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US rejects Iraq DU clean-up 
By Alex Kirby 
BBC News Online environment correspondent 

The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted 
uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq. 

It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term 
effects. 
It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is 
out of date. 

A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years after 
it was used. 

DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser 
than lead, and very effective for punching through armoured vehicles. 

When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of 
a tank, it goes straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of 
vapour. This settles as chemically poisonous and radioactive dust. 

Risk studies 

Both the US and the UK acknowledge the dust can be dangerous if inhaled, 
though they say the danger is short-lived, localised, and much more likely to 
lead to chemical poisoning than to irradiation. 


One thing we've found in these various studies is that there are no long-term 
effects from DU 
Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, Pentagon spokesman 
But a study prepared for the US Army in July 1990, a month before Iraq 
invaded Kuwait, says: "The health risks associated with internal and external 
DU exposure during combat conditions are certainly far less than other 
combat-related risks. 
"Following combat, however, the condition of the battlefield and the 
long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in 
the acceptability of the continued use of DU." 

A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, told BBC News Online: 
"Since then there've been a number of studies - by the UK's Royal Society and 
the World Health Organisation, for example - into the health risks of DU, or 
the lack of them. 

"It's fair to say the 1990 study has been overtaken by them. One thing we've 
found in these various studies is that there are no long-term effects from 
DU. 

"And given that, I don't believe we have any plans for a DU clean-up in 
Iraq." 

Part of the armoury 

The UN Environment Programme study, published in March 2003, found DU in air 
and groundwater in Bosnia-Herzegovina seven years after the weapons were 
fired. 

The UN says the existing data suggest it is "highly unlikely" DU could be 
linked to any of the health problems reported. 

But it recommends collecting DU fragments, covering contaminated points with 
asphalt or clean soil, and keeping records of contaminated sites. 

Reports from Baghdad speak of repeated attacks by US aircraft carrying DU 
weapons on high-rise buildings in the city centre. 

The UK says: "British forces on deployment to the Gulf have DU munitions 
available as part of their armoury, and will use them if necessary." It will 
not confirm they have used them. 

Many veterans from the Gulf and Kosovo wars believe DU has made them 
seriously ill. 

One UK Gulf veteran is Ray Bristow, a former marathon runner. 

In 1999 he told the BBC: "I gradually noticed that every time I went out for 
a run my distance got shorter and shorter, my recovery time longer and 
longer. 

"Now, on my good days, I get around quite adequately with a walking stick, so 
long as it's short distances. Any further, and I need to be pushed in a 
wheelchair." 

Ray Bristow was tested in Canada for DU. He is open-minded about its role in 
his condition. 

But he says: "I remained in Saudi Arabia throughout the war. I never once 
went into Iraq or Kuwait, where these munitions were used. 

"But the tests showed, in layman's terms, that I have been exposed to over 
100 times an individual's safe annual exposure to depleted uranium." 


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/2946715.stm

Published: 2003/04/14 14:55:26