DEPLETED URANIUM
Depleted Uranium
Depleted uranium (DU) (and sometimes plutonium) is used in
armour-piercing shells by the US and UK armed forces. These munitions were
extensively used in the Gulf War and in Kosovo.
The uranium in these weapons can vaporize on impact / catching
fire and the vapour and dust is dangerous if inhaled or ingested.
All uranium and plutonium is toxic as well as radio-active, so
even when radiation isn't high enough to be harmful, the material is still
poisonous.
The APC has asked the Australian government if Australian forces
have DU weapons or have used them, and if health effects have been investigated
and monitored.
The government replied that DU munitions have been used, when
arms bought from the US came supplied with DU ammunition. This has now
been used up.
The government has done no tests on the health effects on
personnel, or on environmental effects.
There are alternatives to using DU in armor-piercing
munitions. Germany, for example, uses tungsten which is more expensive but
as effective.
Extract from "Science for Democratic Action" July
1999 -- Ecological and Health Implications of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia:
"NATO used armor-piercing depleted uranium (DU) munitions
in Yugoslavia. DU munitions were also used in Iraq. Depleted uranium
is a radioactive and toxic heavy metal. DU munitions can catch fire and be
converted to an aerosolized oxide. The oxide powder could be breathed in
by people in the vicinity resulting in radiation doses to their lungs. In
both Yugoslavia and Iraq, DU munitions were used in the context of chemical
pollution. About one-seventh of the US armed forces personnel who served
in the 1991 Gulf War have been afflicted with one or more of the complex of
symptoms, collectively called Gulf War Syndrome. While all these symptoms
could not have been caused by depleted uranium alone, DU may have played a
role. The combination of contaminants, including potential synergistic
effects between chemicals and between combinations of chemicals and depleted
uranium, is worrisome."
The Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics
of Radiation 2000
Memo to Gen. L.R. Groves 1943 - a blueprint for DU
"If you can't clean it up, don't use it." Doug Rokke
February 21, 2003
The Honorable Jim McDermott, Congressman
Washington State 7th Congressional District
1809 7th Avenue
Suite 1212
Seattle, WA 98101-1399
(206) 553-7170
(206) 553-7175 FAX
RE: Declassified 1943 memo to General L.R. Groves - a blueprint for depleted
uranium
Dear Congressman McDermott,
Mr. Joe Pemberton, a lawyer in Bellingham, Washington, has asked me to
provide you with scientific information on the critical and overlooked
issues of particle size, penetration of gas masks, and mobility of depleted
uranium formed under battleground conditions. It is also powerful scientific
information to counter false statements recently made by the White House1
and the DOD2.
I am writing this letter out of concern for the military personnel who may
now be serving on or near the Gulf War battlefields in Iraq and may be
quartered in areas already contaminated by depleted uranium munitions. But
they are not my only concern. The Gulf War Veterans who are now suffering
severe health consequences have also been exposed to depleted uranium,
chemicals and biological materials including vaccines while serving in Iraq
and Kuwait.
The children and people of Iraq have been the greatest victims from exposure
to depleted uranium15 used in the Gulf War and will continue to be. Over
time, they cannot escape the chronic, low level exposure to internal
radiation from depleted uranium and its decay products (see Attach. 7) as it
cycles and recycles through their environment3 in water, air and food
products.
Depleted uranium dust will continue to be an extreme hazard to soldiers,
civilians, populations in countries downwind6,8, and the environment as a
radiological contaminant to all living systems for ten half-lives or 45
BILLION years.
I am a former Lawrence Berkeley Lab and Lawrence Livermore Lab scientist,
and now work with a group of independent scientists called the Radiation and
Public Health Project4. Together this group has written ten books on the
health effects of low level radiation. Presently I am writing a science
report on depleted uranium for the United Nations Human Rights
Subcommission, now investigating the illegality and use of depleted uranium
munitions. I have written the Foreword (Attach.1) to Discounted Casualties:
The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium by Akira Tashiro5.
