(english / italiano)
1. Le necroparticelle radioattive (P. Scampa)
2. Official Italian report shows rise in tumours among Balkan troops
3. Information Clearing House: Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
LINK:
The U.S. Military is in DU Denial (Susu Jeffrey)
"My name is John Marshall. I was exposed to DU (depleted uranium). I
am 100 percent disabled and I am pissed-off. In fact, I was advised
by a couple of my counselors not to do this [interview] because I’m
so angry with the government—at the VA system, at the way I’m treated
and other veterans are treated. It’s very impersonal. They don’t give
you any time. They ask us to go fight their wars, do the dirty work
and then they can’t take care of you." Most people don’t believe the
U.S. has been poisoning its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or
they’ve heard about uranium "tipped" bombs—like fingernail polish
painted on the outside of a shell casing. On the contrary, these are
solid uranium core projectiles...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22490&s2=13
=== 1 ===
Paolo Scampa
Membro permanente dell'AIPRI
Associazione Internazionale per la Protezione contro i Raggi Ionizzanti
Le necroparticelle radioattive.
La lenta ed eterna letalità delle nanoparticelle[1] radioattive
disseminate nell'aria mondiale a miliardi di miliardi di miliardi a
seguito delle esplosioni degli ordigni all'uranio "impoverito" è un
fatto planetario tanto drammatico quanto inconfutabile. Vediamone il
perché iniziando dai numeri.
A: Per ottenere 1 Curie, ossia 37.000.000.000 di disintegrazioni
atomiche al secondo o Becquerel, servono 3 tonnellate di U238.
(Nell'ultima guerra del golfo sono state impiegate 3000 tonnellate di
questo “uranio non del tutto impoverito”e già gli analisti del
Pentagono[2] ritengono che le perdite per tumore si aggireranno
attorno al 40-50% dei soldati. Inutile sottolineare che le
popolazioni civili saranno parimenti affette durante millenni[3]. Ma
a chi importa se di là metà degli irakeni creperanno, a chi importa
se di qua nostri figli creperanno a metà[4]? Respirare aria
denuclearizzata non fa parte dei nostri decantati diritti dell'uomo.
Noi siamo i democratici kamikaze atomici. Del resto, perdio, è già
troppo tardi, troppi fallout sono già avvenuti.)
B : 1 grammo di U238 = 12.332 Becquerel (disintegrazioni al secondo).
C: 1 milionesimo di grammo = 0,012332 Becquerel.
D: Le cellule viventi sono senza quella protezione ai tiri
radioattivi alfa interni che la pelle ha rispetto ai tiri alfa
esterni. Venuti dall’esterno del corpo questi tiri possono essere
fermati dalla pelle, venuti tramite la respirazione o l'alimentazione
dall’interno del corpo no. Le cellule non hanno pelle. Bloccata
dentro il corpo in prossimità delle cellule se non dentro di esse una
minuscola particella clandestina e insolubile di un grammo diviso
per 1.000.000 (un grammo diviso per un milione) "regala" in un anno
una irradiazione interna alfa di TRE CENTO OTTANTA MILA Becquerel.
Per capire la radioattività interna bisogna contare i secondi che
passano, e non unicamente considerare l'intensità al secondo di una
radiazione. Prendere la radiazione di un solo secondo come misura di
pericolosità ridicolizza la letalità delle nano-particelle, la
nasconde al pubblico. "Ma che può una particella che emette 0,01 Bq !
Siamo seri !"
Ma è tuttavia proprio in questo silenzio sui milioni di secondi che
abitano un anno che risiede la disinformazione, il negazionismo
assassino, l'abissale ignoranza kamikaze dei nostri dirigenti che
portano la morte atomica a loro stessi, ai loro propri soldati, ai
loro propri figli, alle loro proprie popolazioni, all'intera umanità
e al futuro. E nello scorrere del tempo che si cela in effetti
l'atomica letale verità[5]. E semplice da capire. Il
pericolo risiede nel carattere cronico, ossessivo, interno del
bombardamento ionizzante confinato ad una minuscola zona cellulare in
cui ristagna una insolubile particella. E da lì che sgorga il cancro.
Ad una ionizzazione cronica nessun tessuto resiste, nessuna cellula
trova una restauratrice risposta biologica ad un simile ravvicinato e
ripetuto laceramento. Le sue uniche suicide vie di fuga sono necrosi
e patogene mutazioni genetiche[6] i cui visibili effetti
macroscopici, il cancro, verranno troppo tardi percepiti anni dopo.
E semplice da capire e facile da respirare. Le sottili polveri
radioattive sono contaminanti semi di tumore che abbisognano di
tempo per crescere dentro gli organismi. E crescono e cresceranno
mostruosamente. E semplice da capire. Non è la folgorante morte
atomica di Hiroshima è la lunga agonia radioattiva. Non è
l’istantanea morte da esplosione è la subdola morte da
contaminazione. Inspirare e poi più tardi dolorosamente espirare.
Accanto ad altri[7], gli atomici germogli di agonia alfa sono nell'aria.
Nota.
A: 60 secondi * 60 minuti * 24 ore * 365 giorni = 31.536.000 secondi
all'anno.
B: 0,0123322892 (valore Bq di 1/1.000.000 grammo di U238 -DU-) *
31.536.000 = 388.911 Bq anno.
[1] Caracteristics of particles and particle dispersoids, C.E
Lapple, Stanford Research Institute Journal, Vol 5, p.95, Third
Quarter, 1961 In D.R. Lide, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and physics,
Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, USA, 2006.
