Update [2004-12-6 8:19:48 by js7a]:: Here is
some antidote research and a lengthy medical bibliography.
It is becoming quite clear that Republicans have killed
more U.S. troops than all of the Iraqi fighters combined.
Republicans approved depleted uranium munitions,
Republicans ordered D.U. munitions in to the stockpiles,
two Republicans and one Democrat have ordered them into
battle. Who forgot to check the long-term toxicity of
the combustion products? Everyone, apparently. To blame
was the fear that reprocessing technology (not to mention
the ease of refinement and separation in the non-gas
liquid state) should be kept secret. It is so obvious
now, the only reason that the gas-centrifuge-is-the-only-
thing-that-you-can-refine-with myth exists is because
merely talking about the liquid forms of uranium, including
nitrate which melts at 60 deg. C, was apparently considered
just too risky.
Please see this recent diary and please join my petition.
Well, now that the entire Axis Of Everybody knows how to
make nuclear bombs, can we please stop firing free samples
at them, so that they won't be able to use them to start
their own refinement and prospecting programs? Killing
more of your own troops than the enemy is not "providing
for the common defense," and poisoning entire bloodlines
for generations with mutagens and their resulting mutation
is not "promoting the general welfare." It is, quite
literally, the opposite.
In the Bangor News:
DU radiation rebuttal
In response to Larry Roop's letter, "Depleted uranium" (BDN, Nov. 24).
The Bangor Daily News doesn't "hide" news articles in the front section of the paper, "chemical combat gear" does not protect against radiation, the Army does not make "indiscriminate" use of these or any other weapons, and the Army doesn't make bombs.
The Army uses depleted uranium (DU) in 105mm, 120mm tank guns and artillery shells to increase penetration of the enemy armor.
During my tour as assistant secretary of the Army during the Ford administration, the subject of safety of DU rounds was explored extensively. I attended, listened to, and testified before four committees of Congress with both Army experts and those on the other side of the argument.
I am convinced now, as I was then, that no convincing case has been made to demonstrate that DU radiation has had a harmful effect on our soldiers in training or combat. To me, the precise cause or causes of Gulf War Syndrome, as sad as it is, are still unknown.
Edward A. Miller
Castine
Letters Editor
Bangor Daily News
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Former U.S. Army Secretary Edward Miller has chosen his
words very carefully when he wrote that, "no convincing
case has been made to demonstrate that depleted uranium
(DU) radiation has had a harmful effect." Omit the word
"radiation" from that sentence, and Secretary Miller is,
sadly, quite wrong.
The radioactivity of DU does not cause the chromosome
damage, immune system destruction, and birth defects which
have been observed in Gulf War veterans and civilians;
the chemical toxicity of uranyl nitrate, a large amount of
which is produced when DU burns in the presence of a
shell's explosive or a bullet's propellant, most certainly
does. Uranyl nitrate is present in the muzzle flash of
30 mm DU ordnance, and at such ammunition's targets when
the bullets burn upon impact, as they are designed to do.
Uranyl nitrate stays dissolved in air for a long time,
so anyone in the vicinity, friend and foe, is likely to
get a deadly lung full.
Secretary Miller wrote here to BDN that, during the U.S.
Ford administration, he personally testified before the
congressional committees which eventually led to the
approval of DU munitions. But neither he, nor any of
the other purported experts who were instrumental in
what has become the largest friendly fire incident in
history, ever considered the toxicity of uranium
combustion products on the public record.
The U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute
has found that DU produces literally one million times
as much chromosome damage as would be predicted from
its radioactivity alone (J Inorg Biochem. 2002 Jul
25; 91(1): 246-52), and that it causes a form of
"delayed reproductive death," which doesn't cease like
exposure to simple radioactivity does (J Environ Radioact.
2003; 64(2-3): 247-59.) The U.S. military has admitted
that DU is "both neoplastically transforming and
genotoxic" (Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2002; 99(1-4):
275-8.) Dr. Albrect Schott of Germany found that
damage to chromosomes in the white blood cells of Gulf
War veterans was about five times greater than the
rest of the population (Radiat. Prot. Dosimetry, 2003;
103(3):211-9.) All of these articles are available on
the internet through MEDLINE/PubMed.
A February, 2004, U.K. Pension Appeal Tribunal Service
decision in Edinburgh implicated depleted uranium
directly in the birth defects of children fathered by
Gulf War veteran Kenny Duncan, of Clackmannan, U.K. I
would ask Secretary Miller to obtain and study those
proceedings very carefully.
The incidence of birth defects are skyrocketing after
having laid dormant for several years. Congenital
malformations in Basrah's civilian population soared
600% in 2000 from just-above-baseline levels in 1997.
Very frightening similar incidence rate patterns have
been observed in U.K. and U.S. troops. We have no
idea how much damage has already been done, and we have
no idea when it will end.
Sincerely,
James Salsman
Mountain View, California