Attached (Attach. 2) is a declassified memo to General L. R. Groves,
director of the Manhattan Project, dated October 30, 1943. Major Doug Rokke
provided me with this memo. It summarizes a report written by Manhattan
Project physicists Drs. James B. Conant, A. H. Compton and H.C. Urey on the
dissemination of very fine radioactive material as a method of warfare. It
is a "blueprint" for depleted uranium as it has been used in Iraq,
Kuwait,
Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan during the past decade. The memo details the
use of very fine and superfine particles of radioactive materials as a
military weapon. Depleted uranium, produces very fine and superfine
particles in large amounts as it burns. The 1943 memo outlines what was
known in 1943 and below are my comments:
- A gas warfare instrument: the memo indirectly referred to fission products
from Fermi's nuclear pile or radioactive waste like depleted uranium. The
pyrophoric effect of depleted uranium, which spontaneously burns when heated
to 170 C (once it is fired) and on impact, effectively forms very large
numbers of extremely fine (0.1 micron) and submicroscopic particles as small
as 0.001 micron or 10 Ångstroms (see Attach. 3 - Chart "Characteristics of
Particles and Particle Dispersoids") as described in the memo. Particles in
this size range behave like a gas when inhaled, disperse in the lungs to the
blood lung barrier where the white blood cells (greater than 7microns in
diameter) engulf the tiny particles of depleted uranium and carry them
throughout the body. Once these particles have been engulfed by blood cells
or lodged in tissues, they may not be detectable in the urine. Contaminated
personnel will take the depleted uranium home, deposited in tissues
throughout their bodies.
There is no known treatment for exposure.
- It will permeate a gas mask filter: particles in the 0.1 micron range will
penetrate even a HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Airfilter - see
Attach. 4 - HEPA chart) in large numbers. The filters in gas masks issued to
military personnel are much less efficient than HEPA filters. There are 1
billion particles of 0.1 micron diameter in a cubic meter of normal air. It
is clear that a man (without a gas mask) breathing at a normal rate (about
28 cubic meters per day6) and retaining 75% of the very fine particulate
matter in the respiratory system6 will inhale very large numbers of very
fine particles in a short time period.
In a day an average man would normally inhale 28 million particles in the
0.1 micron range through a gas mask with HEPA filters. It would take one
billion fine particles to fill the period at the end of this sentence. On
the battlefield during live fire, the high concentrations of fine and very
fine depleted uranium particles could increase the numbers inhaled in the
small particle range by magnitudes.
The gas masks issued to military personnel now deployed to the Gulf Region
are defective and do not provide even a minimum of protection to personnel.
Recently I went on a speaking tour in 3 northeastern states with Major Doug
Rokke, January 25-February 1, 2003. In nearly every talk we gave, a National
Guardsman or other military person would tell us that their masks fell off
when they tilted their heads.
Air filters in gas masks also fail as they are wetted by moisture from
breathing or are used in the rain.
There is no possible protection from exposure to very fine particles of
depleted uranium through filtering of air.
- As a terrain contaminant: the dispersal of very fine particles of depleted
uranium will contaminate the terrain and deny access to either side except
at the risk of exposure. That includes civilians and animals who may live
there after the battle. The half-life of depleted uranium - 4.5 billion
years - leaves the contaminated terrain radioactive forever.
Small particles less than 1 micron in diameter do not settle from the air
(see Attach. 3 - Chart "Characteristics of Particles and Particle
Dispersoids") but become incorporated into atmospheric dust (see Attach. 5
-
Chart "Natural Aerosols") and are transported around the earth until
they
are removed ("rainout") by rain, pollution or snow3. Seasonal climate
change, agricultural activities, fires and other natural and man-made
disturbances will continue to remobilize particles in the upper dust level
contaminating terrains off the battlefield.
Weathering of larger particles of depleted uranium deposited on the
battlefield7 will contribute to concentrations of depleted uranium fine and
superfine particles in the air and upper dust level.
Air monitors in Hungary8 and Greece during bombing in Kosovo and Bosnia
measured Uranium 238 carried by the wind from the battlefields. Seasonal
fluctuations of depleted uranium particles in the air have been reported in
Kuwait6.
- Water and food contamination: the depleted uranium dust will cycle through
the environment both on and off the battlefield contaminating water supplies
and food. Food grown in contaminated areas will be transported to markets
and contaminate populations and areas far from the battlefields. Wind,
water, birds9 and animals who transport the depleted uranium in their
droppings, slowly contaminate wider and wider areas.
