Hmmmm... while DU may be dangerous, this article doesn't help much with the way it's written - poor use of statistics, no references to support its claims. It's exactly this kind of shoddy work that causes the raising of the skeptical eyebrow at those who're fighting against things like DU. This is a real pity because I think it hampers what might otherwise be a really good cause.
DU contains approximately 1/3 the amount of U235, one isotope, not of all the isotopes. If it were 1/3 of the isotopes what would the other 2/3 be? >From what I've read, inhaled or ingested DU particles are not known to be particularly dangerous and the radioactive material is relatively quickly excreted, though inhalation is worse than ingestion. Naturally, greater quantities pose a greater threat, but what quantities? One mitigating factor is that the long half life means relatively low radioactivity, but more research is clearly necessary. I couldn't find anything about the UN declaring DU a weapon of mass destruction, but perhaps further searching will reveal the resolution. The UK AEA estimated 500k deaths by 2000... did the deaths occur? Without providing the information as to how many deaths have actually been linked to the DU used in the area the comparison to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is meaningless. I'm not even sure what the quote from the nuclear scientist means. What does it mean to say the radiation has been released? Was that actual radiation released when the ammunition impacted with a target? Is it total available radiation in the DU used to date? The comment about Iraq being radioactive forever is a bit disingenuous since pretty much everywhere is radioactive all the time, it's a question of degree. How much residual radioactivity from the material left behind is there above the normal background? How widespread is it, actually? How much of the radioactive material can get into the water and food? 35% of the veterans from the Gulf War may be dead or on permanent medical disability, but how many of those are due to DU? Has it been confirmed that the rise in birth defects has no other cause? Again, I'm not saying that none of these things are true and I'm certainly not saying that DU is not dangerous. I did a little work with radioactive materials at university and I have a fair idea of how dangerous they can be and no radioactive material is to be taken lightly, regardless of the ubiquity. I'm certainly no fan of DU being used in weapons. However, when I read an article that is written with this sort of quality I find it encouraging me to ignore it because the author has made a number of allegations and has written in such a way as to make it appear as if an argument is being made where, upon inspection, it turns out that no actual supporting evidence is supplied to justify the conclusion. Cheers Craig -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kirk McLoren Sent: 21 May 2008 03:49 PM To: biofuel Subject: [Biofuel] Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons Society: Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons http://www.naturalnews.com/023274.html (NaturalNews) The use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the U.S. military may lead to a death toll far higher than that from the nuclear bombs dropped at the end of World War II. DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Because of its high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by the U.S. and British armed forces in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine. [Hmm, looks like population culling to me!] Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has estimated that 50 tons of DU dust from the first Gulf War could lead to 500,000 cancer deaths by the year 2000. To date, a total of 2,000 tons have been generated in the Middle East. In contrast, approximately 250,000 lives were claimed by the explosions and radiation released by the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991," said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive." Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever. The two U.S. wars in Iraq "have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity," said anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott. Since the first Gulf War, the rate of birth defects and childhood cancer in Iraq has increased by seven times. More than 35 percent (251,000) of U.S. Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared with only 400 who were killed during the conflict. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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