US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
No health risk from DU? This must rate as the biggest lie of all time as the
deadly effects of DU are so well documented that even a dead headed dunce
knows that this is a lie!
I propose an experiment to determine the truth ; we reduce a couple of
charm rounds to dust and we ask those who claim they are harmless to inhale
and ingest the dust..........................If they refuse we know they're
lying, anyone care to bet on the result?!!!
US rejects Iraq DU clean-up
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted
uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq.
DU shells can go straight through the side of a tank
It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term
effects.
It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is
out of date.
A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years
after it was used.
DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser
than lead, and very effective for punching through armoured vehicles.
When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of
a tank, it goes straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of
vapour. This settles as chemically poisonous and radioactive dust.
Risk studies
Both the US and the UK acknowledge the dust can be dangerous if inhaled,
though they say the danger is short-lived, localised, and much more likely
to lead to chemical poisoning than to irradiation.
One thing we've found in these various studies is that there are no
long-term effects from DU
Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, Pentagon spokesman
But a study prepared for the US Army in July 1990, a month before Iraq
invaded Kuwait, says: "The health risks associated with internal and
external DU exposure during combat conditions are certainly far less than
other combat-related risks.
"Following combat, however, the condition of the battlefield and the
long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in
the acceptability of the continued use of DU."
A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, told BBC News Online:
"Since then there've been a number of studies - by the UK's Royal Society
and the World Health Organisation, for example - into the health risks of
DU, or the lack of them.
"It's fair to say the 1990 study has been overtaken by them. One thing we've
found in these various studies is that there are no long-term effects from
DU.
"And given that, I don't believe we have any plans for a DU clean-up in
Iraq."
Part of the armoury
The UN Environment Programme study, published in March 2003, found DU in air
and groundwater in Bosnia-Herzegovina seven years after the weapons were
fired.
The UN says the existing data suggest it is "highly unlikely" DU could be
linked to any of the health problems reported.
But it recommends collecting DU fragments, covering contaminated points with
asphalt or clean soil, and keeping records of contaminated sites.
Reports from Baghdad speak of repeated attacks by US aircraft carrying DU
weapons on high-rise buildings in the city centre.
The UK says: "British forces on deployment to the Gulf have DU munitions
available as part of their armoury, and will use them if necessary." It will
not confirm they have used them.
Many veterans from the Gulf and Kosovo wars believe DU has made them
seriously ill.
One UK Gulf veteran is Ray Bristow, a former marathon runner.
In 1999 he told the BBC: "I gradually noticed that every time I went out for
a run my distance got shorter and shorter, my recovery time longer and
longer.
"Now, on my good days, I get around quite adequately with a walking stick,
so long as it's short distances. Any further, and I need to be pushed in a
wheelchair."
Ray Bristow was tested in Canada for DU. He is open-minded about its role in
his condition.
But he says: "I remained in Saudi Arabia throughout the war. I never once
went into Iraq or Kuwait, where these munitions were used.
"But the tests showed, in layman's terms, that I have been exposed to over
100 times an individual's safe annual exposure to depleted uranium."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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