[2] World affairs. The journal of international issues. Planet Earth
As Weapon and Target, Leuren Moret http://
www.worldaffairsjournal.com/article1.htm
[3] L'uranio impoverito resterà in Iraq per generazioni, D. Rokke, ex
responsabile del pentagono per il programma per l’uranio impoverito.
http://www.indicius.it/usa_25.htm
Lung cancer epidemic from DU has begun in US, Dr. James Howenstine,
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james43.htm
Depleted Uranium – US Lung Cancer Rates Soar, Karl W B Schwarz,
http://www.rense.com
[4] "Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War 2 result in
contamination of Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic
Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK" - Chris
Busby and Saoirse Morgan
http://www.llrc.org/aldermastrept.pdf
[5] URANIUM and PLUTONIUM aren’t chocolate, M.E. André. http://
users.skynet.be/mauriceandre/
[6] Le bombardement du cytoplasme peut induire des mutations de l'ADN
nucléaire, Charles Day. http://www.raraf.org/sites/larech.htm
Les rayonnements, l‘Adn et la cellule, Clefs CEA, printemps 2000. In
http://www.cea.fr/fr/Publications/clefs2.asp?id=43
The effects of nuclear weapons, S. Glasstone, J. Dolan, 1957. Vedere
capitolo “Internal hazard”
http://www.princeton.edu/~globsec/publications/effects/effects12.pdf
[7] http://www.nanodiagnostics.it
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/cds040606.htm
Official Italian report shows rise in tumours among Balkan troops
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - April 6, 2006 Thursday
Text of report by Marco Nese, entitled "The Defence Ministry's
Report: 158 Cases of Tumours Among the Soldiers in the Balkans"
report by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera website on 5 April;
subheadings as published
Rome: In Bosnia and Kosovo, 28 Italian soldiers died. They did not
lose their lives in military operations, they died because they were
struck by incurable illnesses during the mission in the territories
of the former Yugoslavia. This appalling fact is contained in the
annual report sent by the Defence Minister to parliament.
It is a document which provides a detailed account of the situation
of the armed forces' personnel. A "record of service" that was
instituted for the first time by Giovanni Spadolini, when he was
defence minister.
The annual "record of service" provides an update to last 31
December. As of that date, 158 cases of malignant tumours had been
verified (at the end of 2004, there were 99), which caused, in fact,
28 deaths. On the basis of the medical tests, the most wide-spread
diseases concern thyroid tumours (24 cases), testicular tumours (21
cases), and Hodgkin's Lymphoma, with 20 affected.
The disease
They have called it the "Balkans syndrome", and it has always been
suspected that the fatal illnesses may be connected to the notorious
"depleted uranium" [preceding words in English], depleted uranium [in
vernacular]. In reality, it has never been possible to attribute
complete responsibility with scientific certainty to that metal,
which was contained in the projectiles fired by the fighter planes
during the Kosovo war. As the Pentagon has admitted, a good 11,000 of
them were launched. They were fired at armoured vehicles to penetrate
them, thanks to the enormous impact force of the depleted uranium.
The commission chaired by Professor Mandelli arrived at the
conclusion that the number of deceased was within the national
average. However, the list of the fatal illnesses and the soldiers
who have died in the past five or six years has grown alarmingly
longer. "Really", said Falco Accame, who was chairman of the Defence
Committee, "to trace death with certainty to the depleted uranium is
impossible. But we also do not have the opposite certainty, namely
that depleted uranium is innocent, unrelated to the tragic end of so
many young men."
The research
According to experts, the "Balkans syndrome" may be brought about by
a set of causes, which run from the environment in which the soldiers
operate to the stress that the missions abroad entail. The Pentagon
has recently recognized that the psychophysical stress of the
soldiers can cause serious pathologies, they have called it "battle
fatigue" [preceding words in English], stress from battle.
Whether the stress or the depleted uranium is to blame, the research,
Falco Accame believes, should not be limited to the soldiers employed
in Bosnia and Kosovo but should also be extended to those who operate
in Albania, and especially it should start with the first Gulf War,
which goes back to 1991.
"Fatal cases have been verified both among the soldiers sent at that
time to Kuwait and among those sent to Somalia in 1993. In both
missions, they could have had contact with depleted uranium."
The Defence Ministry created an inquiry commission in 2000 following
disturbing reports of deaths among the men sent abroad. Since then,
anyone who returns from a mission is subjected to careful medical
tests. So far, the examinations have been done on 65,701 soldiers who
were rotated in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Source: Corriere della Sera website, Milan, in Italian 5 Apr 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.
=== 3 ===
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12903.htm
Information Clearing House
Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq
and Afghanistan
By Douglas Westerman
05/01/06
"Vital Truths <http://vitaltruths.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?
post_id=319574>"
In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead
Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons
for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were
discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear
physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for
releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every
month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over
100 million dollars.
Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the
deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S.
Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia,
suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth
defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand
lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe.
People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and
safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest
hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan:
*"Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never
seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient.
For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient
with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later,
primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three
different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in
families. We have 58 families here with more than one person
affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two
uncles,
a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another
specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife
has nine members of her family with cancer".*
*"Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have
a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build
and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone
cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most,
however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on
the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also
common.", *
*"We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the
war.
When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being
pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people
have
been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for
their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we
were accused of being Saddam supporters."*
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University,
and one of the founding editors of *USA TODAY* related the following to
DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news
breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi
citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a
phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has
since been replaced as editor of *USA TODAY.*
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on
radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has
charged that his report " on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from
breathing uranium contaminated dust " was also deliberately suppressed.
The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable,
according to some sources even within the military.
In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of
dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf
Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at
Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying,* *
*"The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie
about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human
body." *
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since
left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a
privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada.
PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and
numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after
returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have
malignancies.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted
uranium after the first Gulf War states:,
*"Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity."*
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the
fine dust. He stated:
*"When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," *
After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without
protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most
others"including Rokke himself"developed serious health problems. Rokke
now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and
kidney problems.
* "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War.
Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.
*
*Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to
make troops seriously ill in most cases."*
Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in
nearly all cases?
Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for
more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought
that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.
*"That's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty
bomb in every way."*
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons
of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one
millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the
bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the
atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100
percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the
"micron size" or smaller, he said.
When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things
and killing people, Falk was more specific:
*"I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of
people." *
When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic
energy is converted to heat " sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From
40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of
ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also
occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in
diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in
cigarette smoke and therefore respirable.
Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure
has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects
due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported.
Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects
that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.
They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their
internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without
spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects
were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons.
Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no
longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it
normal?" The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on* _the
following website
<http://globalecho.org/www.xs4all.nl/%7Estgvisie/VISIE/
extremedeformities.html>_*
*Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre
*stated:
*"Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest
price, the integrity of their DNA."*
Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an
accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the *"Baghdad Diaries"* wrote:
*"Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about
another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die
in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty
percent
of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia."
"The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned
Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come,
the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and
its surrounding areas."*
This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I
(Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but
before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near
major population centers). So, it's 5-6 times worse now than it was
when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U.
which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately
30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered
throughout Iraq.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United
Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has
documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
*"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in
1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a
health
crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if
that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in
Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.*
*I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to
document that. *
* "In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of
what
DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are
terrifying."*
By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can
prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely
human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly
foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with
huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single
eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without
heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside
textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.
