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! 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