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.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
DU Shells Used by U.S. Worse Than Nuclear Weapons
Text taken from here.
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5 comments:
This post is grossly inaccurate starting with the subject line. DU is a bullet, a nuclear weapon is a pretty dreadful thing; it incinerates, radiates, covers the land with fallout - that's just the simplistic view of a nuclear weapon. Leuren Moret is a total fraud - anyone who reposts Moret does so not to factually educate, but to politically indoctrinate. The number of service members from the Gulf War who have died from all causes, including automobile accidents and old age, is about 13-14000 over the period from August 1990 (the beginning of Desert Shield) through the present. The only mortality study that ever was conducted found that non-veterans were more likely to die than veterans. It was a seven year study from August 1990 through August 1997 - the results are given in the VA report that has been often misresported - During that seven year period, 4,312 male and 194 female service members who served in the Gulf War died of all causes. None of them died as a result of depleted uranium exposure.
Want the facts, go to www.depletedcranium.com and watch dinner served on a DU-glazed bright orange Fiesta Ware Art Deco plate. Want to learn more, go to Message 76 at the Yahoo Group DUStory - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DUStory/message/76 - want to learn more about Moret, what she would never tell you since it would reveal her to be a brazen fraud and self-promoter, not an expert on DU or radiation or dust or anything beyond being a total liar - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/DUStory/message/77 has a guest user name and password to go visit the Files Section - there are three Moret documents there, a number of Douglas Lind Rokke documents, some Asaf Durakovic documents and the VA Study with the actual facts, not the mythology.
Roger
DUStory-owner@yahoogroups.com
The following statement is not true - 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
DU kinetic energy penetrators were used with great success to kill Iraqi tanks in the Gulf War and the run into Baghdad in 2003. They were also used in Kosovo and Boznia-Herzegovina. DU was not used by the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine. Israel is not known to have DU, but the main reason it would not have been used is that DU kinetic energy penetrators are effective against only one kind of target, a tank or armored vehicle - they are not even particularly effective against armored personnel carriers because they pass right through light armor plate.
The only relatively accurate about this entire post is that the cut away of a tank-fired DU sabot penetrator is accurate.
DU also probably was not used to any significant degree, if at all, in Afghanistan. There were no tank-to-tank battles in Afghanistan and I do not know if A-10s were used to kill Taliban tanks; I believe that the few tanks that the Taliban had were taken out by heavy bombers dropping 500-2000 pound bombs and there is no DU in any bomb.
Roger
DUStory-@Yahoogroups.com
DU is not a weapon of mass destruction, it is a type of specialized bullet. DU has not been banned by the United Nations. Both of the following two statements are thus false:
Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
DU is toxic, but not highly toxic. DU is uranium 238, the most common isotope of natural uranium. Every single living thing on this planet ingests a very minute amount of uranium every day of their lives. Do you know how much uranium is in your own backyard?
DU is not a weapon of mass destruction, it is a type of specialized bullet. DU has not been banned by the United Nations. Both of the following two statements are thus false:
Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
DU is toxic, but not highly toxic. DU is uranium 238, the most common isotope of natural uranium. Every single living thing on this planet ingests a very minute amount of uranium every day of their lives. Do you know how much uranium is in your own backyard?
DU is not a weapon of mass destruction, it is a type of specialized bullet. DU has not been banned by the United Nations. Both of the following two statements are thus false:
Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.
DU is toxic, but not highly toxic. DU is uranium 238, the most common isotope of natural uranium. Every single living thing on this planet ingests a very minute amount of uranium every day of their lives. Do you know how much uranium is in your own backyard?
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