Dr. Hardan also states:
*"I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to
come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we*
*Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans
had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world
famous
German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that
he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."*
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are
making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries
who can help. The U.S. Military doesn"t want the rest of the world to
find out what we have done.
Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by
doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU
in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU
for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon
of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until
now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.
Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in
1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are
dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability.
This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56
percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have
medical problems.
Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo
tribunal, guided by the principles of _*International Criminal Law
<http://www.icc-cpi.int/php/show.php?id=home&l=EN>*_ and _*International
Humanitarian Law <http://www.icrc.org/eng/ihl>*_, found President George
W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi,
reported in *_The Japan Times
<http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040314a5.htm>_*
that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with
indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the *"tribunal also issued
recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons
that indiscriminately harm people." *Although this was a "Citizen's
Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their
determination that international laws have been violated and a war
crimes conviction is warranted.
Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting
symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company
serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd
Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical
ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn
housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches,
constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined
and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost
certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells
manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of
two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers.
If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos
and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled
depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and
correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched
to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard
duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire
company is due to return home later this month.
"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were
military police not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf
Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing.
In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born
without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust.
In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of
the children conceived after the war had birth defects.
Dr. Durakovic's UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field
trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of
substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses
of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf.
Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water
samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of
radiation.
"This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium
was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The
Japan Times.
"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted
Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said
*"They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by
using
weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under
international law."*
(NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then
he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has
also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very
keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard
Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of *_Military
Medicine Medical Journal._* The study is believed to be the first to
look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive
technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to
easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which
examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf
War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27
veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung
and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has
been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said
in an interview.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the
summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the
scale on many occasions*. *During their visit,a local hospital was
treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered
symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. *_600 children per day?
_*How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and
painful death?
*"Ingested DU particles can cause up to_ 1,000 times the damage of an
X-ray_", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at
the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.*
It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust's crystalline
structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an
extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the
natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed
every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being
stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is
misleading.
The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study
which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners.
Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of
lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the
substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust
produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades,
dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through
the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War
veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of
ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from
natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely
excreted by the body within 24 hours.*_ _*
The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code.
A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for
the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md.,
indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1 million times more
genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than
micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British
toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity
of the nano-particle is due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon
(0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill
effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15
minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.
"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by
inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher.
"Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body.
Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous
exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier
directly into the blood.
"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory
bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they
migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers
exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain
damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the
mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and
transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.
Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to
approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For
the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams.
Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to
determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring
from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to
about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each
year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses
floating around Iraq and Afghanistan.
How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the
first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates
for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict.
It calculated that *"_this could cause "500,000 potential deaths"._*
This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a
significant problem".
The AEA's calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized
munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number
of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a
British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were fired in
the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely
that the local population would have been exposed to any significant
amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to
the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU
munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most
populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf
War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used
near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount
used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major
towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount
gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU
dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of
Iraq's total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for
IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust
is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is
greater than Iraq.
What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly
dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces
serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry
left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in
marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.
He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor
control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain,
difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle
pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his
death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and
bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and
struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper
diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath
his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain
conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of _depleted uranium_
dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out
there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan
civilians?
Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan
civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what
we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely
ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple
cancers.
Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply
base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the
National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and
other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them
for storage.
She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and
debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a
telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium
she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust
the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not
Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill.
In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to
investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott
Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a
vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been
destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing
his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward
the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If
the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq,
wouldn"t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority?
The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and
inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally
deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm
after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court
found President Bush guilty of war crimes.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study
into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in
the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They
found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was
before the recent invasion.
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by
numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used
was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
*FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN*
Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but
widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a
large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium
Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine
residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC
field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering
from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which
are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To
investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation
sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples,
transporting them to an independent research lab in England.
UMRC's Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of
radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium
contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local
civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from
the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal
passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations
presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims
reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders
and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle
weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and
disorientation.
Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The
first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The
second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the
capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The
city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during
_Operation Enduring Freedom_. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of
three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures
of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil
samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock
of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was
causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of
Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for
normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian
studies before.
Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing
showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure.
These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness,
memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the
bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and
blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful
and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of
similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days
or months.
In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the
results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine
specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific
results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination;
concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War
Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. _*"We t*_*_ook both
soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine
samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They
were beyond our wildest imagination."_*
In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a
broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than
initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the
affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born
babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders
reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill.
How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC
field report reads:
*"The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health
impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every
bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the
civilian population presents symptoms* *consistent with internal
contamination by uranium*."
In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high
concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being
much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a
testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing
high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
"A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by
going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a
huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of
them being children.
The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers
but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases.
Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing.
------------------------------------
According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health
Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to
exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health
Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states *"The total of 109 casualties
exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road
accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting
out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there
due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium".*
Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in
order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at
reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".
There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there
for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the
total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that
would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same
contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.
The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies
published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation
program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of
science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy
the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories.
UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted
Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has
subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium
in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples
donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on
Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to
be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate
between government and independent experts in which public interest is
stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific
and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and
misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC,
DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and
manufacturers).
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who
examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003,
said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are
many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a
result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to
10 years."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President
Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was
a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military
objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long
term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.
Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory
to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified
by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to
immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also
demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals.
*CONCLUSIONS:*
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that
ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects
over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against
humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and
severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq
and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is
so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer
trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the
Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few
Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something
much worse in his place.
1. Le necroparticelle radioattive (P. Scampa)
2. Official Italian report shows rise in tumours among Balkan troops
3. Information Clearing House: Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
LINK:
The U.S. Military is in DU Denial (Susu Jeffrey)
"My name is John Marshall. I was exposed to DU (depleted uranium). I
am 100 percent disabled and I am pissed-off. In fact, I was advised
by a couple of my counselors not to do this [interview] because I’m
so angry with the government—at the VA system, at the way I’m treated
and other veterans are treated. It’s very impersonal. They don’t give
you any time. They ask us to go fight their wars, do the dirty work
and then they can’t take care of you." Most people don’t believe the
U.S. has been poisoning its own troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or
they’ve heard about uranium "tipped" bombs—like fingernail polish
painted on the outside of a shell casing. On the contrary, these are
solid uranium core projectiles...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=22490&s2=13
=== 1 ===
Paolo Scampa
Membro permanente dell'AIPRI
Associazione Internazionale per la Protezione contro i Raggi Ionizzanti
Le necroparticelle radioattive.
