New Study Conclusive-Depleted Uranium Main Cause of Gulf War Syndrome

[poe]

American troops (and also British, and other allied
troops) in “Gulf War I”  (“GW1”)
served for about two months in Iraq and even though only 467 American soldiers
were wounded, and very few actually killed, a Gulf War I Veteran study group
shows that 67% of their post-war babies were born with severe birth
defects.   Sadly, and
significantly, it may be too late for many now fighting some 14 years later, in
Gulf War II.  The vast amount of DU
buried in soil and sands of Iraq, has literally turned the nation into a toxic
wasteland.

Since 1991, the United States “staged” FOUR nuclear wars,
utilizing DU weaponry (which like AO meets the US government’s definition of
“Weapons of Mass Destruction”). 
Vast regions of the Middle East and in Central Asia has been permanently
contaminated with radiation.  
It is known that (at least) 375 TONS of DU has been used in the 1991 Gulf
War I.    Far more has
been used and is still being used in today’s Gulf War
II.
Terry Jamison (80F), public affairs specialist (Alt),
Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs 908, Department of
Veterans Affairs, at the VA Central Office, recently reported that “Gulf Era
Veterans” now on medical disability, since 1991, numbers 518,739.     With only 7035
reported as “wounded” in Iraq in that same 14 year period, and eight-out-of
twenty (8:20) men who served in the same unit in 2003, FORTY PERCENT of these
soldiers in that unit, has developed malignancies in just a 16 month
period.

The powerful new evidence is blowing holes in he cover-up
perpetrated by the Pentagon, and three presidential administrations (Bush I,
Clinton and Bush II), ever since DU was first used in 1991’s Persian Gulf War,
and continuing some 14 years after the introduction of DU on the
battlefield.   The long-term
effects have revealed that DU is a virtual “death
sentence”.
This evidence show that of the three effects which DU has
on the biological systems: 
radiation, chemical, and particulate.   Particulate is the effect that
nano-size particles (the most dominate) has on the “master code” of the DNA,
immediately after exposure.  




 



This is
the BAD news: this explains why DU causes a myriad of diseases, many of which
are nearly impossible to define. 
Simply put, DU “trashes” the human
body!
Not only were the
soldiers exposed to DU on and off the battlefields of
Iraq, but they brought
it home with them!    The
DU which has concentrated in the semen of the soldiers has internally
contaminated their wives, their girl friends, and partners.  Tragically, some women in their 20’s and
30’s who were sexual partners with some of the returning exposed soldiers,
developed endometriosis, forcing many
to have hysterectomies far too young in their lives, due to medical
problems.     Studies
in reverse, showing returning female soldiers transferring the effects to their
home partners (of either gender) were not
available.
Before any new weapons
system can be used, it MUST be tested. 
The blueprint for DU Weapons is a 1943 declassified document from the
Manhattan
Project!  




 



Harvard President and physicist James B Conant, who
developed poison gas in World War One, was brought into the Manhattan Project by
its leader, the father of John Kerry, the former 2004 Democrat presidential
candidate.  Kerry’s father served at
a very high level in the Manhattan Project, and was a CIA
agent.



 Conant was chair of the S-1 Poison Gas Committee, which
recommended developing poison gas weapons from radioactive trash of the WW2
atomic bomb project.  At that time,
it was known that radioactive materials dispersed in bombs from the air, from
land vehicles, or on the battlefields produced very fine radioactive dust which
would penetrate all protective clothing, any gas mask, or filter, and of course,
directly into the skin.   
By contaminating the lungs and blood, it could kill or cause illness very
quickly.  

www.umdfacultyagainstwar.com

[seemslikeadream]

1. Hi poe, did you try this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[poe]

8. thanks for help-the problem might be

that with the emac mouse their is no right/left click. it is just one center clicking mechanism. now when i pull articles from a website to post on message board the arrow from cut article stays on but when i pull an image into the message board holding the click the image "shadow" darts right back over to the small pdf image when i release the click. don't know how to get to properties. hope this makes sense. i'm sure it is easier than it seems i am not much of a computer person. maybe if you have any ideas i could try again.

[seemslikeadream]

9. You can do the same thing with that edit thing at the top

of your screen and not have to use the mouse. Highlight and then use that.

or ask here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[poe]

11. i've tried that

but no luck. i'll have to get someone over here to assist. they will probably push a few buttons or use a different sequence and voila. much appreciation for diligence. i'm mystified as to why the words transfer but not any images. the damn ghost in the machine.

