American and Israeli use of Depleted Uranium - the tiny victims

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/31/content_12737323.htm

RELATED:

http://www.paltelegraph.com/columnists/peter-eyre/3271-gaza-continues-to-fall-victim-by-the-idfs-use-of-dueu-weapons

Seattle PostGlobe - Top News: Doctors report "unprecedented" rise in deformities, cancers in Iraq

November 16, 2009 - As we in the news media like to say, violence has “abated” in Iraq. For example, on Monday it was reported that 16 people – including a member of the country's main Sunni political party and several of his relatives – were killed by gunmen. And a parked car bomb exploded in a market in Kirkuk, killing five people and wounding seven others.

It’s sad to say that the death of 21 people is not too bad, but this is a country that, since the U.S. invasion, often saw a daily civilian death toll topping 100.

But there is another, more insidious violence that is on the rise and will likely continue to rise for generations to come.

The Guardian.co.uk reports that doctors in Fallujah are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The report said, “Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.”

Actually, this rise in birth defects has been reported on – by, at least a handful of journalists – for years. Iraqi researchers and doctors - for years - have documented the rise of birth defects and cancer primarily in southern Iraq where most of the fighting took place in the first Gulf War. With the second war in Iraq, it seems obvious that the problem is spreading. Depleted uranium has been singled out as the most likely cause.

Depleted uranium, which is used for armor-piercing shells of various sizes, is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium. DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years. Many governments have outlawed the use of DU as weapons. The United States has not. FULL STORY

Veterans Today | Special Report: A PAINFUL LESSON IN THE HEALTH RISKS OF MODERN WARFARE - DEPLETED URANIUM AND HEALTH

GlobalResearch.ca | The Responsibility of the US in Contaminating Iraq with Depleted Uranium

The following text was presented to the Kuala Lumpur International Conference to Criminalise War, Putra World Trade Centre, 28-31 October 2009.


November 8, 2009 - For two decades, the administrations of the United States of America and the United Kingdom have been waging continuous wars on Iraq to occupy this oil rich country.

The armed forces of those two countries attacked civilians with different kinds of conventional, non-conventional, and banned weapons such as cluster bombs ammunitions, napalm bombs, white phosphorous weapons and depleted Uranium weapons.

Depleted Uranium (DU) is a radioactive and chemically toxic heavy metal. If ingested, inhaled, or it enters the human body through wounds or skin, it remains there for decades.

Within the human body the (DU) particles would be a continuous source for emitting alpha particles. With its toxic effects, published research & epidemiological studies have proved that it causes serious health damages to the human body. Some of the damage to the human body is to lymph tissue, kidneys, developing fetuses, neurological system, the bones, lung fibrosis, and an increase in the risk of many types of cancer and malignancies.

Hundreds of tons of (DU) expenditure have been fired & exploded on Iraqi highly populated areas like Basrah, Baghdad, Nasriya, Dewania, Samawa, and other cities.

Exploration programs and site measurements by Iraqi and non-Iraqi researchers all proved the existence of (DU) related contamination over most Iraqi territories.

Iraq's Minister of Environment admitted in July 23, 2007 in Cairo that "at least 350 sites in Iraq are contaminated with (DU)". She added that the nation is facing a tremendous number of cancer cases and called for the international community to help Iraq cope with this problem.

A few years after exposure to (DU) contamination, multifold increase of malignancies, congenital malformations, miscarriages, children leukemia, and sterility cases have been registered in suburb areas of Basrah and other surrounding areas. Similar problems appeared in Falluja, where illegal weapons were also used intensively in the 2004 attack of occupation forces on the city. More than two million of the Iraqi population died since 1991 because of the synergic multiple impact of using (DU) weapons, economical sanctions, and the destruction of the health care systems. FULL STORY

Salt Lake Tribune | Shallow landfills of depleted uranium - could spread long-lived radioactive material throughout the Great Salt Lake Basin

11/07/2009 11:38:43 PM MST - Three scientists say federal nuclear regulators owe Utahns an apology -- and a policy change -- for allowing shallow burial of depleted uranium, including the 49,000 tons already at EnergySolutions Inc.'s landfill in Tooele County.

