming officials knew the hazards of depleted uranium, but concealed the risks.
The Department of Defense says depleted uranium is powerful and safe, and not that worrisome.
Four of the highest-registering samples from Frankfurt were sent to the VA. Those results were negative, Reed said. "Their test just isn't as sophisticated," he said. "And when we first asked to be tested, they told us there wasn't one. They've lied to us all along."
The VA's testing methodology is safe and accurate, the agency says. More than 2,100 soldiers from the current war have asked to be tested; only eight had DU in their urine, the VA said.
The term depleted uranium is linguistically radioactive. Simply uttering the words can prompt a reaction akin to preaching atheism at tent revival. Heads shake, eyes roll, opinions are yelled from all sides.
"The Department of Defense takes the position that you can eat it for breakfast and it poses no threat at all," said Steve Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center, which helps veterans with various problems, including navigating the labyrinth of VA health care. "Then you have far-left groups that ... declare it a crime against humanity."
Several countries use it as weaponry, including Britain, which fired it during the 2003 Iraq invasion.
An estimated 286 tons of DU munitions were fired by the United States in Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. An estimated 130 tons were shot toppling Saddam Hussein.
Depleted uranium can enter the human body by inhalation, the most dangerous method; by ingesting contaminated food or eating with contaminated hands; by getting dust or debris in an open wound, or by being struck by shrapnel, which often is not removed because doing so would be more dangerous than leaving it.
Inhaled, it can lodge in the lungs. As with imbedded shrapnel, this is doubly dangerous -- not only are the particles themselves physically destructive, they emit radiation.
A moderate voice on the divisive DU spectrum belongs to Dan Fahey, a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley, who has studied the issue for years and also served in the Gulf War before leaving the military as a conscientious objector.
"I've been working on this since '93 and I've just given up hope," he said. "I've spoken to successive federal committees and elected officials ... who then side with the Pentagon. Nothing changes."
At the other end are a collection of conspiracy-theorists and internet proselytizers who say using such weapons constitutes genocide. Two of the most vocal opponents recently suggested that a depleted-uranium missile, not a hijacked jetliner, struck the Pentagon in 2001.
"The bottom line is it's more hazardous than the Pentagon admits," Fahey said, "but it's not as hazardous as the hard-line activist groups say it is. And there's a real dearth of information about how DU affects humans."
There are several studies on how it affects animals, though their results are not, of course, directly applicable to humans. Military research on mice shows that depleted uranium can enter the bloodstream and come to rest in bones, the brain, kidneys and lymph nodes. Other research in rats shows that DU can result in cancerous tumors and genetic mutations, and pass from mother to unborn child, resulting in birth defects.
Iraqi doctors reported significant increases in birth defects and childhood cancers after the 1991 invasion.
Iraqi authorities "found that uranium, which affected the blood cells, had a serious impact on health: The number of cases of leukemia had increased considerably, as had the incidence of fetal deformities," the U.N. reported.
Depleted uranium can also contaminate soil and water, and coat buildings with radioactive dust, which can by carried by wind and sandstorms.
In 2005, the U.N. Environmental Program identified 311 polluted sites in Iraq. Cleaning them will take at least $40 million and several years, the agency said. Nothing can start until the fighting stops.
Fifteen years after it was first used in battle, there is only one U.S. government study monitoring veterans exposed to depleted uranium. Number of soldiers in the survey: 32. Number of soldiers in both Iraq wars: more than 900,000.
The study group's size is controversial -- far too small, say experts including Fahey -- and so are the findings of the voluntary, Baltimore-based study. It has found "no clinically significant" health effects from depleted uranium exposure in the study subjects, according to its researchers.
Critics say the VA has downplayed participants' health problems, including not reporting one soldier who developed cancer, and another who developed a bone tumor.
So for now, depleted uranium falls into the quagmire of Gulf War Syndrome, from which no treatment has emerged despite the government's spending of at least $300 million.
About 30 percent of the 700,000 men and women who served in the first Gulf War still suffer a baffling array of symptoms very similar to those reported by Reed's unit.
Depleted uranium has long been suspected as a possible contributor to Gulf War Syndrome, and in the mid-90s, veterans helped push the military into tracking soldiers exposed to it.