[madrchsod]

2. try this site for more info

http://www.gulfwarvets.com /
American Gulfwar Veterans Association

[papau]

3. Excellent source on Depleted Uranium -but where did the lies about Kerry's

Dad come from?

It is easy enough to find he was a nobody that worked his way up to a mid-level State Dept job - and had nothing to do with any poison gas developement in WW2 in Chicago (Manhattan Project - good grief - how did poison gas get into the Manhattan Project - like they did not have other things to work on --- LOL ) -

and I like the CIA agent tossed in for a washington wonk! LOL

And the trashing of a great liberal human rights anti-legacy kids -pr-freedom of speech anti-nuke protestor Conant (who did lead advise on Manhattan Project for FDR and for Truman in WW2 - but who joined with J. Robert Oppenheimer as they lost a bitter fight to prevent the building of the hydrogen bomb.)!!!

In 1917, Conant considered enlisting in the Army—specifically to train men to repair gas masks—but instead decided to become a civilian employee. He led a group of scientists in the Chemical Warfare Service to develop lewisite gas. When the war ended, he returned to Harvard as an assistant professor. Lewisite is a vesicant (blistering agent) which causes blistering of the skin and mucous membranes on contact. It is an oily, colorless liquid with an odor like geraniums. Mustard-Lewisite Mixture is a liquid with a garlic-like odor. Mustard-Lewisite is a mixture of Lewisite and a sulfur mustard known as HD. Both sides in World War II produced millions of tons of chemical weapons. The United States did research on protective clothing and skin ointments which could prevent or lesson the severe blistering effects these agents




man - mis-information flows at times on DU

[papau]

4. More info on Conant Slur -

Seems a rather nice group whose liberal site I rather like - biblebelievers.org.au - has the info in the original post!

7VF-w99VFsJ:www.biblebelievers.org.au/nl338.htm+S-1+Poison+Gas+Committee&hl=en" target="_blank">http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache 7VF-w99VFsJ:www.b...

Memorandum to:
Brigadier General L. R. Groves
From:
Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey
War Department
United States Engineer Office
Manhattan District
Oak Ridge Tennessee
October 30, 1943
Declassified June 5, 1974




1. Inclosed is a summary of the report written by Drs. James B. Conant, Chairman, A. H. Compton, and H. C. Urey, comprising a Subcommittee of the S-1 Executive Committee on the "Use of Radioactive Materials as a Military Weapon." It is recommended that a decision be obtained from competent authority authorizing additional work pertaining to the use of radioactive materials in order that this country may be ready to use such materials or be ready to defend itself against the use of such materials. The following program is recommended:

a. Immediate formation of a research and study group at the University of Chicago under supervision of the present Area Engineer. Assignment to this group of competent individuals now working on dust and liquid disseminating munitions and field testing of chemical warfare agents from the National Defense Research Council.

b. Assignment of a competent Chemical Warfare Service officer to the Chicago Area Engineer, who would become familiar with, and work on the problem under study by the University of Chicago. This officer should be experienced in the practical use of gas warfare.

c. The responsibility of the above organization would be:

(1) Develop radiation indicating instruments, expand present facilities of the Victoreen Company, and prepare a trial order for instruments with this company.

(2) Make theoretical studies pertaining to the methods, means and equipment for disseminating radioactive material as a weapon of warfare.

(3) Conduct field tests in isolated locations, such as Clinton Engineer Works or Sanford Engineer Works, using a non-radioactive tracer material.

(4) Prepare an instruction manual for the use of, or the defense against, radioactive weapons. This manual would be similar to that now used by the Chemical Warfare Service for gas warfare.
(2) As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty

Two factors appear to increase the effectiveness of radioactive dust or smoke as a weapon. These are: (1) It cannot be detected by the senses; (2) It can be distributed in a dust or smoke form so finely powdered that it will permeate a standard gas mask filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging. An off-setting factor in its effectiveness as a weapon is that in a dust or smoke form the material is so finely pulverized that it takes on the characteristic of a quickly dissipating gas and is therefore subject to all the factors (such as wind) working against maintenance of high concentrations for more than a few minutes over a given area.

c. Possible Use by the Enemy.

It is felt that radioactive warfare can be used by the Germans for the following purposes:

(1) To make evacuated areas uninhabitable.