Geologist Stephen T. Nelson and climatologist Summer B. Rupper, both of Brigham Young University, and Kansas State University geologist Charles G. Oviatt, say it is "absurd" for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deem depleted uranium safe for surface disposal.

The uranium enrichment waste gets increasingly hazardous for a million years, and that's too long to reasonably ensure the safety of any shallow landfills, especially one like the Tooele County site that is underwater a few hundred of every several thousand years. Those wet cycles could spread long-lived radioactive material throughout the Great Salt Lake basin, the scientists say.

The criticism comes in a letter to the regulators, who are fielding public input on whether large amounts of DU can be safely disposed at sites like EnergySolutions'.

NRC spokesman David McIntyre said his agency will consider the scientists' comments as part of its in-depth review. But, he added, the agency won't approve any more DU disposal in Utah "if we don't think it's safe."

The company said it's looking at the impacts of rising lake levels on the landfill cover, erosion potential and leaching. FULL STORY

International Day of Action in the campaign to ban depleted uranium (DU) weapons which are anti-tank shells

http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/opinions/letters/x933815820/LETTER-What-will-U-S-do-about-depleted-uranium

Sat Nov 07, 2009, 04:00 PM EST

The UN Day for the Prevention of the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict is Nov. 6 and is the International Day of Action in the campaign to ban depleted uranium (DU) weapons which are anti-tank shells.

However, the impact of a fired shell with a tank puts a cloud of radioactive and chemically toxic DU oxide particles in the air that can be inhaled or ingested. As its half-life — DU is radioactive — is over 4 million years — once in the environment, it is here to stay.

DU anti-tank shells have been used by the U.S. and the U.K. since 1991. During the First Gulf War in 1991, 320 tons of DU was dumped on Iraq, Kuwait and a little on Saudi Arabia. They have been used in the Balkans Wars of the 1990s and also in Iraq in 2003 where they were used in urban areas.

Reports from Iraq indicate increased rates of cancer, especially in children, and increased rates of birth defects that may be due to DU exposure. DU has been found to cause mutations in humans and laboratory animals and cancers including leukemia in laboratory rodents.

Nuclear Metals/Starmet in nearby Concord manufactured DU anti-tank shells for 25 years but the site is now a Superfund site. Just the demolition of the buildings on the site down to the foundations will cost more than $63 million according to a 2009 EPA estimate. The buildings are contaminated with DU and beryllium.

Overall, the depleted uranium problem is one that the public should be more aware of. There is concern elsewhere in the world. In September the Human Rights Commission of Latin American Parliament (Parlatino Americano) voted for a regional moratorium on uranium weapons and called for an international treaty on uranium weapons that the 22 member states should work on.

Belgium’s law banning uranium weapons on Belgium territory went into effect in June. Also in 2008 the UN asked its members to submit reports on DU weapons. The European Parliament has had four resolutions calling for a moratorium on these weapons.

What is the U.S. going to do?

HonoluluAdvertiser.com | Group to protest Strykers vehicles involved in training - Contamination with Depleted Uranium pose health risks to citizens

Saturday, November 7, 2009 - The decision to invite Stryker vehicles to a Hilo Veterans Day parade is stirring up a military-grade headache.

The third annual parade begins at 10 a.m. today and runs through downtown Hilo, featuring seven bands, veterans of all wars from World War II to the present, and a flyover by a Black Hawk helicopter.

The featured veterans this year served in the military intelligence service of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment during World War II. Hawaii's most recent veterans, comprising the 299th Cavalry Army National Guard, which recently returned from Iraq, will also be honored.

It's one of the bigger parades of the year, with some 50 units proceeding at a stately pace through Hilo's usual parade route. Estimates for participation range between 800 and 1,000 people.

But all of that is being overshadowed by a controversy over Stryker combat vehicles that have been invited.

Organizers hoped to keep word of the vehicles a secret from peace activists like Jim Albertini of the Malu Aina Center for Non-Violent Education and Action, in an attempt to ward off conflict.

Albertini found out anyway, and on Sunday wrote an open letter to Lt. Col. Warline Richardson of Pohakuloa Training Area, asking that the vehicles be kept out of the parade.

