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Iam HAPPY and grinning from ear to ear:
Alright so the Basterds are still lying about Du and the effects but we have them on the run:
Here is the text from a pamphlet myself and Sheffield Campaign have produced in the last few days:
Information on 'Depleted' Uranium:
The Sheffield Campaign Against
War and Sanctions on Iraq
What is Depleted Uranium?
The misnamed 'Depleted' Uranium is left after enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium in
order to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. During this process, the fissionable isotope Uranium
235 is separated from uranium. The remaining uranium, which is 99.8% uranium 238 is misleadingly
called 'depleted uranium'. While the term 'depleted' implies it isn't particularly dangerous, in
fact, this waste product of the nuclear industry is 'conveniently' disposed of by producing deadly
weapons.
Depleted uranium is chemically toxic. It is an extremely dense, hard metal, and can cause chemical
poisoning to the body in the same way as can lead or any other heavy metal. However, depleted
uranium is also radiologically hazardous, as it spontaneously burns on impact, creating tiny
aerosolised glass particles which are small enough to be inhaled. These uranium oxide particles
emit all types of radiation, alpha, beta and gamma, and can be carried in the air over long
distances. Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years, and the presence of depleted
uranium ceramic aerosols can pose a long term threat to human health and the environment.
In the 1950's the United States Department of Defence became interested in using depleted uranium
metal in weapons because of its extremely dense, pyrophoric qualities and because it was cheap and
available in huge quantities. It is now given practically free of charge to the military and arms
manufacturers and is used both as tank armour, and in armour-piercing shells known as depleted
uranium penetrators. Over 15 countries are known to have depleted uranium weapons in their
military arsenals - UK, US, France, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt,
Kuwait, Pakistan, Thailand, Iraq and Taiwan - with depleted uranium rapidly spreading to other
countries. Depleted uranium was first used on a large scale in military combat during the 1991
Gulf War, and has since been used in Bosnia in 1995, and again in the Balkans war of 1999.
A sub-commission of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights appointed a 'rapporteur' to
investigate the use of depleted uranium weapons among other types of weapons, after passing a
resolution which categorised depleted uranium weapons alongside such as nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons, napalm, and cluster bombs as a 'weapon of indiscriminate effect'.
Depleted uranium is also used in civilian products. For example, it is used as ballast in
aeroplanes (having disastrous consequences in 1992 when an El-Al jet crashed into flats near
Amsterdam - depleted uranium was also involved in the recent Stansted Korean Air crash - see CADU
News issue 3 for full report). It is also used in some hospital equipment. The alarming Euratom
(European Atomic Energy Community) objective which will allow the 'recycling' of low-level
radioactive waste in to consumer goods has also raised concerns that depleted uranium may be used
in this way.
As debate continues over Nato's use in Kosovo of depleted uranium munitions, one US Gulf veteran
has recalled his experiences eight years ago.
Dr Doug Rokke is assistant professor of environmental science at Jacksonville State University,
Alabama. He is also a major in the US Army Reserve, and in 1991 he served in the Gulf. His work
involved helping casualties and cleaning equipment contaminated with depleted uranium (DU), used in
the war in tank-busting weapons because of its high density. "The shell would hit an armoured
vehicle", Dr Rokke told BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme. "The uranium would catch fire
and split into burning fragments".
About 70% of the round vaporised into dust, as fine as talcum powder. "When we climbed into
vehicles after they'd been hit, no matter what time of day or night it was, you couldn't see three
feet in front of you. You breathed in that dust."
Although the British Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon insist that DU weapons pose no special
risk, Dr Rokke and some other veterans believe the munitions have made them ill, and that they also
threaten civilians.
Two of Dr Rokke's clean-up team of about 15 people are now dead, he said. 'You're trashed with
uranium' "It's very hard to look back at all those years of recommending medical care, and yet two
of your best friends are dead because you assigned them to do a job." He was tested for uranium
poisoning while working as head of a Pentagon project on DU in late 1994. "In September 1996 I was
at the Pentagon,briefing on DU contamination and management. "An individual walked up to me and
said: 'Dr Rokke, you're trashed with uranium'. I said: 'Thank you. I'd like some medical care'.