(2) To contaminate small critical areas such as rail-road yards and airports.

(3) As a radioactive poison gas to create casualties among troops.

(4) Against large cities, to promote panic, and create causalities among civilian populations.

For use in cities, it is estimated that concentrations would have to be extremely high to offset the shielding effect of buildings

Doctors Compton and Urey, two members of the Committee, felt that radioactive material may be used by the Germans against United Nations in the autumn of 1943. Dr. Conant apparently does not concur in this opinion. YOU WOULD THINK THAT LIBERALS WOULD NOTE CONANT'S "DOES NOT CONCUR IN THIS OPINION"! LOL

d. Possible Use by the United States.

It is the recommendation of this Subcommittee that if HERE NOTE THAT THE IF IS UNDERLINED - CONANT WAS NOT ADVOCATING SUCH DEVELOPEMENT military authorities feel that the United States should be ready to use radioactive weapons in case the enemy started it first, studies on the subject should be started immediately.

<Snip>

[poe]

16. More misinformation on Dep. Uranium

Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War
by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH
August 1999
Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War
by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH
August 1999

I am an epidemiologist, with 30 years of experience in studying the health effect of exposure to ionizing radiation. I would like to call the attention of the UN Human Rights Tribunal to the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons against Iraq in the Gulf War, and by NATO in Bosnia and the Kosovo-Yugoslavian war. DU is radioactive waste, and it attains special deadly properties when it is fired in battle. Because of its density and the speed of the missile or bullet (up to 5 mach) containing it, DU bursts into flame on impact. It reaches very high temperatures, and becomes a ceramic aerosol which can be dispersed 100 km from the point of impact.

Because the radiation dose to the person depends on the strength of the source of radiation, and the time duration of the exposure, this ceramic aerosol formation is important. Ceramic (glass) is highly insoluble in the normal lung fluid, and when inhaled, this ceramic particulate will remain for a long time in the lungs and body tissue before being excreted in urine. The
Rand report, which was commissioned by the US government in response to criticisms of the use of DU in weapons, failed to note this nasty form of insoluble DU which distinguishes it from the uranium dust in the mining or milling experience. This property means the uranium and its decay products will remain inside the body longer, thereby increasing the local alpha particle radiation dose to tissue.

Much of the ceramic DU aerosol is in respirable sized particles -10 micrometer and less in diameter. It stays in the lungs for upwards of two years. The uranium oxide, which was discussed in the Rand report, had a one-year half-life in lungs. Most natural uranium contamination in the human body comes via food and to a lesser extent from drinking water, not via the lungs. Ingested uranium is excreted in feces, basically never entering into the human blood and lymph system. In contrast, the DU ceramic aerosol released in war entered directly into lymph and blood through the lung-blood barrier and circulated throughout the whole body. All internal contamination is excreted through either sweat or urine.

DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.



Because the radiation dose to the person depends on the strength of the source of radiation, and the time duration of the exposure, this ceramic aerosol formation is important. Ceramic (glass) is highly insoluble in the normal lung fluid, and when inhaled, this ceramic particulate will remain for a long time in the lungs and body tissue before being excreted in urine. The
Rand report, which was commissioned by the US government in response to criticisms of the use of DU in weapons, failed to note this nasty form of insoluble DU which distinguishes it from the uranium dust in the mining or milling experience. This property means the uranium and its decay products will remain inside the body longer, thereby increasing the local alpha particle radiation dose to tissue.

Much of the ceramic DU aerosol is in respirable sized particles -10 micrometer and less in diameter. It stays in the lungs for upwards of two years. The uranium oxide, which was discussed in the Rand report, had a one-year half-life in lungs. Most natural uranium contamination in the human body comes via food and to a lesser extent from drinking water, not via the lungs. Ingested uranium is excreted in feces, basically never entering into the human blood and lymph system. In contrast, the DU ceramic aerosol released in war entered directly into lymph and blood through the lung-blood barrier and circulated throughout the whole body. All internal contamination is excreted through either sweat or urine.

DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.



Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War
by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH
August 1999

I am an epidemiologist, with 30 years of experience in studying the health effect of exposure to ionizing radiation. I would like to call the attention of the UN Human Rights Tribunal to the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons against Iraq in the Gulf War, and by NATO in Bosnia and the Kosovo-Yugoslavian war. DU is radioactive waste, and it attains special deadly properties when it is fired in battle. Because of its density and the speed of the missile or bullet (up to 5 mach) containing it, DU bursts into flame on impact. It reaches very high temperatures, and becomes a ceramic aerosol which can be dispersed 100 km from the point of impact.