La lenta ed eterna letalità delle nanoparticelle[1] radioattive
disseminate nell'aria mondiale a miliardi di miliardi di miliardi a
seguito delle esplosioni degli ordigni all'uranio "impoverito" è un
fatto planetario tanto drammatico quanto inconfutabile. Vediamone il
perché iniziando dai numeri.
A: Per ottenere 1 Curie, ossia 37.000.000.000 di disintegrazioni
atomiche al secondo o Becquerel, servono 3 tonnellate di U238.
(Nell'ultima guerra del golfo sono state impiegate 3000 tonnellate di
questo “uranio non del tutto impoverito”e già gli analisti del
Pentagono[2] ritengono che le perdite per tumore si aggireranno
attorno al 40-50% dei soldati. Inutile sottolineare che le
popolazioni civili saranno parimenti affette durante millenni[3]. Ma
a chi importa se di là metà degli irakeni creperanno, a chi importa
se di qua nostri figli creperanno a metà[4]? Respirare aria
denuclearizzata non fa parte dei nostri decantati diritti dell'uomo.
Noi siamo i democratici kamikaze atomici. Del resto, perdio, è già
troppo tardi, troppi fallout sono già avvenuti.)
B : 1 grammo di U238 = 12.332 Becquerel (disintegrazioni al secondo).
C: 1 milionesimo di grammo = 0,012332 Becquerel.
D: Le cellule viventi sono senza quella protezione ai tiri
radioattivi alfa interni che la pelle ha rispetto ai tiri alfa
esterni. Venuti dall’esterno del corpo questi tiri possono essere
fermati dalla pelle, venuti tramite la respirazione o l'alimentazione
dall’interno del corpo no. Le cellule non hanno pelle. Bloccata
dentro il corpo in prossimità delle cellule se non dentro di esse una
minuscola particella clandestina e insolubile di un grammo diviso
per 1.000.000 (un grammo diviso per un milione) "regala" in un anno
una irradiazione interna alfa di TRE CENTO OTTANTA MILA Becquerel.
Per capire la radioattività interna bisogna contare i secondi che
passano, e non unicamente considerare l'intensità al secondo di una
radiazione. Prendere la radiazione di un solo secondo come misura di
pericolosità ridicolizza la letalità delle nano-particelle, la
nasconde al pubblico. "Ma che può una particella che emette 0,01 Bq !
Siamo seri !"
Ma è tuttavia proprio in questo silenzio sui milioni di secondi che
abitano un anno che risiede la disinformazione, il negazionismo
assassino, l'abissale ignoranza kamikaze dei nostri dirigenti che
portano la morte atomica a loro stessi, ai loro propri soldati, ai
loro propri figli, alle loro proprie popolazioni, all'intera umanità
e al futuro. E nello scorrere del tempo che si cela in effetti
l'atomica letale verità[5]. E semplice da capire. Il
pericolo risiede nel carattere cronico, ossessivo, interno del
bombardamento ionizzante confinato ad una minuscola zona cellulare in
cui ristagna una insolubile particella. E da lì che sgorga il cancro.
Ad una ionizzazione cronica nessun tessuto resiste, nessuna cellula
trova una restauratrice risposta biologica ad un simile ravvicinato e
ripetuto laceramento. Le sue uniche suicide vie di fuga sono necrosi
e patogene mutazioni genetiche[6] i cui visibili effetti
macroscopici, il cancro, verranno troppo tardi percepiti anni dopo.
E semplice da capire e facile da respirare. Le sottili polveri
radioattive sono contaminanti semi di tumore che abbisognano di
tempo per crescere dentro gli organismi. E crescono e cresceranno
mostruosamente. E semplice da capire. Non è la folgorante morte
atomica di Hiroshima è la lunga agonia radioattiva. Non è
l’istantanea morte da esplosione è la subdola morte da
contaminazione. Inspirare e poi più tardi dolorosamente espirare.
Accanto ad altri[7], gli atomici germogli di agonia alfa sono nell'aria.
Nota.
A: 60 secondi * 60 minuti * 24 ore * 365 giorni = 31.536.000 secondi
all'anno.
B: 0,0123322892 (valore Bq di 1/1.000.000 grammo di U238 -DU-) *
31.536.000 = 388.911 Bq anno.
[1] Caracteristics of particles and particle dispersoids, C.E
Lapple, Stanford Research Institute Journal, Vol 5, p.95, Third
Quarter, 1961 In D.R. Lide, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and physics,
Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, USA, 2006.
[2] World affairs. The journal of international issues. Planet Earth
As Weapon and Target, Leuren Moret http://
www.worldaffairsjournal.com/article1.htm
[3] L'uranio impoverito resterà in Iraq per generazioni, D. Rokke, ex
responsabile del pentagono per il programma per l’uranio impoverito.
http://www.indicius.it/usa_25.htm
Lung cancer epidemic from DU has begun in US, Dr. James Howenstine,
http://www.newswithviews.com/Howenstine/james43.htm
Depleted Uranium – US Lung Cancer Rates Soar, Karl W B Schwarz,
http://www.rense.com
[4] "Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War 2 result in
contamination of Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic
Weapons Establishment (AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK" - Chris
Busby and Saoirse Morgan
http://www.llrc.org/aldermastrept.pdf
[5] URANIUM and PLUTONIUM aren’t chocolate, M.E. André. http://
users.skynet.be/mauriceandre/
[6] Le bombardement du cytoplasme peut induire des mutations de l'ADN
nucléaire, Charles Day. http://www.raraf.org/sites/larech.htm
Les rayonnements, l‘Adn et la cellule, Clefs CEA, printemps 2000. In
http://www.cea.fr/fr/Publications/clefs2.asp?id=43
The effects of nuclear weapons, S. Glasstone, J. Dolan, 1957. Vedere
capitolo “Internal hazard”
http://www.princeton.edu/~globsec/publications/effects/effects12.pdf
[7] http://www.nanodiagnostics.it
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/cds040606.htm
Official Italian report shows rise in tumours among Balkan troops
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - April 6, 2006 Thursday
Text of report by Marco Nese, entitled "The Defence Ministry's
Report: 158 Cases of Tumours Among the Soldiers in the Balkans"
report by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera website on 5 April;
subheadings as published
Rome: In Bosnia and Kosovo, 28 Italian soldiers died. They did not
lose their lives in military operations, they died because they were
struck by incurable illnesses during the mission in the territories
of the former Yugoslavia. This appalling fact is contained in the
annual report sent by the Defence Minister to parliament.