Nothing happened. "Finally, in July 1997, I received a letter from the Department of Energy
stating my own internal uranium contamination was 5,000 times that permissible.
"My lungs are trashed, I've got rashes, neurological problems. And I'm not the only one - this is
what's happened to everybody else. "If they didn't provide any medical care for the project
director, guess what they did for the average soldier. "And guess what they're going to do for all
the civilians exposed in Kosovo and Serbia." Dr Rokke thinks he knows why neither the USA nor the
UK, the two Nato members which used DU munitions in the Gulf, is providing medical care routinely
to all veterans who may have been exposed. "They don't want to acknowledge the health effects,
because they don't want to be accountable for the illnesses of the troops, or of the civilians in
Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia."
DU munitions 'too effective' But he says many Nato governments tell their troops involved in
cleaning vehicles and equipment contaminated with DU to wear full respiratory and skin protection.
"They acknowledge the risk. But they don't want to be held accountable," he said. In Dr Rokke's
view, DU munitions are too effective for their owners to surrender them. He cites a 1992 letter
from the assistant secretary for the US Army. It says: "DU is fully supported by the Army as an
item that gives the American soldier the winning edge on the modern battlefield". "No matter what
we found and what we wrote", he said, "we could not disrupt the decision to use DU munitions in
combat." US aircraft have been firing DU rounds over Kosovo.
>From Costing the Earth which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 2100 BST on 7 June. Subject: Depleted
>Uranium in Iraq and Gulf War Veterans : Professor Doug Rokke is also featured in Sanctions on
>Iraq Background Strategies published by CASI c/o CUSU 11 12 Trumpington Street: Cambridge CB2 1QA
>ISBN 1-903488-22-2: Web Site httpp:// wellcome.to.casi
Depleted Uranium in Iraq and Gulf War Veterans:
In the areas where depleted uranium was used in Southern Iraq, a number of serious health problems
have emerged among both soldiers and civilians. For instance, there has been a 66% increase in
leukaemias and cancers in Southern Iraq. There has also been a marked increase in the numbers of
children born with birth malformations, with horrific reports of 3 children in one family being
born with severe congenital malformations. Maggie O'Kane, Felicity Arbuthnot, and journalists
working with Desert Concerns, have all reported on the health crisis in Southern Iraq. The former
reported a Dr Zenad Mohammed, from a hospital in Basra, herself pregnant, who was so terrified of
giving birth to a severely malformed child, that she was doing her own monitoring of the problem.
Her notes begin "In August we had three babies born with no head. Four had abnormally large heads.
In September we had six with no heads, none with large heads and two with short limbs. In
October, one with no head, four with big heads and four with deformed limbs or other types of
deformities."
There are also large numbers of soldiers who served in the Gulf with Allied forces and in the Iraqi
army, who are now suffering from mysterious illnesses - often referred to as Gulf War syndrome.
Many of these illnesses reflect those seen among Iraqi children and civilians. For example, of the
697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, over 90,000 have reported medical problems. Symptoms
include respiratory, liver, and kidney dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood
pressure. There are also defects reported among their new-born children. In a veterans community
in Mississippi, 67% of the children were born with malformations. UK and US Gulf War veterans have
tested positive for depleted uranium poisoning, although the governments of both countries have at
every turn denied proper independent testing for all veterans.
