-------- Original Message --------
Oggetto: Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind the headlines
Data: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 19:14:16 -0500
Da: iacenter@...
Rispondi-a: "International" <iacenter@...>
A: "International" <iacenter@...>
International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011
212-633-6646 Fax: 212-633-2889
iacenter@...
www.iacenter.org
Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
January 9, 2001
For Immediate release
Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
212-633-6646
WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?
READ METAL OF DISHONOR TO SEE
WHAT IS BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The breaking news in Europe of troops from Italy, Belgium, Spain and
Portugal who served in the Balkans dying of leukemia has reawakened
interest in the dangers posed by depleted-uranium weapons.
In April 1999, the International Action Center published the second
edition of a book of essays and lectures on depleted uranium. Its title
is Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium. The first edition had been
published in 1997.
The Peoples Video Network, in collaboration with the IAC, produced a
50-minute-long video with the same title, Metal of Dishonor, that was
favorably reviewed at film festivals in Italy.
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
In addition to exposing the deadly duplicity of the Department of
Defense, the book documents the genocide of Native Americans and
Iraqis by military radiation, the connection between depleted uranium
and Gulf War Syndrome, the underestimated dangers from low-level
radiation, the legal ramifications of DU Production and Use, and the
growing movement against DU. (Table of Contents below)
The Pentagon used DU weapons in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in 1995 and
in Yugoslavia-especially in Kosovo-in 1999 in large enough amounts to
have a significant impact on the environment. Besides endangering
occupation troops it of course is a major environmental threat to the
population of those regions.
Of the 697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, some 130,000 have
reported medical problems ranging from respiratory, liver and kidney
dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and
birth defects among their newborn children.
During the Gulf War, munitions and armor made with Depleted Uranium
were used for the first time in combat history. Over 940,000 30-
millimeter uranium tipped bullets and "more than 14,000 large caliber
DU rounds were consumed during Operation Desert Storm/Desert
Shield." (U.S. AEPI Report 1994) These largely untested weapons
were used indiscriminately throughout the siege of Iraq with no concern
for the health and environmental consequences of their use. Between
300 and 800 tons of DU bullets are now scattered on the ground in Iraq
and Kuwait.
The Pentagon now admits to having fired over 18,000 DU shells in
Bosnia and over 31,000 such shells in Kosovo.
Up to 70% of the depleted uranium within these weapons aerosolizes
on impact and as radioactive dust it is easily ingested. As a result,
hundreds of thousands of people, both victims of war and combat
soldiers, have suffered the effects of exposure to these highly toxic,
radioactive weapons.
WHAT IS DU?
DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium
for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Much like natural
uranium, it is both toxic and radioactive. Over a billion pounds of DU
exists in the United States and must be safely stored or disposed of
by the Department of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years,
DU's
radioactivity effectively lasts forever.
DU is so abundant the government gives it away to arms
manufacturers. Because it is extremely dense--1.7 times as dense as
lead--when turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that
easily penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric--that is, when it
strikes steel, heat from the friction causes it to burn.
When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of poisonous and radioactive
uranium oxide in aerosol form, which can then travel for miles in the
wind. Humans can ingest or inhale the small particles. Even one
particle, when lodged in a vital organ--which is most likely to happen
from inhalation-- can cause illnesses from headaches to cancer.
The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S. and
used it in combat for the first time against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf
War. It was very effective in destroying Iraqi tanks, as well as their
occupants and anyone in the area. At least 600,000 pounds of DU and
uranium dust was left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S.
and British forces during that war.
Although the U.S. government and military continue to minimize the
environmental and health dangers from depleted- uranium weapons,
even they have to admit these dangers exist.
DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000
reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." The chronic symptoms of this
ailment range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss,
chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in veterans' children.
Dr. Mona Kammas is a professor of pathology at Baghdad University
and director of a study of the environmental impact of U.S. aggression
against Iraq. At the Gijon symposium, she reported on a paper that
showed an almost five-fold increase in cancers, a more than three-fold
increase in spontaneous abortions, and a nearly three-fold increase in
congenital anomalies in a study group of those exposed to combat.
