Reply #9: I wouldn't be so sure

[hippywife]

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Death_by_slow_burn_071403.htm

exerpt:

The U.S. military insists that DU on the battlefield is not a problem. Colonel James Naughton of the U.S. Army Material Command recently told the BBC that complaints about DU “had no medical basis.”21

The military's own documents belie this. A 1993 Pentagon document warned that “when soldiers inhale or ingest DU dust they incur a potential increase in cancer risk.”22

A U.S. Army training manual requires anyone who comes within 25 meters of DU-contaminated equipment to wear respiratory and skin protection.23 The U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute admitted: “If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences.”24 The Institute also stated that, if the troops were to realize what they had been exposed to, “the financial implications of long-term disability payments and healthcare costs would be excessive.”25

For pragmatic reasons, DOD chooses to lie and deny.

Footnotes:

22. “Depleted Uranium Symptoms Match US Report As Fears Spread,” Peter Beaumont, The Observer (UK) 1-14-01.

23. “Iraqi Cancer, Birth Defects Blamed on US Depleted Uranium,” Seattle Post- Intelligencer, 11-12-02.

24. “US To Use Depleted Uranium,” BBC News, 3-18-03.

25. US Army Environmental Policy Institute: Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium in the U.S. Army, Technical Report, June 1995.

Interesting information available in this book and it even comes in video:

DU:Metal of Dishonor
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0965691608/103-9635667-6107854?v=glance

This book wasn't written by a bunch of scientific slouches or government shills, either.