Albertini says he's concerned that the presence of the vehicles "glorifies war" under the guise of honoring veterans. He's also raised concerns that the Strykers, which are involved in training exercises at Pohakuloa, could be contaminated with depleted uranium and may pose a health risk to citizens. FULL STORY

Rense.com | The Pentagon's Dirty Bombers - Depleted Uranium Death In The USA

October 26, 2009 - The Nuclear Regulator Commission will be holding hearings tomorrow and Wednesday in Hawaii on an application by the US Army for a permit to have depleted uranium at its Pohakuloa Training Area, a vast stretch of flat land in what's called the "saddle" between the sacred mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island, and at the Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu....

UNP.co.in | Depleted uranium used in Afghanistan and Punjab wars may be the cause of the deformities and disorders on the rise in India's NW state

Blowback for children in Punjab

October 18, 2009 - CHILDREN born with abnormally enlarged or small heads, disproportionately short arms and legs, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and other complications. Increasing instances of infertility among women. A spurt in cases of lung cancer and intestinal ulcer.

Punjab, bordering Pakistan, has reason to be concerned about this scary picture emerging from surveys recently carried out in some of its areas. Not only Punjab, however.

According to a section of the researchers particularly concerned with the cases of birth deformities, Punjab may be paying with the health of its people for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

More precisely, depleted uranium reportedly used in wars in these countries may be the cause of the deformities and disorders on the rise in India's northwestern state, according to a team based in the city of Faridkot.

Winds from Afghanistan may have carried to the state a large quantity of highly toxic uranium, which has contaminated water and increased uranium in bodies to dangerous levels. This apprehension was raised at least five months ago by the team of the Baba Farid Center for Special Children, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), where some of the affected kids have been undergoing treatment.

In what would appear to be a scandalously successful cover-up, the question raised by the team has been kept away from major headlines in the Indian and international media, with New Delhi seeing no need even to take cognizance of it.

In a downplayed report, which the most prominent media did not consider deserving of better display, Dr. Pritpal Singh, in charge of the Faridkot clinic, said the number of affected children had risen "dramatically in the past six or seven years." Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan was launched on October 7, 2001.

The use of DU weapons in the Iraq war, started on March 20, 2003, may also have contributed to the tragic drama in Punjab, according to the team. The radioactive uranium, released in such cases, gets mixed in soil, air and water within a large radius. Areas within 1,000 miles from the place where the uranium is released can get affected. Parts of Iraq close to Iran fall within that distance. Afghanistan is just over 330 miles away from India's Punjab.

Evidently, children of Pakistan, which occupies this distance, have also been exposed to the same danger. So are their counterparts in areas India adjoining Punjab.

DU -- defined as uranium containing a smaller percentage of uranium-235 than the 0.7 per cent found in natural uranium -- has found several military uses. Because of its high density, it is used in tank armor, sandwiched between sheets of steel armor plate. It is also used in armor-piercing, incendiary ammunition. It has also been used, above all, to destroy bunkers and tanks.

According to US radiation specialist Leuren Moret, "DU weaponry largely meets the definition of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD)." In a newspaper article in 2005, she wrote: "Since 1991, the US has released the radioactive atomicity (through DU weapons) equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The US has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years." She also described DU weapons as "dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets."

Experts estimate that 1,000 tonnes of uranium is already present in the Iraq-Iran region and Afghanistan. People from these areas have been found to have 100 times more uranium in their urine compared to those from other areas.

The Faridkot center sent hair samples of 149 children -- 116 below the age of 12 -- to the laboratory of the Micro Trace Minerals in Germany in June 2008. The results came back in February 2009. The samples of children below 12 years revealed 82 percent of uranium and those of the rest, 87 per cent. Singh found the results "astonishing as there is no atomic plant near Punjab."

An investigation team of the Observer (London) has just days ago confirmed the "dramatic rise in birth defects, physical and mental abnormalities, and cancers" in the state. The team, however, has linked the uranium contamination to ash from the region's coal-fired power stations.

In a phone call with this writer, Singh stressed that the matter called for a "scientific inquiry," which the Observer investigation was not claimed to be. He pointed out that there were complaints of such consequences from the DU weapons in other places.