The paper also reported on environmental damage due to the
Pentagon's destruction of the water-supply and sanitation systems and
the destruction of oil refineries and factories that used toxic
chemicals
in the production process.
Iraqi researchers believe that the different relative frequency of
various
types of cancer now as compared with before 1990 in the Basra region
was a significant indication of a major change, and that this pattern
continuing long after the war indicated that DU's impact was long-
lasting.
Besides the contents listed below, the second edition of Metal of
Dishonor has chapters reporting on a study from Iraq and from Bosnia,
and a new chapter by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a physicist and medical
doctor who examined U.S. troops hit by DU "friendly fire."
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
Contents
What Government Documents Admit and What the Government is
Telling Us
Preface (full text)
Acknowledgments
Biographies of the Authors (full text)
Section I: Introduction and Call to Action Against DU
1. The Struggle for an Independent Inquiry (full text)
By Sara Flounders, Organizer--International Action Center
2. Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (excerpt)
By Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark
3. A New Kind of Nuclear War (excerpt)
By Dr. Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility
4. International Appeal to Ban DU (full text)
Section II: How DU Weapons Harmed Gulf War Veterans
5. Collateral Damage: How U.S. Troops Were Exposed (excerpt)
By Dan Fahey, Gulf War Syndrome activist researching DU use in the
Gulf region
6. Living With Gulf War Syndrome (excerpt)
By Carole Picou, Veteran of Medical Unit on the Iraqi Front
7. Another Human Experiment (exerpt)
By Dolores Lymburner, National Organizer of the Depleted Uranium
Citizens' Network
Section III: The Politics of War and the Pentagon's Coverup
8. A Tale of Two Syndromes: Vietnam and Gulf War (excerpt)
By John Catalinotto, former organizer, American Servicemen's Union
9. Military and Media Collaborate in Coverup of DU (excerpt)
By Lenora Foerstal, N. American Coordinator, Women for Mutual
Security; editor, Creating Surplus Population: the Effect of Military
and
Corporate Policies on Indigenous Peoples
10. Burying the Past, Protecting DU Weapons for Future Wars
(excerpt)
By Tod Ensign, attorney; Director, Citizen Soldier
11. 'National Security' Kept Atomic Veteran's Suffering a Secret
(excerpt)
By Pat Broudy, Legislative Director, National Associaion of Atomic
Veterans and National Associaiton of Atomic Survivors
12. A Bizarre Recycling Program--the Arrogance of Power (excerpt)
By Alice Slater, President, Global Resource Action Center for the
Environment
Section IV: Indigenous Peoples Victimized by Military Radiation
13. Uranium Development on Indian Land (excerpt)
By Manuel Pino, Environmental Activist
14. Uranium, the Pentagon and the Navajo people (excerpt)
By Anna Rondon, Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum
15. Nuclear Testing, Government Secrecy and the Marshall Islanders
(excerpt)
By Glen Alcalay, anthropologist; National Committee for Radiation
Victims
16. Declaration of the Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit (excerpt)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 5-8, 1996
Section V: What Risks from Low-Level Radiation?
17. Depleted Uranium: Huge Quantities of Dangerous Waste (excerpt)
By Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY
18. Nuclear Testing, Power Plants and a Breast Cancer Epidemic
(excerpt)
By Dr. Jay M. Gould, author, The Enemy Within
19.Nine-Legged Frogs, Gulf War Syndrome, and Chernobyl Studies
(excerpt)
By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Founding Member/President,
International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Editor in Chief,
International Perspectives in Public Health.
20. DU Spread and Contamination of Gulf War Veterans and Others
(excerpt)
By Leonard A. Dietz, physicist, charter member, American Society for
Mass Spectrometry.
Section VI: Environmental Cost of Gulf War to Iraquis and Others
21. Gravesites: Environmental Ruin in Iraq (excerpt)
By Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz, anthropologist; journalist, WBAI-NY
22. DU Shells Make the Desert Glow (excerpt)
By Dr. Eric Hoskins, Medical Coordinator, Harvard Study Team's
surveys of health and welfare in postwar Iraq
23. How DU Shell Residues Poison Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
(excerpt)
By Prof. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, Founder/President, Austrian
Yellow Cross International
24. Note From Permanent Mission of Iraq to UN Center for Human
Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, May 21, 1996 (full text)
25. U.S. First to Target Nuclear Reactor (excerpt)
By Suzy T. Kane,Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom; author, The Hidden History of the Persian Gulf War
Section VII: Can a Legal Battle be Waged to Ban DU?
