State Challenging Tests For Depleted Uranium


By THOMAS D. WILLIAMS
Courant Staff Writer

July 6 2005

Connecticut is now the second state in the nation to challenge the validity 
of the tests the federal government uses to check military personnel for 
ingested or inhaled depleted uranium dust from U.S. munitions explosions.

The new law requires the state adjutant general and the veterans' affairs 
commissioner to assist Connecticut guardsmen and veterans in obtaining "a 
best practice health screening test for exposure to depleted uranium." Last 
month, Louisiana passed similar, less detailed legislation demanding better 
depleted uranium testing paid for by the federal government.

Connecticut's bill, signed by Gov. Jodi Rell last week, requires the state 
adjutant general to train guardsmen so they can adequately determine 
whether they have been exposed to the dust. It sets up a task force to 
study the health effects of depleted uranium and other hazards wartime 
service members have been exposed to since August 1990. And it requires a 
registry of sick veterans, a plan to help them and a report on the task 
force's operations by the end of January.

Before it became law, the Connecticut bill bounced around from committee to 
committee and its wording was changed several times, but it retained one of 
its central purposes. It challenges a Pentagon and U.S. Department of 
Veterans Affairs urine testing program that some health experts insist is 
insufficient to detect the effects of depleted uranium, and that advocates 
say has tested only a relative few of those exposed to the dust.

One New Haven veteran, Melissa Sterry, 42, a former U.S. Army Specialist, 
who said she suffered multiple illnesses as a result of cleaning tanks and 
other vehicles during the first Persian Gulf War, lobbied the bill at every 
turn. On several occasions, Sterry thought the bill was dead.

"I'm just stunned. I think it is great!" Sterry said Tuesday when she was 
told Rell had signed the bill. "I'm ecstatic that Connecticut has chosen to 
lead the nation in proactive caring for veterans."

State Rep. Roger Michele, a Bristol Democrat and a veteran of the Vietnam 
War, who shepherded the bill through its final stages, said: "I remember 
Agent Orange and the problems our veterans had fighting to get health care 
through the federal bureaucracy. DU is the Agent Orange of the wars in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. And our soldiers have made enough sacrifices while 
risking their lives over there. We need to support them here in saving 
their lives."

Two legislators initially proposed separate portions of the bill. State 
Rep. Patricia Dillon, D-New Haven, called for scientific testing of those 
exposed to depleted uranium dust, while State Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-West 
Haven, chair of the Veterans Committee, proposed the task force to 
supervise efforts at helping veterans.

"I'm thrilled. I think it is a good step forward," said Slossberg, who 
added that the state has to increase its efforts to help veterans as 
federal health services are eliminated. Dillon could not be reached for 
comment Tuesday.

Many veterans' advocates say thousands of service members in both Iraq wars 
and the war in Afghanistan have become seriously ill from the dust from the 
explosions of the DU munitions. The dust was created from tons of U.S. and 
British ammunition and bombs used during those conflicts and in the Balkan 
wars, as well as by the United States in Afghanistan. It can be blown for 
hundreds of miles. If inhaled or ingested, it can cause a host of maladies 
including cancers, kidney disease and birth defects.

Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Give at-risk students the materials they need to succeed at DonorsChoose.org!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Ryu7JD/LpQLAA/E2hLAA/7gSolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [EMAIL PROTECTED]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 


Reply via email to