On May 1, 2008, the One Planet program of the BBC World Service quoted doctors in Kabul and Kandahar saying that the incidence of birth defects, including premature births and malformations, had doubled in under two years. Among the malformations were "neural tube defects and malformation of limbs; for example, the head is smaller than normal, or the head is larger than normal, or there is a big mass on the back of the baby."

Though the George Bush regime protested innocence, the program cited the Canada-based Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) as saying that the cause might be depleted uranium. In 2002 and 2003, the center carried out analyses of urine from Afghans. In some, it found levels of uranium hundreds of times greater than in Gulf War veterans.

As for Iraq, shockwaves were sent across the world by disclosures of a large-scale rise in children's deformities and deaths in Fallujah after two massive bombing campaigns in 2004. In November 2005, the Pentagon was forced to admit the use of white phosphorous and DU ammunition during these campaigns.

Deafening is the silence of New Delhi on the possible consequences of the use of DU weapons in a war at India's doorstep. Does the Bush-built "strategic partnership" on South Asia demand callous indifference to the plight of deformed and dying children in Punjab? (Courtesy: Truthout)
-----
A freelance journalist and peace activist in Chennai, J. Sri Raman is the author of "Flashpoint" (Common Courage Press, USA).

Salt Lake City Tribune | Utah, who's got your back? It is time to talk about depleted uranium.

10/02/2009 06:47:14 PM MDT - The Radiation Control Board, the folks who are supposed to look out for you, cleared the way in an 8-3 vote last week for EnergySolutions to bring 14,000 tons of the stuff to Utah beginning a few weeks from now.

So, what's DU? What's the big deal? Well, if you are only concerned about the next few hundred years, it may not be anything to worry about. However, if you are concerned about longer times, it is a very big deal indeed.

Contrary to intuition, DU becomes much more radioactive over a long time. In fact, DU buried in Utah today will eventually become somewhere between 10 to 15 times more radioactive.

There is also a lot of it. The amount of material eventually requiring disposal may exceed 1 million tons. The half-life of DU is about the same as the age of the Earth, or 4.5 billion years. In a nutshell, DU represents a massive quantity of radioactive material in a highly concentrated form. It becomes increasingly radioactive and then stays that way forever.

Much of it could end up at the EnergySolutions facility in the west desert. That facility really isn't a bad place for "normal" waste that largely decays away in a few centuries. Ironically, the company builds its landfill liners from local Lake Bonneville clay that was deposited 15,000 years ago and is direct evidence that this site has been under water in the past.

Full Story

Palestine Telegraph | Depleted Uranium and Fraudulent Science

Uranium munitions were introduced into combat during the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991. Since that time, evidence has confirmed that the United States deployed uranium weapons is Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and again in Iraq starting in 2003. Credible evidence also exists that the Israeli military used uranium weapons in Lebanon (Busby and Williams). The jury is still out as to whether or not these weapons were fielded in Gaza. Full Story

Kawther.info | Malformed Babies Resulting From Israeli Banned Weapons - phosphor and uranium in the middle of populated areas

AP | Utah OKs continued disposal of depleted uranium

A classified German Army manual has thrown doubt over US and UK assurances that no depleted uranium munitions have been used in Afghanistan.

http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2009/09/09/german-bundeswehr-manual-us-military-uses-depleted-uranium-ammunition-in-afghanistan/

Related information:
- What Depleted Uranium Does to Children in Iraq: Japanese Journalist
- Depleted Uranium Shells Worse Than Nuclear Weapons:
Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
“More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991,” said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. “The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive.”
“Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.”
- The Weapon of Mass Destruction Is Cancer
- War-related birth defects in Fallujah
- IRAQ: ‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies
- Over 70,000 deaths, and over 1 million disabilities among American soldiers attributed to Iraq Wars says U.S. government data
- Beyond Treason (Documentary):
Beyond Treason investigates causes of Gulf War Illness and continuing deaths of gulf war veterans. Beyond Treason outlines: - exposure to depleted uranium munitions used on the battlefield. - chemical and biological exposures. - experimental vaccines given.