26. The Role of Physicians in the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
(excerpt)
By Dr. Victor Sidel, Co-president, International Physicians for the
Prevention
of Nuclear War; co-editor, War and Public Health
27. UN Subcommission on Human Rights Votes Ban on DU (excerpt)
By Philippa Winkler, attorney; Project Director, Hidden Casualties, The
Environmental, Health and Political Consequences of the Persian Gulf War
28. Depleted Uranium and International Law (excerpt)
By Alyn Ware, Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
Appendices
Appendix I: Government Documents on DU (under construction)
Appendix II: Ordnance Containing DU (under construction)
Appendix III: Locations Involving DU Research, Testing and Storage
(under construction)
Appendix IV: Report from LAKA Foundation, Netherlands (under
construction)
Appendix V: DU Around the World (under construction)
Appendix VI: International Action Center (full text)
Appendix VII: Organizations and Resources (full text)
--30--
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@...
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE
http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
*To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to
http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
> http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
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Contributi e segnalazioni: <jugocoord@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Oggetto: Depleted Uranium: Read about the substance behind the headlines
Data: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 19:14:16 -0500
Da: iacenter@...
Rispondi-a: "International" <iacenter@...>
A: "International" <iacenter@...>
International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206, NY, NY 10011
212-633-6646 Fax: 212-633-2889
iacenter@...
www.iacenter.org
Ramsey Clark, Chairperson
January 9, 2001
For Immediate release
Press Contact: Deirdre Sinnott
212-633-6646
WHAT IS DEPLETED URANIUM?
READ METAL OF DISHONOR TO SEE
WHAT IS BEHIND THE HEADLINES
The breaking news in Europe of troops from Italy, Belgium, Spain and
Portugal who served in the Balkans dying of leukemia has reawakened
interest in the dangers posed by depleted-uranium weapons.
In April 1999, the International Action Center published the second
edition of a book of essays and lectures on depleted uranium. Its title
is Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium. The first edition had been
published in 1997.
The Peoples Video Network, in collaboration with the IAC, produced a
50-minute-long video with the same title, Metal of Dishonor, that was
favorably reviewed at film festivals in Italy.
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
In addition to exposing the deadly duplicity of the Department of
Defense, the book documents the genocide of Native Americans and
Iraqis by military radiation, the connection between depleted uranium
and Gulf War Syndrome, the underestimated dangers from low-level
radiation, the legal ramifications of DU Production and Use, and the
growing movement against DU. (Table of Contents below)
The Pentagon used DU weapons in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in 1995 and
in Yugoslavia-especially in Kosovo-in 1999 in large enough amounts to
have a significant impact on the environment. Besides endangering
occupation troops it of course is a major environmental threat to the
population of those regions.
Of the 697,000 US troops who served in the Gulf, some 130,000 have
reported medical problems ranging from respiratory, liver and kidney
dysfunction, memory loss, headaches, fever, low blood pressure, and
birth defects among their newborn children.
During the Gulf War, munitions and armor made with Depleted Uranium
were used for the first time in combat history. Over 940,000 30-
millimeter uranium tipped bullets and "more than 14,000 large caliber
DU rounds were consumed during Operation Desert Storm/Desert
Shield." (U.S. AEPI Report 1994) These largely untested weapons
were used indiscriminately throughout the siege of Iraq with no concern
for the health and environmental consequences of their use. Between
300 and 800 tons of DU bullets are now scattered on the ground in Iraq
and Kuwait.
The Pentagon now admits to having fired over 18,000 DU shells in
Bosnia and over 31,000 such shells in Kosovo.
Up to 70% of the depleted uranium within these weapons aerosolizes
on impact and as radioactive dust it is easily ingested. As a result,
hundreds of thousands of people, both victims of war and combat
soldiers, have suffered the effects of exposure to these highly toxic,
radioactive weapons.
