Depleted Uranium -- The Hidden Killer

"You could say that biological warfare is as American as cherry pie."-"Germs, Gas and Bugs: Made in USA," Revolutionary Worker #1126

Depleted Uranium (U238 or DU) is low level nuclear waste. It is a dense, hard metal. It catches fire and turns molten when it strikes other metals at high speeds. Those qualities make it ideal for busting through tanks and armored vehicles. Not only can it penetrate most materials but it is also pyrophoric, burning through armor. Inside a tank burning fragments cause other munitions to explode. DU will release half of its radioactivity in 4.5 billion years, including alpha emissions that are the most damaging to human tissues. Fine particles of uranium oxide dust are easily inhaled and ingested. Radioactive dust is readily re-suspended in dust storms. These contaminants plague the health of civilians at U.S. test ranges in Vieques, Indiana, California, New Mexico, and of course, Iraq. Radioactive scrap metal (possibly from Kuwait) has shown up in car bumpers as far away as Illinois. Tests have proven that the radioactive particles emitted by the ammunition are so small, they pass through the gas filters in the masks issued to U.S. troops. DU is available in large quantities and is virtually free as an unwanted waste product of the atomic energy industry. 320 tons of it were fired during the Gulf War.

Once inside the body-in the lung if it has been inhaled, in a wound if it penetrates flesh, or ingested since it concentrates in the food chain and contaminates water-it can produce cancer in the lungs, bones, blood, or kidneys. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the areas in which this ammunition was used in Iraq and Kuwait during Gulf War will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time.

It has been estimated that there are over 300 tons of depleted uranium that has contaminated Iraq's ecosystem. This in the region that also produces most of Iraq's tomatoes and cucumbers.

Dr. Doug Rokke, a nuclear physicist and career military man was tasked to clean up "friendly fire" contamination after the Gulf War. He was their top guy. He himself has been diagnosed with multiple cancers and other illness's. 30 out of 100 people involved in the clean up have died. On the "Highway of Death," the Road to Basra, 11 miles north of the Kuwait border, a collection of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles are rusting in the desert. They are radiating nuclear energy. Troops coming from Kuwait will have to travel on this Highway of Death.

1/3 of all Gulf War veterans are ill from mysterious diseases. To date only 400 have been tested for uranium exposure. Radiobioassays (using throat swabs, urine samples and fecal samples) must be done within 30 days to test for exposure to this toxic heavy metal because the radioactive uranium soon sequesters in bone, kidneys, lymph nodes, gonads where it bombards tissues. Uranium causes respiratory, kidney, and neurological damage, chronic bowel problems, cataracts, cancers and birth defects. The only three labs which do this testing in the U.S. are controlled by the government. Funding and initiatives are needed to establish an independent lab. Recently the Department of Veterans Affairs announced a large research initiative based on evidence that many ailing veterans of the 1991 Gulf War may be suffering from brain damage caused by toxic exposures. (Could this be one reason for so many of these veterans fits of uncontrolled rage?)

The allied soldiers went home after being exposed to depleted uranium for only a short time. Iraq has lived with its devastating effects for the past 12 years. Cancer cases in Iraq have risen twenty-fold since the Gulf War. Many are rare and aggressive cancers associated with radiation. Children as young as four have been diagnosed with cancer of the uterus. There has been a tremendous increase in soft cancers like leukemia, particularly among children. There has been a horrific epidemic of birth defects over the last 12 years. The Iraqi surveys show children with such anomalies are almost exclusively born to parents who were directly exposed to DU. Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians in the south are all being stricken by many of the same ailments. They come from different cultures and live in different places, they eat different foods. The only thing they all have in common is exposure to DU weapons. This stuff is so toxic that even civilians at U.S. stateside ports that dealt with the equipment returning from the Gulf have reported illnesses, as have their families.

Dr. Rokke said that since the Persian Gulf War, the military has developed new, lighter weapons to fire the ammunition, including machine guns used by ground forces. As a result, depleted uranium ammunition will be everywhere on the "battlefield".