Depleted
uranium is used by the military to fabricate armour-piercing
conventional weapons, tank armour plating and in the metal flight
control counterweights in aircraft. It was incorporated into these
conventional weapons without informing armed forces personnel that
depleted uranium is a radioactive material and without procedures
for measuring doses to operating personnel.
DU is easily burnt and released to the atmosphere. When DU metal is
heated in air at a temperature of only 500oC it can oxidize
rapidly and sustain slow combustion. The burning of DU metal flight
control counterweights at airplane crash sites has the possibility
of exposing large numbers of people to kidney poisoning (nephrotoxicity)
by uranium oxide particles. In 1992 an El Al Boeing-747 crashed into
an apartment building in Amsterdam, Holland and burned intensely.
Approximately 273 kg of DU in the tail of the 747 is unaccounted for;
it burned and contaminated the surrounding area.
The U.S. military and its representatives claim that DU munitions
are safe, but they have not publicly addressed health and safety issues
that apply after DU munitions have been fired. Apparently the official
view is that in a combat situation it is acceptable for unprotected
personnel to be exposed to the combustion products of fired DU munitions
and assume any health risks involved.
At least twenty two U.S. service personnel have been reported to have
suffered embedded fragments of DU in their bodies from "friendly
fire". More than 5 years after the Gulf War, few of these fragments
have been removed and the long-term health situation for these veterans
has not yet been determined.
The fallout
range of airborne DU aerosol dust is virtually unlimited. These micro-particles
can be inhaled and ingested easily and that makes them dangerous to
human health.
The actual tonnage of DU munitions fired during the Gulf War is difficult
to ascertain. During the war all battlefield news was censored and
the expenditure of DU by A-10 attack aircraft was classified. It has
been estimated that these aircraft fired about 95% of the DU munitions
used during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
The U.S.
Army now claims that "More than 14,000 large caliber DU rounds
were consumed during Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm. As many
as 7,000 of these rounds may have been fired in practice. Approximately
4,000 rounds were reportedly fired in combat. The remaining 3,000
rounds are losses that include a substantial loss in a fire at Doha,
Kuwait."
The 14,000
rounds contained about 60 metric tons of DU. William Arkin estimates
from documents released under the Freedom of Information Act that
approximately 300 metric tons of DU littered the battlefields
of Kuwait and Iraq after the war. The LAKA Foundation estimates the
total as 800 tons. Allowing for DU projectiles missing their targets,
even if only one or two percent of the lower estimate of 300 metric
tons burned up, then 3,000,000-6,000,000 grams of DU aerosol particles
could have become airborne over the battlefields, by any standards
a huge amount.
A General Accounting Office report to the US Congress on the dangers
of DU munitions states, "...Army officials believe that DU protective
methods can be ignored during battle and other life-threatening situations
because DU-related health risks are greatly outweighed by the risks
of combat" The Army must know that it would be extremely difficult
to provide breathing masks that can efficiently remove all of the
respirable DU particles from air breathed by soldiers. Even if highly
efficient air filters are used by troops, their surroundings will
still be contaminated. The surface of the ground, vegetation, equipment,
uniforms and other garments contaminated with DU particles will become
secondary sources of airborne DU aerosols whenever they are disturbed
or moved, thereby presenting an insurmountable radiological containment
and decontamination problem on the battlefield. In the AEPI report,
the Army judges it an acceptable risk if its personnel become exposed
in an unprotected fashion to the combustion products of fired DU munitions
on the battlefield or elsewhere.
An astonishingly high rate of birth defects in the families of Gulf
War veterans is especially troubling. For example, Laura Flanders
reports that the Veterans Administration conducted a state-wide survey
of 251 Gulf War veterans families in Mississippi. Of their children
conceived and born since the war, 67% have illnesses rated severe
or have missing eyes, missing ears, blood infections, respiratory
problems and fused fingers.
It now appears that even with this knowledge, the US military is still
prepared to deploy these weapons. The US used DU munitions in their
terrible bombardment of Kosovo, permanently irradiating the homeland
of people they are claiming to be protecting. DU weapons are presently
being developed or already exist in the armouries of the UK, Russia,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand, Israel, France and others.
There is an enormous need for an international Convention to ban all
weapons containing Depleted Uranium.
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