For more information on depleted uranium and Gulf War Veterans see the National Gulf War Resource
Centre's information at http://www.ngwrc.org/Dulink/du_link.htm or the
Military Toxics Project: http://www.miltoxproj.org
Depleted Uranium in Kosov@ and Serbia
Depleted uranium weapons were used most recently in the 1999 Balkans conflict, when US forces as
part of NATO, fired an unknown quantity of depleted uranium rounds from the A-10 'Warthog' planes.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), which was sent to the Balkans to monitor
environmental pollution, were aware of depleted uranium but failed to specifically test for
contamination (according to a Greenpeace scientist seconded to UNEP) in their first mission. Pekka
Haavisto, chair of the Balkans Task Force of the UNEP said that during their second mission in
August the team would look at sites where depleted uranium was used, and test for radioactivity and
the presence of toxic heavy metals in the soil. The UN's confidential preliminary report described
depleted uranium ammunition as "very dangerous and harmful". According to a recent report by
journalist Felicity Arbuthnot, Ministry of Defence personnel in Kosov@ have been warned to stay
clear of areas which have been affected by depleted uranium weapons unless wearing full
radiological protective clothing. Yet refugees returning to the area have been kept in the dark
about possible consequences of contamination. The National Radiological Protection Board has also
issued a warning to people travelling to Kosov@ about the dangers of deplted uranium, urging press
and relief workers to avoid disturbing contaminated areas. However, this contradicts the usual
claim that depleted uranium is no more radioactive than natural uranium in drinking water. A report
on the environmental impact of the war, was prepared for the European Commission by the Regional
Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, in Budapest. It stated that radioactive air pollution has
been detected in some areas of Yugoslavia, and says of depleted uranium that it is "perhaps the
most dangerous of the carcinogenic and toxic substances" that were released during the bombing.
This was scarcely reported in our press, appearing in the Financial Times (22/7/99) and nowhere
else as far as we are aware.
Potential Health Effects
In the areas where depleted uranium was used in southern Iraq, a number of serious health problems
have emerged among both soldiers and civilians. For instance, there has been a 66% increase in
leukaemias and cancers in southern Iraq. There has also been a marked increase in the numbers of
children born with birth malformations, with horrific reports of 3 children in one family being
born with severe congenital malformations (see Depleted Uranium in Iraq)
There are also large numbers of soldiers who served in the Gulf with Allied forces and in the Iraqi
army, who are now suffering from mysterious illnesses - often referred to as Gulf War syndrome.
Many of these illnesses reflect those seen among Iraqi children and civilians. For example, of the
697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, over 90,000 have reported medical problems. There are
also defects reported among their new-born children. In a veterans community in Mississippi, 67%
of the children were born with malformations.
The area of southern Scotland used to test depleted uranium weapons (see Testing in Britain) has
the highest rate of childhood leukaemia in Scotland. The residents of the flats in Amsterdam into
which the El Al jet crashed in 1992 have also reported mysterious illnesses (the jet had depleted
uranium counterweights - see CADU News issue 3).
However, although we can point to these facts and statistics in relation to the use of depleted
uranium, it is impossible to prove a causal link. Just as it is impossible for scientists to prove
a causal link between the leukaemia clusters around Sellafield nuclear power station, and
radioactivity released from the plant. It is not scientifically possible to categorically state
that depleted uranium has caused any particular illness in any person - certainly, in relation to
the Gulf War, there were many other 'compounding' factors - other toxics present which could be
linked to illnesses. What we can do though, is examine the toxic and radioactive properties of
depleted uranium, and the potential adverse effects resulting from these - and place this alongside
reported illnesses where depleted uranium has been used. Like other heavy metals, depleted uranium
is chemically toxic: it causes chemical poisoning of the body, particularly to kidneys and tubules.
However, it is its radiological properties which cause the most concern. On impact, depleted
uranium burns and oxidises to form tiny ceramic aerosol particles. These particles are between 1
and 5 microns in size, which means they are easily breathed in. As they are ceramicised depleted
uranium, they are insoluble - they do not dissolve in bodily fluids, and so are not easily flushed
through the body and may remain lodged in the lungs or other organs for years. It is also
important to note that these particles can be carried in air, by wind, or can be disturbed by
movement of vehicles or people. Tests have shown they can be carried for at least 26 miles. The
Ministry of Defence, government scientists, among others, claim that as depleted uranium is only of
low level radioactivity, it is not particularly dangerous. In fact, it is this type of thinking
which is dangerous, as they use a radioactive model based on the effects of gamma and beta
radiation, external to the body. depleted uranium, however, is an alpha particle emitter. Of all
the types of radiation alpha particles when released internally (i.e. breathed in) are the most
dangerous to living cells. They are the biggest and most heavy of the three types of radiation.