SUUjournal.com | Editorial: Utah is not the world's waste dump

In addition to the foreign waste, domestic depleted uranium will begin to flow into our state in October and will be stored at the EnergySolutions site 70 ...

Salt Lake Tribune | Utah Rep Jim Matheson asks Energy Department to halt depleted uranium shipments

Jim Matheson, D-Utah, wants a halt to shipments of depleted uranium that are likely to be buried in Utah's EnergySolutions' landfill. ...

Time | Hazardous Chemicals at Vieques Naval Training Range, on Vieques island, Puerto Rico: Is the Government Accountable?

By then, it was already conceding things it had long denied — such as its use of toxic materials like agent orange and depleted uranium. ...

Herbert to meet with nuke waste deal opponent - over proposal by nuclear waste company to split revenue with state if allowed to import foreign waste

Deseret News - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
... long been opposed to any efforts by EnergySolutions to expand its operation in Clive, Tooele County, including its efforts to store depleted uranium. ...

Rense.com | Downwind Airflow Maps Of US Depleted Uranium War On Afghanistan

Matt Balasis | Dirty Bombs

http://www.heralddeparis.com/dirty-bombs/52270

MINNEAPOLIS (Herald de Paris) - I like to think of myself as an optimist. A glass half full sort of person. I like to believe most people are kind, that my community is a safe and sound place, that my neighbors are decent folk. I like to think our country is woven from a more or less virtuous moral fiber, that while not perfect we do our best to be a just and fair people, and I believe in our constitution. There are times however when these beliefs take a beating and I end up wondering just what the hell is going on? How could we allow certain things to happen? And, even worse, how in the world do we forgive ourselves for failing to be accountable?

Nine years ago now my nephew Billy came to live with us here in the great Midwest from a small Greek island to attend the University of Minnesota. Shy, tall and thin, his dark hair and dark skin set him apart from most, as did his accent. It was quite a transition, from a place where a blistering sun is the norm to a virtual urban tundra, but he did well and people liked him. He promptly made a friend, a good friend — Gus. I’d heard about him before I met him, outgoing, confident, ambitious, veteran of the Gulf conflict, ex Marine, Billy painted a picture considerably more imposing than the affable and disarming guy I eventually got to know via playstation in the basement. Gus was pretty easy to like, he was funny and engaging and didn’t take himself too seriously, a likable kid, and being an ex Marine myself he pretty much got an automatic thumbs up. We had lots of talks about the Corps, boot camp, and good natured bantering about how things had changed, how (in my opinion) San Diego MCRD (recruit training depot) didn’t compare with Paris Island because the abominable sand fleas were absent in San Diego, about how we didn’t get issued sunscreen at P.I. But my time in the service didn’t compare to his in one important way (although I never told him), he’d seen some action during the 1998 Desert Fox bombing campaign whereas mine was a relatively peaceful tenure — Gus fired off live ordinance at live targets both from sea as well as in the occupied no-man’s-land bordering Kuwait and Iraq — a landscape strewn with the charred artifacts of the Iraq War. He was a good friend to Billy, he didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs, stayed focused on his studies and his dreams, and was always good for a laugh.

It feels now like that time went by in the blink of an eye. With their degrees all but completed they both went their separate ways. Gus got married in September 2002 to a gal named Marti and they moved to Texas and started a family. He finished his BA at the University of San Antonio and landed a great job with Union Pacific Rail Road — Manager of Yard Operations. Billy sure enough went back to his Island paradise and his Greek sweetheart. We stayed put of course somewhere between these two incidental friends from across worlds, raising our own growing family. Things didn’t turn out the way I would have guessed. Something terrible caught up with Gus, something I don’t think anyone saw coming.

The following is from an abstract on a study conducted by the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research institute:

The use of depleted uranium in armor-penetrating munitions remains a source of controversy because of the numerous unanswered questions about its long-term health effects. Although no conclusive epidemiologic data have correlated DU exposure to specific health effects, studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents continue to suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. Until issues of concern are resolved with further research, the use of depleted uranium by the military will continue to be controversial.

