Both of my letters on Depleted uranium printed in sister papers-same time

[w8liftinglady]

please drop my editor a note and thank him for his impartial opinion page.He is really remarkable for printing ALL my stuff,without edit.(you can go to Contact Us for his email)



http://thedailylight.com/articles/2007/09/21/midlothianmirror/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/let03-091207-dawson.txt
The mistreatment and betrayal of our Iraq and Gulf War veterans know no boundaries. I have written about how the VA is no longer reporting cancer cases to registries. Today, I’d like to focus on the effect of depleted uranium on the unborn babies, spouses and fertility of Iraq War and Gulf War veterans. Army Pamphlet 700-XX was written in 1995 as a part of a 12-hour course to warn of the dangers of DU exposure. This was replaced with Training Support Package TA-031-DUAT-001, which condensed this training to 20 minutes and greatly minimized the effects of depleted uranium. The results of this deception are — of the 697,000 troops who served in Gulf War 1 nearly half have filed claims with the VA, with a 40,000 backlog.......snip

http://thedailylight.com/articles/2007/09/21/dailylight/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/letter1.txt
There is a disturbing trend becoming evident at the Veteran’s Administration. The administration, which up until a few years ago had been freely sharing information with researchers, has ceased releasing data on its cancer patients in 13 key states. This results in between 40,000 and 70,000 cases going unreported. For example, in 2004, there were 3,000 cases of new-onset cancer reported by the state of California, whereas in 2005, there were ZERO. The VA has also initiated new data transmission policies that make it almost impossible to comply with the transfer of information.
....snip....

[JohnyCanuck]

1. It's about time people wake up to the danger that this WMD poses to humanity.

Ironic (and a war crime IMHO) that the US goes to war allegedly to prevent the use of WMDs by Saddam while their own military spreads this poisonous crap around the Middle East with abandon (and back home in the US as well through the use of DU weapons on artillery and bombing ranges etc.). After the way the Vietnam veterans were screwed over with the Agent Orange issue, it boggles my mind how easily people accept the facile assurances of the Pentagon brass and the war profiteering military industrial complex that depleted uranium will not harm soldiers and civilians in war zones.

Chemical Toxicity

Detailed research into uranium’s chemical toxicity began in the 1940s, since then it has become clear that, like many other heavy metals, such as lead, chromium, nickel and mercury, uranium exposure can be damaging to health.

While many studies have only investigated the possibility of kidney damage, since 1991, and triggered by concerns over DU, dozens of papers have highlighted other, more worrying, effects of uranium toxicity. Repeated cellular and animal studies have shown that uranium is a kidney toxin, neurotoxin, immunotoxin, mutagen, carcinogen and teratogen.

Compared to the uranium naturally present in the environment, DU dust is a concentrated form of uranium, which is vastly more bioavailable than natural uranium.

Uranium has been shown to bind to DNA strands, where it causes oxidative damage through the generation of free radicals. In mice, it has been shown to irreparably damage white blood cells and alter gene expression, while in hamsters an entirely new form of mutation generation was seen in exposed cells.

http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/i/39.html

Reprehensor posted a while back slides from a presentation on depleted uranium by a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Thomas Fasy MD PhD, here at Democratic Underground. Here is the link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449

Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established

The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities.

Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.

Now however, Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns has established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations, triggering a whole slew of protein replication errors, some of which can lead to various cancers. Stearns' research, published in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis, confirms what many have suspected for some time - that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal, independently of its radioactive properties. "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation," Stearns explained. While other heavy metals are known to bind to DNA, Stearns and her team were the first to identify this characteristic with uranium.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060307010324data_trunc_sys.shtml

[fed-up]

2. k/r nt

[JohnyCanuck]

3. kick n/t