It is a document which provides a detailed account of the situation
of the armed forces' personnel. A "record of service" that was
instituted for the first time by Giovanni Spadolini, when he was
defence minister.
The annual "record of service" provides an update to last 31
December. As of that date, 158 cases of malignant tumours had been
verified (at the end of 2004, there were 99), which caused, in fact,
28 deaths. On the basis of the medical tests, the most wide-spread
diseases concern thyroid tumours (24 cases), testicular tumours (21
cases), and Hodgkin's Lymphoma, with 20 affected.
The disease
They have called it the "Balkans syndrome", and it has always been
suspected that the fatal illnesses may be connected to the notorious
"depleted uranium" [preceding words in English], depleted uranium [in
vernacular]. In reality, it has never been possible to attribute
complete responsibility with scientific certainty to that metal,
which was contained in the projectiles fired by the fighter planes
during the Kosovo war. As the Pentagon has admitted, a good 11,000 of
them were launched. They were fired at armoured vehicles to penetrate
them, thanks to the enormous impact force of the depleted uranium.
The commission chaired by Professor Mandelli arrived at the
conclusion that the number of deceased was within the national
average. However, the list of the fatal illnesses and the soldiers
who have died in the past five or six years has grown alarmingly
longer. "Really", said Falco Accame, who was chairman of the Defence
Committee, "to trace death with certainty to the depleted uranium is
impossible. But we also do not have the opposite certainty, namely
that depleted uranium is innocent, unrelated to the tragic end of so
many young men."
The research
According to experts, the "Balkans syndrome" may be brought about by
a set of causes, which run from the environment in which the soldiers
operate to the stress that the missions abroad entail. The Pentagon
has recently recognized that the psychophysical stress of the
soldiers can cause serious pathologies, they have called it "battle
fatigue" [preceding words in English], stress from battle.
Whether the stress or the depleted uranium is to blame, the research,
Falco Accame believes, should not be limited to the soldiers employed
in Bosnia and Kosovo but should also be extended to those who operate
in Albania, and especially it should start with the first Gulf War,
which goes back to 1991.
"Fatal cases have been verified both among the soldiers sent at that
time to Kuwait and among those sent to Somalia in 1993. In both
missions, they could have had contact with depleted uranium."
The Defence Ministry created an inquiry commission in 2000 following
disturbing reports of deaths among the men sent abroad. Since then,
anyone who returns from a mission is subjected to careful medical
tests. So far, the examinations have been done on 65,701 soldiers who
were rotated in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Source: Corriere della Sera website, Milan, in Italian 5 Apr 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.
=== 3 ===
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12903.htm
Information Clearing House
Depleted Uranium - Far Worse Than 9/11
Depleted Uranium Dust - Public Health Disaster For The People Of Iraq
and Afghanistan
By Douglas Westerman
05/01/06
"Vital Truths <http://vitaltruths.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?
post_id=319574>"
In 1979, depleted uranium (DU) particles escaped from the National Lead
Industries factory near Albany, N.Y.,which was manufacturing DU weapons
for the U.S military. The particles traveled 26 miles and were
discovered in a laboratory filter by Dr. Leonard Dietz, a nuclear
physicist. This discovery led to a shut down of the factory in 1980, for
releasing morethan 0.85 pounds of DU dust into the atmosphere every
month, and involved a cleanup of contaminated properties costing over
100 million dollars.
Imagine a far worse scenario. Terrorists acquire a million pounds of the
deadly dust and scatter it in populated areas throughout the U.S.
Hundreds of children report symptoms. Many acquire cancer and leukemia,
suffering an early and painful death. Huge increases in severe birth
defects are reported. Oncologists are overwhelmed. Soccer fields, sand
lots and parks, traditional play areas for kids, are no longer safe.
People lose their most basic freedom, the ability to go outside and
safely breathe. Sounds worse than 9/11? Welcome to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali (55), director of the Oncology Center at the largest
hospital in Basra, Iraq stated, at a recent ( 2003) conference in Japan:
*"Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never
seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient.
For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient
with 2 cancers - one in his stomach and kidney. Months later,
primary cancer was developing in his other kidney--he had three
different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in
families. We have 58 families here with more than one person
affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two
uncles,
a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another
specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife
has nine members of her family with cancer".*
*"Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have
a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build
and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone
cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most,
however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on
the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also
common.", *
*"We were accused of spreading propaganda for Saddam before the
war.
When I have gone to do talks I have had people accuse me of being
pro-Saddam. Sometimes I feel afraid to even talk. Regime people
have
been stealing my data and calling it their own, and using it for
their own agendas. The Kuwaitis banned me from entering Kuwait - we
were accused of being Saddam supporters."*
John Hanchette, a journalism professor at St. Bonaventure University,
and one of the founding editors of *USA TODAY* related the following to
DU researcher Leuren Moret. He stated that he had prepared news
breaking stories about the effects of DU on Gulf War soldiers and Iraqi
citizens, but that each time he was ready to publish, he received a
phone call from the Pentagon asking him not to print the story. He has
since been replaced as editor of *USA TODAY.*
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on
radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has
charged that his report " on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from
breathing uranium contaminated dust " was also deliberately suppressed.
The information released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense is not reliable,
according to some sources even within the military.
In 1997, while citing experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of
dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs, Dr. Asaf
Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at
Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying,* *
*"The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie
about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human
body." *
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since
left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a
privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada.
PFC Stuart Grainger of 23 Army Division, 34th Platoon. (Names and
numbers have been changed) was diagnosed with cancer several after
returning from Iraq. Seven other men in the Platoon also have
malignancies.
Doug Rokke, U.S. Army contractor who headed a clean-up of depleted
uranium after the first Gulf War states:,
*"Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity."*
Rokke's own crew, a hundred employees, was devastated by exposure to the
fine dust. He stated:
*"When we went to the Gulf, we were all really healthy," *
After performing clean-up operations in the desert (mistakenly without
protective gear), 30 members of his staff died, and most
others"including Rokke himself"developed serious health problems. Rokke
now has reactive airway disease, neurological damage, cataracts, and
kidney problems.