The above study was completed in March of 2007 and was essentially a compilation of data and evidence from other studies on the effects of Depleted Uranium, studies which have in the past and which continue to suggest that Depleted Uranium has a leukemogenic (leukemia causing) effect on biological organisms. In yet another study by Arfsten, Still, and Ritchie at the Naval Health Research Center, there was strong evidence that DU accumulates in tissues including testes, bone, kidneys, and brain and that this particular heavy metal alloy is both genotoxic and mutagenic, which is to say it can effect a cell’s genetic integrity in addition to having carcinogenic properties. Yet the United States, Britain, and France continue to veto U.N. resolutions banning these munitions even in the face of overwhelming international consensus.

Additionally, the World Health Organization continues to maintain their position that Depleted Uranium, as a residual byproduct of open combat, has not been proven to cause any adverse responses. The official Dept. of Defense position is that depleted uranium poses marginal if any collateral risk through exposure because it is relatively “depleted” of its radioactivity, it is a cheap and readily available waste product of our many nuclear reactors. DU shells have been around for quite some time, but the government has tiptoed around the issue of its dangers by adhering to the argument that this ordinance is safe because of it’s reduced radioactivity.

The problem with DU ordinance, however, is that it is incendiary in addition to being remarkably dense and will burn and oxidize when fired, particularly upon impact with other metals — and the Government has known this for quite some time. When these shells are fired the risk is not from radiation, it is from the toxicity of the metal itself in what are called embedded particles.

These particles can lay dormant in tissue for up to ten or more years and still manage to trigger an astonishingly lethal flurry of leukemogenic activity in a matter of a few weeks. The odd thing is that the DOD itself has produced this research, clearly implicating DU in a specific and rare form of leukemia, and while steps have been taken to ensure treatment for those contaminated, the marching orders remain the same, that DU is a relatively safe and necessary risk to ensure supremacy on the battlefield.

Gus was a gunner during December 1998 Operation Desert Fox. We’d spoken occasionally about his experiences there. He described traversing miles of highway still littered with burnt out hulks of Iraqi tanks, armor, and personnel carriers, the awesome sandstorms, and the remarkably sophisticated armaments he’d been trained to deploy. It is estimated that somewhere between 500 and 1000 tons of depleted uranium ordinance was used in the the first Gulf war, the majority of which is still scattered in the sand dunes between Iraq and Kuwait where Gus served time.

Vehicles literally cut to shreds by DU ordinance still pock-mark the otherwise sterile landscape. Gus was certainly there, and his exposure to this particularly toxic heavy metal ordinance could have taken place in any number of ways. Anyone who’s fired large caliber ammunition can tell you, you are left covered in the metallic residue produced by superheated shell casings, particles could have been inhaled, ingested from dust on an MRE (meal ready to eat), through any contact with relics of the previous war, in the water, in a small cut, or simply through the skin. Whether he was exposed at some point during his tenure to Depleted Uranium is probable.

Whether it was through incidental contact, or inhalation is perhaps unknowable. What is certain is that early in October of 2007 Gus felt a lump on his head just under his scalp and he began to experience excruciating back pain. The pain eventually became so bad that he couldn’t stand or walk.

He went to the doctor and a CT scan was ordered. He was sent to the hospital that very day. The diagnosis was Acute Leukemia (AML), a form that his doctors had never encountered and for which there was little if any protocol. Gus deteriorated rapidly and less than 6 months later, at 8:10 pm on March 28, 2008, Gus passed away, leaving behind a wife and three small children.

Almost a year to the day after Gus’ death just this past March 25th, another study was published again by the Armed Services Radiologic Research Institute authored this time by Miller, Stewart and Rivas, which pinpointed a specific chemical pathway called DNA methylation — by which DU induces leukemia. The data in this particular study are presented as evidence that aberrant DNA hypomethylation is clearly associated with DU Leukemogenisis.

I am left to try and disseminate the particulars of this tragic story via a timeline of information and research authored primarily by scientific entities under the Department of Defense. Gus’ service time was years after initial repots of Gulf Syndrome (and the role of Depleted Uranium) had surfaced. The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) research is essentially the reverse of what one may deem a conflict of interest. It is for this reason that I’m focusing on this data in particular — the studies are self implicating — they are sponsored by the Department of Defense itself. The research, dating back to 2002, categorizes the use of DU as “controversial” as there were clear leukemogenic effects in vitro (1) — so we’ve known for a very long time that this stuff is potentially lethal.

