| |
 |
Silver bullet: depleted uranium
|
Case study
CANADIAN soldier Jerry Wheat went off to war in the Gulf, He drove a Bradley armoured personnel carrier for the Third armoured Division. Then the war followed Jerry home to New Mexico, the United States.
"I have had real bad joint pain, abdominal problems," Wheat says. "I get real bad headaches. I went from 220 pounds down to 160 pounds for no reason, and that's when I started suspecting that it was something related to the Gulf."
The shadows of that war eight years ago still haunt him. Wheat brought back more than victory from the front. Awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in combat, Wheat came home with pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body and with mysterious body pains. Jerry Wheat is convinced these ominous souvenirs from the firing line are connected.
The ground campaign in the Gulf War involved much fighting by armoured forces. Wheat's unit was in the thick of it, and his vehicle was accidentally hit twice by fire from his own side. What Wheat did not know was that the shells that hit him were made from depleted uranium (DU), the pride of the American arsenal.
It's the new wonder weapon the Pentagon calls a "silver bullet".
The problem is that like Wheat, there are far more soldiers who are suffering.
The American military has been testing it for 40 years. In the Gulf War, the US fired almost a million DU rounds, leaving a battlefield littered with 1,400 wrecked radioactive Iraqi tanks, crawled over by victorious GI's who were breathing in contaminated dust.
Balkan Syndrome
Soldiers and civilians from several European countries have been diagnosed with surprising and unusual illnesses since returning from service in Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia, including Kosovo.
In Italy, eight deaths have been reported. The press said the number of suspect cases was closer to 30.
In Belgium, five members of the military have died from cancer and four others have been diagnosed with it.
In Spain, officials have acknowledged three cancer cases -- including one death -- among soldiers who served in the Balkans.
In the Netherlands, the Defence Ministry said four Dutch soldiers who served in Bosnia or Kosovo have died from leukemia.
In more countries like Switzerland, Portugal, France, Britain, Greece, Romania, Denmark and many other European countries, cases related to the Balkan Syndrome were reported.
Belgian defence ministry spokesman Gerard Harveng told Reuters on Wednesday that 1,600 out of 12,000 troops who served in Balkan peacekeeping missions before the Kosovo crisis had complained of a lack of concentration, sleeping problems and headaches.
Concerns
Concerns among European nations have intensified since Italy began studying the illnesses of 30 soldiers, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia.
An internal document leaked from Britain's defence ministry shows the army knew of the health risks from depleted uranium shells four years ago, a war veterans group charged yesterday.
The report, which said exposure to the material "has been shown to increase risks" of developing cancer, directly contradicted assurances from British ministers that depleted uranium munitions used in the Gulf War and the Balkans posed no risk to troops.
But the defence ministry said the report, dated March 4 1997, was written by a trainee, had not been approved by supervisors and was based on flawed analysis.
The German defence ministry said on Tuesday it would investigate reports that the United States and other allies may have fired DU munitions at their bases in the country.
Baghdad yesterday urged the United Nations to open an enquiry into the use of DU.
"It is a global issue. The United Nations must ... commence an honest international enquiry that it supervises itself," Ath-Thawra newspaper said.
Russia criticized the West for ignoring its warnings about the hazards of using DU weapons in Kosovo and warned that their legacy endangered the people and environment of Yugoslavia as much as Nato's Balkan veterans.
China yesterday expressed concern over Nato's use of DU munitions in the Balkans.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said China had always opposed Nato's bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo conflict in 1999 and was now troubled by reports about the after-effects of DU shells.
"The Chinese side expresses concern about the use of such bombs and also the humanitarian results they may have caused," Zhu told a regular news briefing.
Probe
Nato bowed to pressure from its European members on Wednesday, creating a commission to probe the health effects of its use of depleted uranium munitions in the Balkans as the number of suspicious deaths and illnesses among returned peacekeepers mounted.
But there was reluctance for the investigation from Britain and the United States, which, along with France, are the only Nato members acknowledged to use the ultra-dense, "tank-busting" munition.
The Nato commission is to examine the risks posed by the use of US forces of DU, rounds. US aircraft fired some 31,000 DU projectiles during Nato's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia, according to the Pentagon. Another 10,800 rounds were fired in 1994-1995 conflict in Bosnia, where many of the afflicted peacekeepers served.
Nato Secretary General George Robertson, who was Britain's defence minister during the Yugoslavia conflict, said the probe would go ahead because the Alliance had "nothing to hide".
He added: "I wouldn't have agreed to these amunitions when I was minister if we knew that they would involve any health hazard. It is a proven technology and valuable on the battlefield."
And in Washington, US Defence Secretary William Cohen described the health dangers of DU projectiles as being "like leaded paint".
"Leaded paint does not pose a problem to you unless it starts to peel and then children or others ingest it," he said.
Q&A
Q. What is DU?
A. DU is the by-product of the process for converting ("enriching") natural uranium for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons. DU is approximately 40 per cent less radioactive than natural uranium. The DU used in armour-piercing munitions is also widely used in civilian industry, primarily for stabilizers in airplanes and boats.
Q. What makes DU a potential hazard?
A. DU is a heavy metal that is also slightly radioactive. Heavy metals have chemical toxicity properties that, in high doses, can cause poisoning and health effects.
A common misconception is that DU's primary hazard is radiological. This is not the case under most battlefield exposure scenarios. DU emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles, the primary radiation type produced by DU, are blocked by skin; while beta particles are blocked by the boots and battle dress utility uniform typically worn by service members. While gamma rays are pure energy and are highly penetrating, the amount of gamma radiation emitted by DU is extremely low.
The 120mm sabot rounds fired from the main guns of US Abrams series tanks figure prominently in most of the DU exposure scenarios and incidents investigated to date. The round uses a 10.7 lb DU penetrator that is approximately 18 inches long and 1.5 inches thick. When fired, or after "cooking off" in fires or explosions, the DU rod, now unshielded, or exposed, poses an extremely low radiological threat as long as it remains outside the body. Internalized in sufficient quantity, however, via metal fragments or dust-like particles and oxides, DU may pose a long-term health hazard to personnel. However, the medical significance of a specific exposure scenario is dependent on a number of factors, including particle size distribution and solubility as well as the amount of DU taken into the body.(SD-Agencies)
|
|
|
|