Because the radiation dose to the person depends on the strength of the source of radiation, and the time duration of the exposure, this ceramic aerosol formation is important. Ceramic (glass) is highly insoluble in the normal lung fluid, and when inhaled, this ceramic particulate will remain for a long time in the lungs and body tissue before being excreted in urine. The
Rand report, which was commissioned by the US government in response to criticisms of the use of DU in weapons, failed to note this nasty form of insoluble DU which distinguishes it from the uranium dust in the mining or milling experience. This property means the uranium and its decay products will remain inside the body longer, thereby increasing the local alpha particle radiation dose to tissue.

Much of the ceramic DU aerosol is in respirable sized particles -10 micrometer and less in diameter. It stays in the lungs for upwards of two years. The uranium oxide, which was discussed in the Rand report, had a one-year half-life in lungs. Most natural uranium contamination in the human body comes via food and to a lesser extent from drinking water, not via the lungs. Ingested uranium is excreted in feces, basically never entering into the human blood and lymph system. In contrast, the DU ceramic aerosol released in war entered directly into lymph and blood through the lung-blood barrier and circulated throughout the whole body. All internal contamination is excreted through either sweat or urine.

DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.

Radiation dose to the individual depends on the length of time the DU was in the body. Knowing these common theoretical parameters makes the individual measurements more meaningful. Simply measuring the amount of DU in one urine sample does not allow one to estimate the dose which the person has or will receive from the original exposure. It is these complex measurements which require time, and which we note, the main users of DU, have failed to provide to the medical community.
Two points need to be stressed: veterans and civilians in these wars WERE exposed to DU; and this inhaled DU represents a seriously enhanced risk of damaged immune systems and fatal cancers. This type of radiological and chemical warfare should be banned.

www.iicph.org/docs/DU_Human_Rights.Tribunal.htm

[SidDithers]

5. DU is toxic, but everyone focuses on its supposed radioactivity...

DU, like any heavy metal, is nasty, toxic stuff. The vast amounts of DU which have been particlized in the Gulf wars have certainly had significant health affects on both the local population and the "visiting" troops which have served in the area.

However, when the radioactivity of DU is so intentionally mistated, as in this article, it calls into question the claims made in the rest of the article.

Sid

[poe]

10. more on DU-where were the French positioned and what vehicles

were they in-what areas and for how long?
Described as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, depleted uranium is the weapon that keeps killing. The half-life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. And, as Uranium-238 decays into daughter radioactive products, in four steps before turning into lead, it continues to release more radiation at each step. There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere. Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today. The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout.
A 2003 independent report for the European Parliament by the European Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), reports that based on Chernobyl studies, low level radiation risk is 100 to 1000 times greater than the International Committee for Radiation Protection models estimate which are based on the flawed Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Studies conducted by the US Government. Referring to the extreme killing effects of radiation on biological systems, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, one of the 46 international radiation expert authors of the ECRR report, describes it as:
nternal Exposure:

"… Particles smaller than 1µ are more likely to be deposited in the alveoli where they will either remain indefinitely or be absorbed into the lymphatics or blood. … could get into the gastro-intestinal tract from polluted water, or food, or air. … may be absorbed from the lungs or G-I tract into the blood and so distributed throughout the body."
Four reasons why using depleted uranium weapons violates the UN Convention on Human Rights:


LEGALITY TEST FOR WEAPONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW


TEMPORAL TEST – Weapons must not continue to act after the battle is over.

ENVIRONMENTAL TEST – Weapons must not be unduly harmful to the environment.

TERRITORIAL TEST – Weapons must not act off of the battlefield.

HUMANENESS TEST – Weapons must not kill or wound inhumanly.