* "We warned the Department of Defense in 1991 after the Gulf War.
Their arrogance is beyond comprehension.
*
*Yet the D.O.D still insists such ingestion is "not sufficient to
make troops seriously ill in most cases."*
Then why did it make the clean up crew seriously or terminally ill in
nearly all cases?
Marion Falk, a retired chemical physicist who built nuclear bombs for
more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore Lab, was asked if he thought
that DU weapons operate in a similar manner as a dirty bomb.
*"That's exactly what they are. They fit the description of a dirty
bomb in every way."*
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons
of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one
millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the
bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the
atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100
percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the
"micron size" or smaller, he said.
When asked if the main purpose for using it was for destroying things
and killing people, Falk was more specific:
*"I would say that it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of
people." *
When a DU round or bomb strikes a hard target, most of its kinetic
energy is converted to heat " sufficient heat to ignite the DU. From
40% to 70% of the DU is converted to extremely fine dust particles of
ceramic uranium oxide (primarily dioxide, though other formulations also
occur). Over 60% of these particles are smaller than 5 microns in
diameter, about the same size as the cigarette ash particles in
cigarette smoke and therefore respirable.
Because conditions are so chaotic in Iraq, the medical infrastructure
has been greatly compromised. In terms of both cancer and birth defects
due to DU, only a small fraction of the cases are being reported.
Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects
that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.
They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their
internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without
spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects
were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons.
Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no
longer asking, "Doctor, is it a boy or girl?" but rather, "Doctor, is it
normal?" The photos are horrendous, they can be viewed on* _the
following website
<http://globalecho.org/www.xs4all.nl/%7Estgvisie/VISIE/
extremedeformities.html>_*
*Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre
*stated:
*"Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest
price, the integrity of their DNA."*
Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an
accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the *"Baghdad Diaries"* wrote:
*"Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about
another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die
in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty
percent
of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia."
"The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned
Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come,
the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and
its surrounding areas."*
This excerpt in her diary was written in 1993, after Gulf War I
(Approximately 300 tons of DU ordinance, mostly in desert areas) but
before Operation Iraqi Freedom, (Est. 1,700 tons with much more near
major population centers). So, it's 5-6 times worse now than it was
when she wrote than diary entry!! Estimates of the percentage of D.U.
which was 'aerosolized' into fine uranium oxide dust are approximately
30-40%. That works out to over one million pounds of dust scattered
throughout Iraq.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United
Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has
documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
*"American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in
1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a
health
crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if
that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in
Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.*
*I don"t know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to
document that. *
* "In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of
what
DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are
terrifying."*
By far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can
prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved fetuses " scarcely
human in appearance. Iraq is now seeing babies with terribly
foreshortened limbs, with their intestines outside their bodies, with
huge bulging tumors where their eyes should be, or with a single
eye-like Cyclops, or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without
heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost unknown outside
textbooks showing the babies born near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.
Dr. Hardan also states:
*"I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to
come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we*
*Are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans
had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world
famous
German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that
he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."*
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are
making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries
who can help. The U.S. Military doesn"t want the rest of the world to
find out what we have done.
Such relatively swift development of cancers has been reported by
doctors in hospitals treating civilians following NATO bombing with DU
in Yugoslavia in 1998-1999 and the US military invasion of Iraq using DU
for the first time in 1991. Medical experts report that this phenomenon
of multiple malignancies from unrelated causes has been unknown until
now and is a new syndrome associated with internal DU exposure.
Just 467 US personnel were wounded in the three-week Persian Gulf War in
1990-1991. Out of 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, 11,000 are
dead, and by 2000 there were 325,000 on permanent medical disability.
This astounding number of disabled vets means that a decade later, 56
percent of those soldiers who served in the first Gulf War now have
medical problems.
Although not reported in the mainstream American press, a recent Tokyo
tribunal, guided by the principles of _*International Criminal Law
<http://www.icc-cpi.int/php/show.php?id=home&l=EN>*_ and _*International
Humanitarian Law <http://www.icrc.org/eng/ihl>*_, found President George
W. Bush guilty of war crimes. On March 14, 2004, Nao Shimoyachi,
reported in *_The Japan Times
<http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040314a5.htm>_*
that President Bush was found guilty "for attacking civilians with
indiscriminate weapons and other arms,"and the *"tribunal also issued
recommendations for banning Depleted Uranium shells and other weapons
that indiscriminately harm people." *Although this was a "Citizen's
Court" having no legal authority, the participants were sincere in their
determination that international laws have been violated and a war
crimes conviction is warranted.
Troops involved in actual combat are not the only servicemen reporting
symptoms. Four soldiers from a New York Army National Guard company
serving in Iraq are among several members of the same company, the 442nd
Military Police, who say they have been battling persistent physical
ailments that began last summer in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
"I got sick instantly in June," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, a Brooklyn
housing cop. "My health kept going downhill with daily headaches,
constant numbness in my hands and rashes on my stomach."
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, UMRC founder, and nuclear medicine expert examined
and tested nine soldiers from the company says that four "almost
certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded American shells
manufactured with depleted uranium. Laboratory tests revealed traces of
two manmade forms of uranium in urine samples from four of the soldiers.
If so, the men - Sgt. Hector Vega, Sgt. Ray Ramos, Sgt. Agustin Matos
and Cpl. Anthony Yonnone - are the first confirmed cases of inhaled
depleted uranium exposure from the current Iraq conflict.
The 442nd, made up for the most part of New York cops, firefighters and
correction officers, is based in Orangeburg, Rockland County. Dispatched
to Iraq in Easter of 2003, the unit's members had been providing guard
duty for convoys, running jails and training Iraqi police. The entire
company is due to return home later this month.
"These are amazing results, especially since these soldiers were
military police not exposed to the heat of battle," said Dr. Asaf
Duracovic, who examined the G.I.s and performed the testing.
In a group of eight U.S. led Coalition servicemen whose babies were born
without eyes, seven are known to have been directly exposed to DU dust.
In a much group (250 soldiers) exposed during the first Gulf war, 67% of
the children conceived after the war had birth defects.
Dr. Durakovic's UMRC research team also conducted a three-week field
trip to Iraq in October of 2003. It collected about 100 samples of
substances such as soil, civilian urine and the tissue from the corpses
of Iraqi soldiers in 10 cities, including Baghdad, Basra and Najaf.