But for all their efforts, what they got in the end was a questionnaire dispensed to homeward-bound soldiers asking about mental health, nightmares, losing control, exposure to dangerous and radioactive chemicals.
But, the veterans persisted, how would soldiers know they'd been exposed? Radiation is invisible, tasteless, and has no smell. And what exhausted, homesick, war-addled soldier would check a box that would only send him or her to a military medical center to be poked and prodded and questioned and tested?
It will take years to determine how depleted uranium affected soldiers from this war. After Vietnam, veterans, in numbers that grew with the passage of time, complained of joint aches, night sweats, bloody feces, migraine headaches, unexplained rashes and violent behavior; some developed cancers.
It took more than 25 years for the Pentagon to acknowledge that Agent Orange -- a corrosive defoliant used to melt the jungles of Vietnam and flush out the enemy -- was linked to those sufferings.
It took 40 years for the military to compensate sick World War II vets exposed to massive blasts of radiation during tests of the atomic bomb. In 2002, Congress voted to not let that happen again.
It established the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses -- composed of scientists, physicians and veterans' advocates. It reports to the secretary of Veterans Affairs. Its mandate is to judge all research and all efforts to treat Gulf War Syndrome patients against a single standard: Have sick soldiers been made better?
The answer, according to the committee, is no.
"Regrettably, after four years of operation neither the Committee nor (the) VA can report progress toward this goal," stated its December 2005 report. "Research has not produced effective treatments for these conditions nor shown that existing treatments are significantly effective."
And so time marches on, as do soldiers going to, and returning from, the deserts of Iraq.
Herbert Reed is an imposing man, broad shouldered and tall. He strides into the VA Medical Center in the Bronx with the presence of a cop or a soldier. Since the Vietnam War, he has been both.
His hair is perfect, his shirt spotless, his jeans sharply creased. But there is something wrong, a niggling imperfection made more noticeable by a bearing so disciplined. It is a limp -- more like a hitch in his get-along. It is the only sign, albeit a tiny one, that he is extremely sick
.
Even sleep offers no release. He dreams of gunfire and bombs and soldiers who scream for help. No matter how hard he tries, he never gets there in time.
At 54, he is a veteran of two wars and a 20-year veteran of the New York Police Department, where he last served as an assistant warden at the Riker's Island prison. He was in perfect health, he says, before being deployed to Iraq.
According to military guidelines, he should have heard the words depleted uranium long before he ended up at Walter Reed. He should have been trained about its dangers, and how to avoid prolonged exposure to its toxicity and radioactivity. He says he didn't get anything of the kind. Neither did other reservists and National Guard soldiers called up for the current war, according to veterans' groups.
Reed and the seven brothers from his unit hate what has happened to them, and they speak of it at public seminars and in politicians' offices. It is something no VA doctor can explain; something that leaves them feeling like so many spent shell rounds, kicked to the side of battle.
But for every outspoken soldier like them, there are silent veterans like Raphael Naboa, an Army artillery scout who served 11 months in the northern Sunni Triangle, only to come home and fall apart. Some days he feels fine. "Some days I can't get out of bed," he said from his home in Colorado.
Now 29, he's had growths removed from his brain. He has suffered a small stroke -- one morning he was shaving, having put down the razor to rinse his face. In that moment, he blacked out and pitched over. "Just as quickly as I lost consciousness, I regained it," he said. "Except I couldn't move the right side of my body." After about 15 minutes, the paralysis ebbed.
He has mentioned depleted uranium to his VA doctors, who say he suffers from a series of "non-related conditions." He knows he was exposed to DU. "A lot of guys went trophy-hunting, grabbing bayonets, helmets, stuff that was in the vehicles that were destroyed by depleted uranium. My guys were rooting around in it. I was trying to get them out of the vehicles."
No one in the military talked to him about depleted uranium, he said. His knowledge, like Reed's, is self-taught from the internet. Unlike Reed, he has not gone to war over it. He doesn't feel up to the fight. There is no known cure for what ails him, and so no possible victory in battle.
He'd really just like to feel normal again. And he knows of others who feel the same.
"I was an artillery scout, these are folks who are in pretty good shape. Your Rangers, your Special Forces guys, they're in as good as shape as a professional athlete.
"Then we come back and we're all sick."
They feel like men who once were warriors and now are old before their time, with no hope for relief from a multitude of miseries that has no name.
www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71585
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