WHAT IS DU?
DU is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium
for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. Much like natural
uranium, it is both toxic and radioactive. Over a billion pounds of DU
exists in the United States and must be safely stored or disposed of
by the Department of Energy. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years,
DU's
radioactivity effectively lasts forever.
DU is so abundant the government gives it away to arms
manufacturers. Because it is extremely dense--1.7 times as dense as
lead--when turned into a metal DU can be used to make a shell that
easily penetrates steel. In addition it is pyrophoric--that is, when it
strikes steel, heat from the friction causes it to burn.
When DU burns, it spews tiny particles of poisonous and radioactive
uranium oxide in aerosol form, which can then travel for miles in the
wind. Humans can ingest or inhale the small particles. Even one
particle, when lodged in a vital organ--which is most likely to happen
from inhalation-- can cause illnesses from headaches to cancer.
The Pentagon tested DU shells at various sites around the U.S. and
used it in combat for the first time against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf
War. It was very effective in destroying Iraqi tanks, as well as their
occupants and anyone in the area. At least 600,000 pounds of DU and
uranium dust was left around Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia by U.S.
and British forces during that war.
Although the U.S. government and military continue to minimize the
environmental and health dangers from depleted- uranium weapons,
even they have to admit these dangers exist.
DU is also considered at least a contributing cause to the 130,000
reported cases of "Gulf War Syndrome." The chronic symptoms of this
ailment range from sharp increases in cancers to memory loss,
chronic pain, fatigue and birth defects in veterans' children.
Dr. Mona Kammas is a professor of pathology at Baghdad University
and director of a study of the environmental impact of U.S. aggression
against Iraq. At the Gijon symposium, she reported on a paper that
showed an almost five-fold increase in cancers, a more than three-fold
increase in spontaneous abortions, and a nearly three-fold increase in
congenital anomalies in a study group of those exposed to combat.
The paper also reported on environmental damage due to the
Pentagon's destruction of the water-supply and sanitation systems and
the destruction of oil refineries and factories that used toxic
chemicals
in the production process.
Iraqi researchers believe that the different relative frequency of
various
types of cancer now as compared with before 1990 in the Basra region
was a significant indication of a major change, and that this pattern
continuing long after the war indicated that DU's impact was long-
lasting.
Besides the contents listed below, the second edition of Metal of
Dishonor has chapters reporting on a study from Iraq and from Bosnia,
and a new chapter by Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a physicist and medical
doctor who examined U.S. troops hit by DU "friendly fire."
Both the book and the video can be ordered online at:
http://www.leftbooks.com/online-store/scstore/c-Depleted_Uranium.html
Contents
What Government Documents Admit and What the Government is
Telling Us
Preface (full text)
Acknowledgments
Biographies of the Authors (full text)
Section I: Introduction and Call to Action Against DU
1. The Struggle for an Independent Inquiry (full text)
By Sara Flounders, Organizer--International Action Center
2. Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (excerpt)
By Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark
3. A New Kind of Nuclear War (excerpt)
By Dr. Helen Caldicott, Founder, Physicians for Social Responsibility
4. International Appeal to Ban DU (full text)
Section II: How DU Weapons Harmed Gulf War Veterans
5. Collateral Damage: How U.S. Troops Were Exposed (excerpt)
By Dan Fahey, Gulf War Syndrome activist researching DU use in the
Gulf region
6. Living With Gulf War Syndrome (excerpt)
By Carole Picou, Veteran of Medical Unit on the Iraqi Front
7. Another Human Experiment (exerpt)
By Dolores Lymburner, National Organizer of the Depleted Uranium
Citizens' Network
Section III: The Politics of War and the Pentagon's Coverup
8. A Tale of Two Syndromes: Vietnam and Gulf War (excerpt)
By John Catalinotto, former organizer, American Servicemen's Union
9. Military and Media Collaborate in Coverup of DU (excerpt)
By Lenora Foerstal, N. American Coordinator, Women for Mutual
Security; editor, Creating Surplus Population: the Effect of Military
and
Corporate Policies on Indigenous Peoples
10. Burying the Past, Protecting DU Weapons for Future Wars
(excerpt)
By Tod Ensign, attorney; Director, Citizen Soldier
11. 'National Security' Kept Atomic Veteran's Suffering a Secret
(excerpt)
By Pat Broudy, Legislative Director, National Associaion of Atomic
Veterans and National Associaiton of Atomic Survivors
12. A Bizarre Recycling Program--the Arrogance of Power (excerpt)
By Alice Slater, President, Global Resource Action Center for the
Environment
Section IV: Indigenous Peoples Victimized by Military Radiation
13. Uranium Development on Indian Land (excerpt)
By Manuel Pino, Environmental Activist
14. Uranium, the Pentagon and the Navajo people (excerpt)
By Anna Rondon, Southwest Indigenous Uranium Forum
15. Nuclear Testing, Government Secrecy and the Marshall Islanders
(excerpt)
By Glen Alcalay, anthropologist; National Committee for Radiation
Victims
16. Declaration of the Indigenous Anti-Nuclear Summit (excerpt)
Albuquerque, New Mexico, September 5-8, 1996
Section V: What Risks from Low-Level Radiation?