Durakovic said preliminary tests show that the air, soil and water
samples contained "hundreds to thousands of times" the normal levels of
radiation.
"This high level of contamination is because much more depleted uranium
was used this year than in (the Gulf War of) 1991," Durakovic told The
Japan Times.
"They are hampering efforts to prove the connection between Depleted
Uranium and the illness," Durakovic said
*"They do not want to admit that they committed war crimes" by
using
weapons that kill indiscriminately, which are banned under
international law."*
(NOTE ABOUT DR. DURAKOVIC; First, he was warned to stop his work, then
he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has
also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very
keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard
Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of *_Military
Medicine Medical Journal._* The study is believed to be the first to
look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultrasensitive
technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to
easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which
examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf
War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27
veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung
and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has
been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said
in an interview.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in the southern Iraq in the
summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the
scale on many occasions*. *During their visit,a local hospital was
treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered
symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. *_600 children per day?
_*How many of these children will get cancer and suffer and early and
painful death?
*"Ingested DU particles can cause up to_ 1,000 times the damage of an
X-ray_", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at
the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.*
It is this difference in particle size as well as the dust's crystalline
structure that make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an
extreme hazard, and which differentiates its properties from that of the
natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed
every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being
stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is
misleading.
The U.S. Military and its supporters regularly quote a Rand Corp. Study
which uses the natural uranium inhaled by miners.
Particles smaller than 10 microns can access the innermost recesses of
lung tissue where they become permanently lodged. Furthermore, if the
substance is relatively insoluble, such as the ceramic DU-oxide dust
produced from burning DU, it will remain in place for decades,
dissolving very slowly into the bloodstream and lymphatic fluids through
the course of time. Studies have identified DU in the urine of Gulf War
veterans nine years after that conflict, testifying to the permanence of
ceramic DU-oxide in the lungs. Thus the effects are far different from
natural uranium dust, whose coarse particles are almost entirely
excreted by the body within 24 hours.*_ _*
The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code.
A 2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for
the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md.,
indicates that DU's chemical instability causes 1 million times more
genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than
micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British
toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity
of the nano-particle is due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon
(0.13 microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill
effects. But when mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15
minutes, nearly all the mice died within 4 hours.
"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by
inhalation, and ingestion," writes Lauren Moret, another DU researcher.
"Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body.
Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous
exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier
directly into the blood.
"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory
bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they
migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf era soldiers
exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain
damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the
mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and
transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.
Based on dissolution and excretion rate data, it is possible to
approximate the amount of DU initially inhaled by these veterans. For
the handful of veterans studied, this amount averaged 0.34 milligrams.
Knowing the specific activity (radiation rate) for DU allows one to
determine that the total radiation (alpha, beta and gamma) occurring
from DU and its radioactive decay products within their bodies comes to
about 26 radiation events every second, or 800 million events each
year. At .34 milligrams per dose, there are over 10 trillion doses
floating around Iraq and Afghanistan.
How many additional deaths are we talking about? In the aftermath of the
first Gulf War, the UK Atomic Energy Authority came up with estimates
for the potential effects of the DU contamination left by the conflict.
It calculated that *"_this could cause "500,000 potential deaths"._*
This was "a theoretical figure", it stressed, that indicated "a
significant problem".
The AEA's calculation was made in a confidential memo to the privatized
munitions company, Royal Ordnance, dated 30 April 1991. The high number
of potential deaths was dismissed as "very far from realistic" by a
British defense minister, Lord Gilbert. "Since the rounds were fired in
the desert, many miles from the nearest village, it is highly unlikely
that the local population would have been exposed to any significant
amount of respirable oxide," he said. These remarks were made prior to
the more recent invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, where DU
munitions were used on a larger scale in and near many of the most
populated areas. If the amount of DU ordinance used in the first Gulf
War was sufficient to cause 500,000 potential deaths, (had it been used
near the populated areas), then what of the nearly six times that amount
used in operation Iraqi Freedom, which was used in and near the major
towns and cities? Extrapolating the U.K. AEA estimate with this amount
gives a figure of potentially 3 million extra deaths from inhaling DU
dust in Iraq alone, not including Afghanistan. This is about 11% of
Iraq's total population of 27 million. Dan Bishop, Ph.d chemist for
IDUST feels that this estimate may be low, if the long life of DU dust
is considered. In Afghanistan, the concentration in some areas is
greater than Iraq.
What can an otherwise healthy person expect when inhaling the deadly
dust? Captain Terry Riordon was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces
serving in Gulf War I. He passed away in April 1999 at age 45. Terry
left Canada a very fit man who did cross-country skiing and ran in
marathons. On his return only two months later he could barely walk.
He returned to Canada in February 1991 with documented loss of motor
control, chronic fatigue, respiratory difficulties, chest pain,
difficulty breathing, sleep problems, short-term memory loss, testicle
pain, body pains, aching bones, diarrhea, and depression. After his
death, depleted uranium contamination was discovered in his lungs and
bones. For eight years he suffered his innumerable ailments and
struggled with the military bureaucracy and the system to get proper
diagnosis and treatment. He had arranged, upon his death, to bequeath
his body to the UMRC. Through his gift, the UMRC was able to obtain
conclusive evidence that inhaling fine particles of _depleted uranium_
dust completely destroyed his heath. How many Terry Riordans are out
there among the troops being exposed, not to mention Iraqi and Afghan
civilians?
Inhaling the dust will not kill large numbers of Iraqi and Afghan
civilians right away, any more than it did Captain Riordan. Rather, what
we will see is vast numbers of people who are chronically and severely
ill, having their life spans drastically shortened, many with multiple
cancers.
Melissa Sterry, another sick veteran, served for six months at a supply
base in Kuwait during the winter of 1991-92. Part of her job with the
National Guard's Combat Equipment Company "A" was to clean out tanks and
other armored vehicles that had been used during the war, preparing them
for storage.
She said she swept out the armored vehicles, cleaning up dust, sand and
debris, sometimes being ordered to help bury contaminated parts. In a
telephone interview, she stated that after researching depleted uranium
she chose not to take the military's test because she could not trust
the results. It is alarming that Melissa was stationed in Kuwait, not
Iraq. Cleaning out tanks with DU dust was enough to make her ill.