Because they can be stopped by a piece of paper they are sometimes considered less dangerous than
beta (which need a centimetre of aluminium to stop it.) or gamma (which need several feet of lead
to stop it), but that is only when they are outside of the body. As the Low Level Radiation
Campaign and other scientists have proved, an alpha source next to living tissue can severely
damage the DNA in the nucleus of the cell, cause mutations and later cancers. On its way from the
lungs to the bladder the depleted uranium spends time in the blood and could get lodged in a
capillary or tissue anywhere in the body and cause cancer there. This is why depleted uranium is so
dangerous if it is in the body: particularly if it stays there for many years. Government
scientists claim that the radioactivity dose received from inhaling depleted uranium would not
exceed the minimum radiation dose permitted. However, this is because they take the effects of
alpha particles in one small section of body tissue, and average the harm out over the entire body.
Yet as shown above, the damage to this small part can lead to cancers and mutations affecting the
whole body. The expected health effects of chronic lung burdens of depleted uranium include
fibrosis of the irradiated lung tissue, lung cancer, eventual entry of depleted uranium into blood
over subsequent years, with effects on liver and kidney, together with incorporation of depleted
uranium into bone. When in bone, the uranium can irradiate the sensitive stem cells which form the
white blood cells, especially the monocytes. Clinical manifestations of this toxicity include
kidney and liver damage, anaemia, depressed cellular immune system and general heavy metal
poisoning. Uranium can pass the placenta causing congenital malformation and can be carried to the
infant in mothers milk. It can damage the ovum and sperm causing genetic damage.
Therefore, when we look at the properties of depleted uranium, the effects it could have on the
body, and compare this with the medical problems among depleted uranium workers, Gulf veterans,
Iraqi civilians and so on, we cannot rule out depleted uranium as one of the causes.
Further Information:
There are a number of other groups around the world fighting on the depleted uranium issue - this
is not an exhaustive list of contacts:
Britain Low-Level Radiation Campaign - bramhall@llrc.org
Coghill Research Laboratories - http://www.cogreslab.demon.co.uk
USA Military Toxics Project - http://www.miltoxproj.org
International Action Center - http://iacenter.org
National Gulf War Resource Centre - http://www.ngwrc.org/Dulink/du_link.htm
Italy ENADU web: http://enadu.i.am/
Netherlands LAKA foundation - laka@laka.antenna.nl
Other campaigning groups working on related issues:
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament -http://www.cnduk.org
Campaign Against the Arms Trade - http://www.caat.demon.co.uk/
CASI c/o CUSU 11 12 Trumpington Street: Cambridge CB2 1QA
Web Site httpp:// wellcome.to.casi
viwuk 16B Cherwell Street, Oxford, OX4 1BG telephone :
01865 243232 http://www.viwuk.freeserve.co.uk/
What can you do:
Sheffield Campaign Against War and Sanctions on Iraq:
c/o 6 Bedford Road Oughtibridge Sheffield S35 OFB
sheffield-iraq@synergynet.co.uk
http://www.synergynet.co.uk/sheffield-iraq/home.htm
Write to your MP & /or Robin Cook (Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AH).
You can fax them for free by going to www.faxyourmp.com
If you receive a reply and would like help with a response Voices in the Wilderness can
help:voices@viwuk.freeserve.co.uk
Keep yourself informed perhaps by joining our mailing list. Send a blank e-mail to:
sheffield-iraq-subscribe@egroups.com.
For regular reports join the CASI list is good. Send a message to
soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk
In Iraq between 4 and 8 thousand CHILDREN have been dying every month for the past 10 years as a
direct result of US and UK policies. New Labour call it "ethical foreign policy." We use the word
GENOCIDE.
Printed and published by:
Sheffield Campaign Against War and Sanctions on Iraq:
c/o 6 Bedford Road Oughtibridge Sheffield S35 OFB
sheffield-iraq@synergynet.co.uk
http://www.synergynet.co.uk/sheffield-iraq/home.htm
Information / Images from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1107000/1107484.stm
CADU, One World Centre, 6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS
web: http://www.cadu.org.uk / email: gmdcnd@gn.apc.org
Typesetting / Research: Mark Mozaz Wallis (urbanparanoia@disinfo.net)
If you want a copy i can do an attachmant or send us an sae to our address:
Ps: faxyourmp.com with the above text: Have fun keep the tomatoes flying and GM free of course:
One Love Mozaz:
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