The lack of human subjects might be cited as a source of some skepticism, but chemical pathways in recent studies, in particular DNA methylation, tend to not only reflect consistent effects across different organisms, the very same chemical process is in fact implicated in a number of other non DU cancers. DNA methylation (the replacement of a hydrogen atom with a methyl group) has in fact been implicated as a carcinogenic mechanism in DNA unrelated to Depleted Uranium from as far back as a 1998 study published in the journal of Nature by the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (2).

Depleted uranium is a toxic and incendiary heavy metal blasted from a gun barrel into another hunk of metal creating a readily ingestible aerosol which can remain dormant and embedded in human tissue almost indefinitely and which clearly can trigger DNA methylation — an aberrant metabolic pathway. Depleted Uranium possesses 60% of the radioactivity (for up to 50 years) of naturally occurring uranium, and some estimates suggest that more than 20% of a DU shell is aerosolized into inhalable particles on impact, and clearly, via research from the Dept. of Denfense itself, it has a causal role in the sudden onset of Acute Leukemia.

Carl Gust Danielson, a healthy man in his late twenties and a father of three, died of a rare form of leukemia after participating in military theater of operations where an agent was widely used which has been found to cause rare forms of leukemia. The military to date has performed no substantive epidemiologic studies on Gulf War Veterans to even ascertain whether cancer rates and mortality data are as skewed as some media outlets would suggest — 3 to 5 times the normal rate depending on the source.

Gus’ wife has somehow managed to put a life together for herself and her three children in the wake of this tragedy. She decorates her children’s bedrooms with teddy bears made from Gus’ old shirts and tells them stories about their dad, but his absence is a mournful silence in a childhood that would have otherwise been as happy as that of any three children anywhere. The youngest will never remember his dad, the second, will never have her dad to walk her down the isle, the oldest will never learn about cars, sports, and all the other things that dads pass on to their children.

Why? Because, as the evidence suggests, our government went ahead with the use of a dangerous heavy metal with known radiologic and toxic properties, essentially because it was cheaper than Tungsten, a metal with similar density but without the unique hazards of Depleted Uranium. We have stores of Depleted Uranium laying around, why not make ammunition out of them and let our sons fire it off in the far reaches of the earth? Who cares that it causes cancer, let that be our legacy to warn any other potential enemies, the bottom line is we must win at any cost, and our soldiers? our Marines? Well, perhaps they are casualties as well?

Gus’s wife and children could have at least been presented with a purple heart, or a combat related death benefit, instead they get a small social security pension for the children, and an empty seat at the dinner table.

When I consider this, I lose some of that optimism, some of that faith that we are a fair and benevolent people, and I am left a little less certain that we are the just and righteous nation that my hope tells me we are. I still salute the flag, I still place my hand on my chest during the national anthem at ball games, but the thought of letting my children enlist in our military fills me with a dread that is a little more pronounced.

Gus died of exposure incurred on the battlefield which amounts to a combat related injury. How long this particular “injury” took to manifest it’s lethal outcome is not relevant to the plain fact that the initial exposure/injury took place in live combat. The injury was not accidental or the result of any negligence on Gus’ part. If anything comes of this article, the two things that I’d like to see are: first, a broad systematic epidemiological study of combat veterans from 1992 to the present to investigate cancer onset, type, incidence, and severity, and secondly, to any and all victims of this particular form of Leukemia who were participants in a combat zone in which Depleted Uranium munitions were deployed, their families should be awarded a purple heart and a full combat related death benefit.

To presume that anything less might suffice, is to risk validating the notion that the lives of our sons and daughters are only worth the relative nickels and dimes saved by using DU over other more expensive metals.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14515407?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19324073

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16283518?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v395/n6697/full/395089a0.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11259733?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed

http://www.wise-uranium.org/pdf/dumyths.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12705453

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12194305?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=3&log=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

http://www.afrri.usuhs.mil/

University Of California Santa Cruz (2004, January 22). Isotope Analysis Shows Exposure To Depleted Uranium In Gulf War Veterans:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/01/040122090433.htm

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