In, 2003, the Christian Science Monitor sent reporters to Iraq to
investigate long-term effects of depleted uranium. Staff writer Scott
Peterson saw children playing on top of a burnt-out tank near a
vegetable stand on the outskirts of Baghdad, a tank that had been
destroyed by armor-piercing shells coated with depleted uranium. Wearing
his mask and protective clothing, he pointed his Geiger counter toward
the tank. It registered 1,000 times the normal background radiation. If
the troops were on a mission of mercy to bring democracy to Iraq,
wouldn"t keeping children away from such dangers be the top priority?
The laws of war prohibit the use of weapons that have deadly and
inhumane effects beyond the field of battle. Nor can weapons be legally
deployed in war when they are known to remain active, or cause harm
after the war concludes. It is no surprise that the Japanese Court
found President Bush guilty of war crimes.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study
into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in
the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They
found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was
before the recent invasion.
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by
numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used
was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
*FIELD STUDY RESULTS FROM AFGHANISTAN*
Verifiable statistics for Iraq will remain elusive for some time, but
widespread field studies in Afghanistan point to the existence of a
large scale public health disaster. In May of 2002, the UMRC (Uranium
Medical Research Center) sent a field team to interview and examine
residents and internally displaced people in Afghanistan. The UMRC
field team began by first identifying several hundred people suffering
from illnesses and medical conditions displaying clinical symptoms which
are considered to be characteristic of radiation exposure. To
investigate the possibility that the symptoms were due to radiation
sickness, the UMRC team collected urine specimens and soil samples,
transporting them to an independent research lab in England.
UMRC's Field Team found Afghan civilians with acute symptoms of
radiation poisoning, along with chronic symptoms of internal uranium
contamination, including congenital problems in newborns. Local
civilians reported large, dense dust clouds and smoke plumes rising from
the point of impact, an acrid smell, followed by burning of the nasal
passages, throat and upper respiratory tract. Subjects in all locations
presented identical symptom profiles and chronologies. The victims
reported symptoms including pain in the cervical column, upper shoulders
and basal area of the skull, lower back/kidney pain, joint and muscle
weakness, sleeping difficulties, headaches, memory problems and
disorientation.
Two additional scientific study teams were sent to Afghanistan. The
first arrived in June 2002, concentrating on the Jalalabad region. The
second arrived four months later, broadening the study to include the
capital Kabul, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million people. The
city itself contains the highest recorded number of fixed targets during
_Operation Enduring Freedom_. For the study's purposes, the vicinity of
three major bomb sites were examined. It was predicted that signatures
of depleted or enriched uranium would be found in the urine and soil
samples taken during the research. The team was unprepared for the shock
of its findings, which indicated in both Jalalabad and Kabul, DU was
causing the high levels of illness. Tests taken from a number of
Jalalabad subjects showed concentrations 400% to 2000% above that for
normal populations, amounts which have not been recorded in civilian
studies before.
Those in Kabul who were directly exposed to US-British precision bombing
showed extreme signs of contamination, consistent with uranium exposure.
These included pains in joints, back/kidney pain, muscle weakness,
memory problems and confusion and disorientation. Those exposed to the
bombing report symptoms of flu-type illnesses, bleeding, runny noses and
blood-stained mucous. How many of these people will suffer a painful
and early death from cancer? Even the study team itself complained of
similar symptoms during their stay. Most of these symptoms last for days
or months.
In August of 2002, UMRC completed its preliminary analysis of the
results from Nangarhar. Without exception, every person donating urine
specimens tested positive for uranium contamination. The specific
results indicated an astoundingly high level of contamination;
concentrations were 100 to 400 times greater than those of the Gulf War
Veterans tested in 1999. A researcher reported. _*"We t*_*_ook both
soil and biological samples, and found considerable presence in urine
samples of radioactivity; the heavy concentration astonished us. They
were beyond our wildest imagination."_*
In the fall of 2002, the UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a
broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than
initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the
affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born
babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders
reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill.
How widespread and extensive is the exposure? A quote from the UMRC
field report reads:
*"The UMRC field team was shocked by the breadth of public health
impacts coincident with the bombing. Without exception, at every
bombsite investigated, people are ill. A significant portion of the
civilian population presents symptoms* *consistent with internal
contamination by uranium*."
In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high
concentrations of NON-DEPLETED URANIUM, with the concentrations being
much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a
testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing
high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
"A significant portion of the civilian population"? It appears that by
going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a
huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of
them being children.
The military has found depleted uranium in the urine of some soldiers
but contends it was not enough to make them seriously ill in most cases.
Critics have asked for more sensitive, more expensive testing.
------------------------------------
According to an October 2004 Dispatch from the Italian Military Health
Observatory, a total of 109 Italian soldiers have died thus far due to
exposure to depleted uranium. A spokesman at the Military Health
Observatory, Domenico Leggiero, states *"The total of 109 casualties
exceeds the total number of persons dying as a consequence of road
accidents. Anyone denying the significance of such data is purely acting
out of ill faith, and the truth is that our soldiers are dying out there
due to a lack of adequate protection against depleted uranium".*
Members of the Observatory have petitioned for an urgent hearing "in
order to study effective prevention and safeguard measures aimed at
reducing the death-toll amongst our serving soldiers".
There were only 3,000 Italian soldiers sent to Iraq, and they were there
for a short time. The number of 109 represents about 3.6% of the
total. If the same percentage of Iraqis get a similar exposure, that
would amount to 936,000. As Iraqis are permanently living in the same
contaminated environment, their percentage will be higher.
The Pentagon/DoD have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies
published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation
program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of
science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy
the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories.
UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted
Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has
subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium
in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples
donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on
Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to
be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate
between government and independent experts in which public interest is
stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific
and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and
misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC,
DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and
manufacturers).
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who
examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003,
said : "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are
many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a
result of the Iraq war, the situation will be desperate in some five to
10 years."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President
Bush gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was
a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military
objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long
term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering.
Two years ago, President Bush withdrew the United States as a signatory
to the International Criminal Court's statute, which has been ratified
by all other Western democracies. The White House actually seeks to
immunize U.S. leaders from war crimes prosecutions entirely. It has also
demanded express immunity from ICC prosecution for American nationals.
*CONCLUSIONS:*
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that
ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects
over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against
humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and
severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq
and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is
so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breath, then the outer
trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the
Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few
Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something
much worse in his place.