 KNOWN ILLNESSES INFLICTED BY INTERNALIZATION OF DEPLETED URANIUM PARTICLES


 Table 1: Compiled by Leuren Moret from Interviews with Gulf War Vets and their families

GENERAL

abnormal births and birth defects
abnormal metabolism of semen: contains 
amine & ammonium alkaline 
acute autoimmune symptoms 
(lung-, liver-, kidney failure) 
acute myeloid leukemia 
(deadly within days or weeks)
acute immune depression 
acute respiratory failure 
asthma
auto-immune deficiencies
Balkan-syndrome 
blood in stools and urine
body function control loss
bone cancer 
brain damage
brain tumors 
burning semen 
burning sensations 
calcium loss in body
cardiovascular signs or symptoms
chemical sensitivities
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 
chronic kidney and liver disorders 
chronic myeloid leukemia 
chronic respiratory infections 
colon cancer 
confusion
diarrhea 
digestive problems 
dizziness
Epstein Barr Syndrome
fluid buildup
fibromyalgia

gastrointestinal signs/symptoms
general fatigue 
genetic alterations
glandular carcinoma 
Gulf war-syndrome 
headaches (severe) 
heart attack/disease 
high blood pressure 
high frequency of micturition 
Hodgkin lymphoma 
immune system deficiency 
infections 
insomnia 
involuntary movements 
joint/muscle/leg pain 
kidney failure/damage
leukemia 
liver carcinoma
loss of feeling in fingers 
Lou Gehrigs Disease -ALS
low blood oxygen saturation
( low HbO2) 
low lung volume
lung damage
lung cancer 
lymph cancer 
lymphoma
melanoma 
memory loss 
metallic taste
Microplasma fermentans/ 
incognitis infections
mood swings – violence 
homicide/suicide

multiple cancers
multiple myeloma 
myeloma 
muscle pain
nerve damage 
neuro-muscular degenerative 
disease
non-Hodgkin lymphoma 
other malignancies 
pancreas carcinoma 
Parkinsons disease
petit & grand mal fits
rashes 
reactive airway disease
reduced IQ
respiratory ailments 
shortness of breath
sinus diseases 
skin cancer 
skin damage: sweat glands 
with trapped du-particles 
skin infections 
skin spotting 
smell, loss of
sleep disturbances
stiffening of fingers 
teeth crumbling
thyroid cancer 
thyroid disease
unable to walk
unusual fevers/night sweats
unusual hair loss 
vision problems
weight loss
n 1990, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) wrote a report warning about the potential health and environmental catastrophe from the use of depleted uranium weapons. The health effects had been known for a long time. The report sent to the UK government warned "in their estimation, if 50 tonnes of residual DU dust remained ‘in the region’ there could be half a million extra cancers by the end of the century <2000>." Estimates of depleted uranium weapons used in 1991, now range from the Pentagon’s admitted 325 tons, to other scientific bodies who put the figure as high as 900 tons. That would make the number of estimated cancers as high as 9,000,000, depending on the amount used in the 1991 Gulf War. In the 2003 Gulf War, estimates of 2200 tons have been given — causing about 22,000,000 new cancer cases. Altogether the total number of cancer patients estimated using the UKAEA data would be 25,250,000. In July of 1998, the CIA estimated the population of Iraq to be approximately 24,683,313.
"Military Men Are Just Dumb, 
 Stupid, Animals To Be Used
 As Pawns In Foreign Policy"
         — Henry Kissinger
www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MOR407A.html

[blurp]

12. it calls into question the claims made in the rest of the article

I agree with you.

Depleted Uranium is probably less radioactive than a typical fist full of dirt from the back yard.

[blurp]

13. National map of radiation exposure.

[JohnyCanuck]

15. Maybe you should write this guy

and let him know his concerns are unwarranted. I am sure it would take a load of his mind.


'I’m horrified. The people out there – the Iraqis, the media and the troops – risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It’s going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car.’

The speaker is not some alarmist doom-sayer. He is Dr Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best kept secret of this war: the fact that, by illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world. For these weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such abundance that – whipped up by sandstorms and carried on trade winds – there is no corner of the globe they cannot penetrate – including Britain. For the wind has no boundaries and time is on their side: the radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years and can cause cancer, leukaemia, brain damage, kidney failure, and extreme birth defects – killing millions of every age for centuries to come. A crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time.

Edited to add link.
http://www.energybulletin.net/4121.html

[poe]

17. Rosalie Bertell and DEP. Uranium

Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War
by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH
August 1999

I am an epidemiologist, with 30 years of experience in studying the health effect of exposure to ionizing radiation. I would like to call the attention of the UN Human Rights Tribunal to the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons against Iraq in the Gulf War, and by NATO in Bosnia and the Kosovo-Yugoslavian war. DU is radioactive waste, and it attains special deadly properties when it is fired in battle. Because of its density and the speed of the missile or bullet (up to 5 mach) containing it, DU bursts into flame on impact. It reaches very high temperatures, and becomes a ceramic aerosol which can be dispersed 100 km from the point of impact.

