"chico chupacabra" > wrote in message ...
> "pearl" wrote:
>
> > > U-238, which is both the depleted AND natural uranium isotope, isn't very fissile and is weakly radioactive. But here's the
big
> > ugly fly in your ointment: because U-238 isn't fissile
> >
> > 'What happens when DU round hits a target?
> >
> > Apart from purely mechanical, DU ammunition has extremely
> > dangerous radiological effect on human as well as on environment
> > in all.
>
> Bullshit.
>
> > Is toxic impact of DU on human helath more dangerous than
> > radiological one?
>
> Yes. The radiological impact is nil -- same as you face on a daily basis from uranium in soil. IT REQUIRES SIGNIFICANT INGESTION
OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME AND, EVEN THEN (AND UNLIKE OTHER HEAVY METALS), AFFECTS ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THOSE EXPOSED.
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1867138.stm

SUCH CRIMINAL DENIAL.

'But there are hardly any published studies, none has ever been conducted
(in the public domain anyway: Some exist but they're classified) on returning
veterans, and none has ever been done on civilians.

Only one British Gulf War veteran has ever been tested by the Ministry of
Defence over the past decade.

What research has been done on the ground?

In Iraq it is almost impossible to do any research that will satisfy Nato
governments.

Sanctions mean the equipment needed cannot be imported, and although
Iraqi and foreign doctors report serious health problems in which they
think DU may be implicated (much higher rates of some forms of cancer,
birth defects, etc.), Nato says pre-war record keeping was not good
enough to allow any firm conclusions to be drawn.
....
What do veterans themselves report ?

One UK Gulf veteran is Ray Bristow, a former marathon runner.

In 1999 he told the BBC: "I gradually noticed that every time I went
out for a run my distance got shorter and shorter, my recovery time
longer and longer. Now, on my good days, I get around quite
adequately with a walking stick, so long as it's short distances.
Any further, and I need to be pushed in a wheelchair."

Ray Bristow was tested - in Canada - for DU. He is open-minded
about the role of DU in his condition. But he says: "I remained in
Saudi Arabia throughout the war. I never once went into Iraq or
Kuwait, where these munitions were used. But the tests showed,
in layman's terms, that I have been exposed to over 100 times an
individual's safe annual exposure to depleted uranium."

Doug Rokke, a former US army colonel who served in Vietnam,
was sent to the Gulf in 1991 to advise on cleaning up radioactive
debris.

He says almost every member of the team of 30 experts he took
with him is now seriously ill, and three have died of lung cancer.

Others say they have children born with defects.

What do doctors sympathetic to the veterans' fears say ?

They say they have found levels of DU in the urine of the few
Gulf veterans who have been tested which are surprisingly high
as so much time has passed since they were exposed.

Another former US army colonel, Dr Asaf Durakovic, says he
has found a "significant presence" of DU in two-thirds of the
17 veterans he has tested.

"Some of those particles were inhaled, and if they were too big
to be absorbed they stayed in the lungs, and there they can
present a risk of cancer," he said.
...
Several years ago a report by the US Army Environmental
Policy Institute said: "If DU enters the body, it has the potential
to generate significant medical consequences. The risks
associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological.
Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could
receive significant internal exposures."

It is not clear whether this warning reached all the troops serving
in Kosovo, during and after the war, or whether it was intended to
reach them.

It certainly did not reach civilians there or in Iraq. Yet they are as
exposed to any harmful effects of DU as the troops themselves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1101447.stm