[Peace-discuss] DU and Iraq

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

http://slate.msn.com//?id=2072026

MSN
Slate
October 7, 2002


Did the United States Expose Iraqi Civilians to
Radiation?
By Brendan I. Koerner

-Researchers should have plenty of time to accumulate
the necessary data; the half-life for Uranium-238 is
4.4 billion years.



The Iraqi government has long claimed that
uranium-tipped American shells used during the Gulf
War are to blame for an upsurge in cancer deaths and
birth defects among Iraqi civilians. Did the United
States expose Iraqis to radiation?


The United States did, indeed, shower Iraq with well
over 300 tons' worth of depleted uranium ordnance
during the Gulf War. Because of its high density, DUóa
byproduct of the uranium enrichment process at nuclear
reactorsóis particularly effective in piercing armored
vehicles. DU shells incinerate on impact, leaving
behind a dusty residue that is primarily composed of
the isotope Uranium-238. The Gulf War marked the first
widespread use of DU ordnance; they've since been
fired in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina by NATO forces.
An estimated 15 nations, primarily in the West, are
believed to possess DU weapons.

Many scientists fear that this dust, when inhaled or
ingested via contaminated water, emits radiation
inside the lungs or lymph nodes, leading to cancer and
other severe ailments. Iraq's health ministry claims
that cancer rates have soared by 400 percent since
1991, and victims of "Gulf War syndrome" in the United
States and Europe have frequently ascribed their
maladies to DU exposure. Last year, Doug Rokke, former
head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, told
the British Parliament that one-fifth of his Gulf War
teamówhich examined Iraqi vehicles hit by DU fireóhas
since died of various lung diseases. Late last month,
during his visit to Baghdad, Rep. David Bonior,
D-Mich., characterized DU's long-term impact on Iraq
as "horrific and barbaric."

The Pentagon has dismissed a direct link between DU
residue and cancer. It often points to a 1999 RAND
Corp. study that monitored the health of Gulf War
veterans exposed to DU and concluded that no link
between kidney disease and DU had been found. The
Department of Defense also argues that DU dust is less
toxic than naturally occurring uranium, of which there
is typically 2 to 4 tons per square mile of top soil.
A British researcher has theorized that any up-tick in
Iraqi cancer rates is due not to DU pollution but
rather to Saddam Hussein's use of sulfur mustard gas
during the Iran-Iraq War.

The World Health Organization published its own report
in April of 2001. The organization agreed that a link
between DU exposure and cancer has yet to be
established but cautioned that its study relied
heavily on military data. "Some scientists would like
to see a larger body of independentlyói.e.,
non-militaryófunded studies to confirm the current
viewpoint," the WHO paper stated. Researchers should
have plenty of time to accumulate the necessary data;
the half-life for Uranium-238 is 4.4 billion years.