- Internal contamination: inhalation of very fine depleted uranium dust
particles is extremely damaging to the respiratory tract and will get into
the blood stream where it is carried by blood cells and contaminates tissues
throughout the body. These "hot particles"10 will continue to emit
alpha and
gamma radiation (see Attach. 6 - photo "Hot particle in lung tissue")
as
they travel throughout the body or where they rest in tissue. After the
Uranium 238 nucleus decays, the radioactive daughter product which forms
(see Attach. 7) will continue to decay to other isotopes as many as four
times. This will increase the level of radioactive exposure by magnitudes.
Depleted uranium particles lodged in tissue will decay and continue emitting
higher levels of radioactivity from daughter isotopes into the surrounding
tissues.
SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS: The health effects from exposure to a combination of
radiation, chemicals, and biological agents was not addressed in this WW II
memo. This is a critical issue on the battlefield and should be considered
in studies of Gulf War Illness. The combination of radiation with heavy
metals, chemicals and biological toxins accelerate and increase the adverse
health effects of exposure. The effects are unknown since very little
research exists in this field11.
THIS IS AN ISSUE WHICH SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN FUTURE CONFLICTS SUCH AS THE
PLANNED BOMBING OF IRAQ.
MEASUREMENTS OF DU IN TISSUES FROM 71 DEAD RESIDENTS OF BASRA:
Dr. Hari Sharma, a radiochemist living in Canada and member of the Radiation
and Public Health Project, has measured depleted uranium levels in the
tissues of 71 residents of Basra who died after the Gulf War from cancers12.
They were in the age range of 35-50 years. He found high concentrations of
depleted uranium in tissue samples from these individuals. The levels were
about the same throughout the tissues, suggesting that very fine particles
were transported in the blood and deposited or lodged throughout the body.
WORLD TRADE CENTER AIR STUDIES:
Dr. Thomas Cahill, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Atmospheric Sciences at
the University of California at Davis, conducted an independent study of the
air around Ground Zero at the World Trade Center after the 9/11 disaster13.
Using very sophisticated monitoring instruments14 which detect very fine and
ultra fine particles, Cahill and his group monitored the smoldering pile at
the WTC for 5 months following the disaster from one mile north of the
center. They measured concentrations of particles in six size ranges from
2.5 microns to 0.09 microns13. They reported the highest concentrations of
very fine particles of metals ever reported in the US13, and unprecedented
numbers of very fine and super fine particles13. This air monitoring study
of the WTC provided new information about very fine and superfine particles
which have rarely been studied. Burning metals and other materials at high
temperatures generate very large amounts of very small particles. For this
reason depleted uranium which has burned is particularly hazardous.
The EPA has verified that depleted uranium was in the plane that crashed
into the Pentagon on 9/11 18,19 and that the crash site was contaminated.
Residents of New York City detected radiation on hand held geiger counters
at the WTC site. The EPA not only failed to protect emergency response
personnel at both sites, but did not report or measure13 concentrations of
very fine particles at any of the 9/11 plane crash locations. These are the
most hazardous to health, and many personnel who worked at the crash sites
are now very ill.
Dr. Cahill also studied the Kuwaiti oil field fires following the Gulf War.
ECRR: RELEASED JANUARY 30, 2003
A new report from the European Parliament has been released "2003
Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: Health Effects
of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection
Purposes" Regulators' Edition: Brussels, 2003 10. The report was written by
46 international scientists and has over 550 references to epidemiological
studies which include nuclear site leukemias, Chernobyl infants,
minisatellite mutations, weapons fallout cancers, DU Gulf Veterans, and
Iraqi children.
The report concludes that the International Committee on Radiation
Protection (ICRP) determined international standards for risk and dose
effects from studies on A-bomb survivors which were based on high dose,
external, acute exposures. The ICRP model only considered cancer as a health
risk associated with radiation exposure. The ICRP model, using
"bathtub"
chemistry, "steam engine" physics, and deceptive reporting, produced
faulty
and fraudulent estimates of risk and dose effects. Additionally, because the
ICRP model is based on acute, high dose, external exposure it cannot
accurately determine risks or dose response for internal, chronic, isotopic
exposures. For this reason, the ICRP and ECRR models are mutually exclusive.