17. Depleted Uranium: Huge Quantities of Dangerous Waste (excerpt)
By Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, CUNY
18. Nuclear Testing, Power Plants and a Breast Cancer Epidemic
(excerpt)
By Dr. Jay M. Gould, author, The Enemy Within
19.Nine-Legged Frogs, Gulf War Syndrome, and Chernobyl Studies
(excerpt)
By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, GNSH, Founding Member/President,
International Institute of Concern for Public Health; Editor in Chief,
International Perspectives in Public Health.
20. DU Spread and Contamination of Gulf War Veterans and Others
(excerpt)
By Leonard A. Dietz, physicist, charter member, American Society for
Mass Spectrometry.
Section VI: Environmental Cost of Gulf War to Iraquis and Others
21. Gravesites: Environmental Ruin in Iraq (excerpt)
By Dr. Barbara Nimri Aziz, anthropologist; journalist, WBAI-NY
22. DU Shells Make the Desert Glow (excerpt)
By Dr. Eric Hoskins, Medical Coordinator, Harvard Study Team's
surveys of health and welfare in postwar Iraq
23. How DU Shell Residues Poison Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
(excerpt)
By Prof. Dr. Siegwart-Horst Guenther, Founder/President, Austrian
Yellow Cross International
24. Note From Permanent Mission of Iraq to UN Center for Human
Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, May 21, 1996 (full text)
25. U.S. First to Target Nuclear Reactor (excerpt)
By Suzy T. Kane,Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom; author, The Hidden History of the Persian Gulf War
Section VII: Can a Legal Battle be Waged to Ban DU?
26. The Role of Physicians in the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
(excerpt)
By Dr. Victor Sidel, Co-president, International Physicians for the
Prevention
of Nuclear War; co-editor, War and Public Health
27. UN Subcommission on Human Rights Votes Ban on DU (excerpt)
By Philippa Winkler, attorney; Project Director, Hidden Casualties, The
Environmental, Health and Political Consequences of the Persian Gulf War
28. Depleted Uranium and International Law (excerpt)
By Alyn Ware, Executive Director, Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy
Appendices
Appendix I: Government Documents on DU (under construction)
Appendix II: Ordnance Containing DU (under construction)
Appendix III: Locations Involving DU Research, Testing and Storage
(under construction)
Appendix IV: Report from LAKA Foundation, Netherlands (under
construction)
Appendix V: DU Around the World (under construction)
Appendix VI: International Action Center (full text)
Appendix VII: Organizations and Resources (full text)
--30--
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@...
web: http://www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT SITE
http://www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
*To make a tax-deductible donation,
go to
http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
> http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Contributi e segnalazioni: <jugocoord@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Da oggi su eCircle - Filesharing.
Puoi disporre in ogni gruppo di 20 MB
per documenti, file musicali, films e foto.
Condividili con i soci della tua communita!
http://www.ecircle.it/ad823802/www.ecircle.it