depleted uranium
Depleted Uranium Shells Used by U.S. Military Worse Than Nuclear Weapons
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 by: David Gutierrez
(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 militaries in the two Iraq wars and in Afghanistan, as well as by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.
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.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Found In Iraq!
By illegally using thousands of tons of nuclear waste in the form of armor piercing rounds, referred to as “depleted uranium” or “DU”, in the invasion of Iraq, the United States and Britain have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis and their own troops, but the entire world. In the first invasion, at least 320 tons of DU were exploded into Iraq, at least 1500 tons were blasted in the second illegal invasion.
Professor Malcolm Hopper of the University of Sunderland in the U.K., who has extensively studied health effects of British and U.S. soldiers who served in the Gulf War, has indicated that as many as 21,000 U.S. Gulf War veterans have died, due not just to DU exposure but to the astounding amounts of organophosphate (OP) poisoning from various toxins (or supposedly anti-toxins) given to the troops as “preventive” medicine.
73,000+ Gulf War Vets are already dead. – Department of Veterans Affairs.
“I’m horrified. The people out there – the Iraqis, the media and the troops – risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It’s going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car.” – Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best-kept secret of this war:
Birth defects in Iraq are up 600% (See DU Exposed Veterans Daughter for a personal perspective). A global diabetes epidemic is also being linked to DU.
American Use Of Depleted Uranium is “A crime against humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time.” US Iraq Military Vets “are on DU death row, waiting to die.” – James Denver, International Reporter.
225,000 U.S. troops have received VA acknowledgement of service-connected sickness due to Gulf War Syndrome. 1,620,906 U.S. soldiers have filed for disability. Around 35% of U.S. troops serving in the invasion of Iraq have been injured.
“Military Men Are Just Dumb, Stupid, Animals To Be Used As Pawns In Foreign Policy” — Henry Kissinger
http://libertyforlife.com/military-war/wmd.html
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/6374
***********************************************************
Depleted Uranium Contaminates the Body for Twenty Years
Thursday, April 10, 2008 by: David Gutierrez
(NaturalNews) Traces of depleted uranium (DU) have been found in people even 20 years after their initial exposure, according to research conducted by a scientist from the University of Leicester, England and presented at the 119th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver.
Professor Randall R. Parrish and colleagues developed a new method for detecting DU residue in urine. They then tested this method on people known or suspected to have been exposed to DU, including a large group of veterans from the 1991 Gulf War. Traces of DU were found among all those known to have been exposed, even more than 20 years prior.
Parrish said that the study showed that while exposure to DU might be rare among Gulf War veterans, the effects of that exposure can be long lasting. He said that the new test provides a way to resolve cases in which exposure is uncertain or becomes a legal issue
“Our method has been used to show that it is capable of resolving legal cases based on a claim of DU exposure,” Parrish said. “It offers a way to resolve debates about DU and health and provide perspective on the issue.
“Resolving the potential implications of DU to health in contaminated populations is best done by properly testing exposed cohorts. The cohorts in need of study are those living in DU-contaminated areas of Iraq, or those living in the vicinity of DU munitions factories with large DU contamination footprints.”
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 widely used by the U.S. military in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. When the metal strikes another object at high impact, however, small aerosol particles can be release into the air and inhaled. Inhalation of DU has been linked to a variety of health problems caused by both its chemical and radioactive properties.
http://www.naturalnews.com/022983.html
"We are living through another Hiroshima," Iraqi doctor says
Sherwood Ross
:: Article nr. 42361 sent on 24-mar-2008 19:14 ECT
www.uruknet.info?p=42361
Depleted Uranium From Foreign Nations Brought to US
Depleted Uranium From Foreign Nations Brought to US
Diary Entry by Cathy Garger
Other nations are giving the US their Depleted Uranium so we can “recycle” it and supposedly turn radioactive poison into modern medical cures. As they say, what goes around certainly this time is coming around. Is this a matter of simply deserving what we truly deserve?
::::::::
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, public speaker, activist, and a certified personal coach who specializes in Uranium weapons. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation’s capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week.
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=5594
storage of depleted uranium