Because the radiation dose to the person depends on the strength of the source of radiation, and the time duration of the exposure, this ceramic aerosol formation is important. Ceramic (glass) is highly insoluble in the normal lung fluid, and when inhaled, this ceramic particulate will remain for a long time in the lungs and body tissue before being excreted in urine. The
Rand report, which was commissioned by the US government in response to criticisms of the use of DU in weapons, failed to note this nasty form of insoluble DU which distinguishes it from the uranium dust in the mining or milling experience. This property means the uranium and its decay products will remain inside the body longer, thereby increasing the local alpha particle radiation dose to tissue.

Much of the ceramic DU aerosol is in respirable sized particles -10 micrometer and less in diameter. It stays in the lungs for upwards of two years. The uranium oxide, which was discussed in the Rand report, had a one-year half-life in lungs. Most natural uranium contamination in the human body comes via food and to a lesser extent from drinking water, not via the lungs. Ingested uranium is excreted in feces, basically never entering into the human blood and lymph system. In contrast, the DU ceramic aerosol released in war entered directly into lymph and blood through the lung-blood barrier and circulated throughout the whole body. All internal contamination is excreted through either sweat or urine.

DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.

Depleted Uranium as a Weapon of War
by Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., GNSH
August 1999

I am an epidemiologist, with 30 years of experience in studying the health effect of exposure to ionizing radiation. I would like to call the attention of the UN Human Rights Tribunal to the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons against Iraq in the Gulf War, and by NATO in Bosnia and the Kosovo-Yugoslavian war. DU is radioactive waste, and it attains special deadly properties when it is fired in battle. Because of its density and the speed of the missile or bullet (up to 5 mach) containing it, DU bursts into flame on impact. It reaches very high temperatures, and becomes a ceramic aerosol which can be dispersed 100 km from the point of impact.

Because the radiation dose to the person depends on the strength of the source of radiation, and the time duration of the exposure, this ceramic aerosol formation is important. Ceramic (glass) is highly insoluble in the normal lung fluid, and when inhaled, this ceramic particulate will remain for a long time in the lungs and body tissue before being excreted in urine. The
Rand report, which was commissioned by the US government in response to criticisms of the use of DU in weapons, failed to note this nasty form of insoluble DU which distinguishes it from the uranium dust in the mining or milling experience. This property means the uranium and its decay products will remain inside the body longer, thereby increasing the local alpha particle radiation dose to tissue.

Much of the ceramic DU aerosol is in respirable sized particles -10 micrometer and less in diameter. It stays in the lungs for upwards of two years. The uranium oxide, which was discussed in the Rand report, had a one-year half-life in lungs. Most natural uranium contamination in the human body comes via food and to a lesser extent from drinking water, not via the lungs. Ingested uranium is excreted in feces, basically never entering into the human blood and lymph system. In contrast, the DU ceramic aerosol released in war entered directly into lymph and blood through the lung-blood barrier and circulated throughout the whole body. All internal contamination is excreted through either sweat or urine.

DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.

Radiation dose to the individual depends on the length of time the DU was in the body. Knowing these common theoretical parameters makes the individual measurements more meaningful. Simply measuring the amount of DU in one urine sample does not allow one to estimate the dose which the person has or will receive from the original exposure. It is these complex measurements which require time, and which we note, the main users of DU, have failed to provide to the medical community.
Two points need to be stressed: veterans and civilians in these wars WERE exposed to DU; and this inhaled DU represents a seriously enhanced risk of damaged immune systems and fatal cancers. This type of radiological and chemical warfare should be banned.

[starroute]

6. I've also seen it stated that French troops were not affected

And that this points to the vaccinations (which the French did not get) rather than to DU as the cause of Gulf War Syndrome.

(Sorry -- no link. This is something I read a year or two ago.)

[LunaC]

7. I recall that too n/t

[poe]

14. vaccines are not known to cause cancer

though they are the cause of many other ailments particularly the vaccines with mercury.
8 out of 20 men who served in one unit in iraq in 2003 now have cancerous malignancies in just 16 months and were exposed to DU and vaccinated, nothing else this points to DU as the cancer causing agrnt. there are many other examples go to:
www.americanfreepress.net
www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2004/DU-Trojan-Horse1jul04.htm
www.coastalpost.com/04/08/01
www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/speakers
www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html