This new ECRR report based on epidemiological studies, concludes that the
health effects of low level radiation exposure have been underestimated by
the ICRP model by 100-1000 times. It also includes other health effects due
to radiation exposure from global weapons fallout. In addition to cancer it
estimates the number of foetal deaths, infant mortality, and predicts "a
10%
loss of life quality integrated over all diseases and conditions in those
who were exposed over the period of global weapons fallout".
The committee concluded that underestimates of risk and dose effects for
depleted uranium exposure could be very great since the effect at the cell
level may be very different than other types of radiation exposures. For
this reason the health effects of depleted uranium exposure in Gulf Veterans
will be investigated in depth by this committee and will be presented in a
new report.
Internal exposure to depleted uranium is a "novel" exposure to an
altered
form of natural isotopes. The size, shape, surface texture, density,
chemical composition and other physical and chemical factors of the
particles greatly affect the health impact and damage to the cells of any
biological system from depleted uranium exposure. Particle size may be the
most overlooked and one of the most important characteristics of depleted
uranium dust formed on the battlefield. After burning, depleted uranium is
altered both physically and chemically and estimates of risk to health and
dose effects cannot be based on previous studies of naturally occurring
uranium. In the Research Report Summaries7 of depleted uranium studies done
for the military between 1974 and 1999, they clearly provide information and
concerns in these studies about the hazards of depleted uranium both to
health, exposure on the battlefield and damage to the environment. This
summary is well worth reading as it provides a timeline of the military
politicizing decisions on the use of depleted uranium over 25 years. For
example, in a 1980 Army report17:
This report provides an excellent history of the logic behind the Army's
decision to use DU as a kinetic energy, armored-piercing munition. DU's final
selection over tungsten was based on several reasons, including the lower
initial cost of the penetrator itself and its better overall performance. DU and
tungsten were rated even for "producibility". Tungsten had the
advantage
for safety, environmental concerns, and deployment.
RADIATION RESPECTS NO BORDERS
Depleted uranium is being used as an effective munition on the battlefield
and as a radiological weapon to destroy the genetic future of the Iraqi
people15. Before the Gulf War, Iraq was the most developed and advanced
country in the Middle East16. Writing, religion, poetry, music and science
began in the region which includes Iraq, the Cradle of Civilization. The
ability of the Iraqi people has been recognized for millenia. The Iraqi
people are more feared than Saddam Hussein by the US. Their talent for
creativity, ability to be self-determined, and their natural resources have
made them the target of the US Government, US oil companies and the
Department of Defense.
In November of 1991, Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector for the
Department of Energy who was based at the Lawrence Livermore Lab where I
worked, told me: "The Pentagon exists for the oil companies."
The use of depleted uranium by the Department of Defense has created a slow
Chernobyl in the Middle East.
With my best wishes and hopes that this radiation nightmare will finally
come to an end, and with thanks for your efforts to move the issue into the
light,
Leuren Moret
President, Scientists for Indigenous People
City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner
Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists
2233 Grant Street Apt. 1
Berkeley, CA 94703
Phone/FAX (510) 845-3139
leurenmoret@yahoo.com
REFERENCES:
White House statement on "depleted uranium scare".
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ogc/apparatus/index.html
DOD Colonel Bob Cherry - Letter to Editor, February 2003, Olean Times
Herald.
Letter from Dr. Ernest Sternglass August 23, 2001, RE: "Radiation and
Dust
Particles"
Radiation and Public Health Project
http://www.radiation.org
Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium by Akira Tashiro,
Chugoku Shimbun 2001.
http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html
"Estimating the Concentration of Uranium in Some Environmental Samples
in
Kuwait After the 1991 Gulf War" by F. Bou-Rabee, Appl. Radiat. Isol., Vol.
46, No. 4, pp. 217-220, 1995.
Research Report Summaries on Depleted Uranium from 1974-1999, conducted at
National Laboratories and military labs.
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabl1.htm#TAB%20L_Research%20Report%
20Summaries
"Did NATO Attacks in Yugoslavia Cause a Detectable Environmental Effect
in
Hungary?" by A. Kerekes et. al, Health Physics, Vol. 80 (2), February 2001,
pp.177-178.
"Birds Bring Radioactivity Ashore" by Andy Coghlan, New Scientist,
January
4, 2003, p.5.
