Craig Barrett wrote: > 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.
Wholly agreed. I think this DU stuff is a real issue, but blind rhetoric certainly isn't helping anything. > 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. Nor can I. Otoh, I can find UN backed WHO studies claiming that DU is practically a non-issue. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/ while non-issue is a bit of an overstatement, the who doesn't seem very worked up about it. > > 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? This is all very fuzzy, and one would expect it to be. Historically, when it comes to 'radioactive' stuff, the 'experts' have been notoriously vague, and downright evasive about telling what they know. The 'nuclear industry' has been caught out in so many lies in the past, it's difficult to believe anything that anyone having anything to do with anything surrounding 'atomic energy' has to say. This seems to be true regardless of what side of the discussion one is on. It's a real mess. When folks aren't forthcoming with hard facts, it leaves others up to make up whatever they can to fill in the blanks. I have little doubt that DU is a real issue, needs to go away immediately, is a wholly terrible idea, without even looking at the why in the first place. However, this kinda stuff doesn't help, at all. > > 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... > URL: /pipermail/attachments/20080521/0001e677/attachment.html > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 > messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- Chip Mefford -------------------- Before Enlightenment; chop wood carry water After Enlightenment; chop wood carry water --------------------- Public Key http://www.well.com/user/cpm _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