2003 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: Health
Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection
Purposes Regulators' Edition: Brussels, 2003.
http://www.euradcom.org
The Petkau Effect - The Devastating Effect of Nuclear Radiation on Human
Health and the Environment by R. Graeub, 2nd Edition, Four Walls Eight
Windows, New York (1994).
Personal communication: email March 28, 2002.
"N.Y. air hazards found: EPA assurances contradicted by UCD
scientists" by
E. Lau and C. Bowman, Sacramento Bee February 12, 2002.
SacramentoBee-2-12-02-NYairHazardsFound-EPAassurancesContradictedByUCdavisSc
ientists.pdf [PDF file]
Detection and Evaluation of Long-Range Transport of Aerosols (DELTA) Group
http://delta.ucdavis.edu/
A Different Nuclear War: Children of the Gulf War by Takashi Morizumi
http://www.savewarchildren.org
Children of Iraq: The Dream of the Future UNICEF, printed by Express
International - Lebanon (1988).
Richard P. Davitt "A Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of
Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloy as Penetrator Materials", Tank Ammo
Section Report No. 107, Dover, NJ: US Army Armament Research and Development
Command, June 1980.
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabl1.htm#TAB%20L_Research%20Report%
20Summaries
"Depleted uranium: devastation at home and abroad" by Leuren Moret,
San
Francisco Bay View, November 7, 2001.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/02.01/020117moret.htm
"Tödliches Uran-Recycling" by Geseko von Lüpke, NATUR January
2002.
http://warp6.dva.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=112520
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: "Forword" by Leuren Moret to Discounted Casualties:
The Human
Cost of Depleted Uranium by
Akira Tashiro, Chugoku Shimbun (2001).
Attachment 2: Declassified memo to General L.R. Groves, Director of the
Manhattan Project, October 30, 1943.
Source - US Army Major Doug Rokke
Attachment 3: TABLE: "Characteristics of Particles and Particle
Dispersoids"
from the HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 53rd Edition. This chart
provides the particle range which is very wide for metallurgical dusts and
fumes, a range from 100 microns to 0.001 microns (10 Angstroms). Particles
smaller than 0.1 microns will coagulate and form larger particles, but the
greatest number or population of particles will be in the 0.1 micron range
(see Chart "Natural Aerosols"). This particle range is smaller than
blood
cells, bacteria, pollens, spores and other typical air contaminants. Very
fine particles are extremely hazardous to health because they are carried by
the blood throughout the body. The rate of radiation exposure from one very
small particle can be more than is allowed for a whole body exposure in one
year (see photo "Hot particle in lung tissue").
Attachment 4: CHART: "Penetration of a HEPA filter as a function of
particle
size" from 18TH DOE NUCLEAR AIRBORNE WASTE MANAGEMENT AND AIR
CLEANING CONFERENCE, Baltimore 1984. Experimental penetration of particles
through a HEPA filter - determination that approximately 0.1% in the 0.1
micron particle range will pass through the filter. If there are 100,000
particles 0.1 micron in diameter per cubic centimeter of air, then 120 per
cubic centimeter of air will pass through a HEPA filter. In one day an
average man will inhale 28 million particles in the 0.1 micron range through
a HEPA filter.
Attachment 5: CHART: "Natural Aerosols" from ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
SCIENCE &
TECHNOLOGY 7th Edition (1992), McGraw Hill.
This chart provides the average size distribution for natural aerosols in
atmospheric dusts. The largest population or number of particles in an
aerosol dust is in the 0.1-0.01 micron range. Depleted uranium particles in
this size range will be incorporated in atmospheric dusts and will travel
indefinitely, transported by winds.
Attachment 6: PHOTO: "Hot" or radioactive particle in lung
tissue" photo by
Del Tredici, Burdens of Proof by Tim Connor, Energy Research Foundation
(1997). This is a photo of a "hot particle", in this case a 1
micron particle of plutonium, and shows the alpha tracks emitted from that
particle in one year.
Attachment 7: Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia 5th Edition (1976)
Decay paths for natural uranium - Table 1 The Uranium Series, and Table 3
The Actinium Series. The decay paths for uranium are very complex but decay
through a number of steps before they become stable and are no longer
radioactive. Each of these steps produces a radioactive daughter product
which will be more radioactive than the original uranium atom.
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