[Peace-discuss] DU news

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Navy's ammo has environmentalists, others up in arms 
By Ray Rivera and Craig Welch
Seattle Times staff reporters


-A United Nations subcommission has asked for a ban on
DU weapons, claiming they're inhumane. The World
Health Organization in January 2001 recommended
further health-risk studies. In January 2001, NATO
declined to ban depleted-uranium weapons as requested
by Italy, Germany, Norway and Greece — primarily under
pressure from the U.S. 
  
 
U.S. Navy exercises that fire depleted-uranium rounds
off the coast of Washington have raised concerns among
environmentalists, but Navy officials say the
deep-ocean operations pose no danger. 

The controversial munitions are used by all the
services for their armor-piercing capabilities. They
are largely credited for the swift and one-sided tank
clashes in the 1991 Gulf War, where they were first
used in combat. 

But for years, soldiers and civilians in several
countries have feared ill health effects from the
toxic metal, which is a byproduct of natural uranium
when it's turned into nuclear fuel for reactors. Iraqi
doctors have blamed the material for a sharp increase
in cancer and birth defects following the war. U.S.
veterans groups also believe it may be linked to the
mysterious Gulf War syndrome. And countries in Europe
have complained that the United States hasn't always
been forthright about its health risks. 

The Navy uses the munitions in its Phalanx
anti-missile-defense system that sends thousands of
20mm depleted-uranium (DU) rounds into the air to
knock down incoming missiles. Essentially a large
Gatling gun, Phalanx serves as a "last ditch" defense
if missile-to-missile systems fail to hit their
target. The guns fire 80 rounds a second, 3,000 rounds
a minute. 

The guns are required to be certified quarterly, which
requires firing up to 300 rounds per gun over sea
ranges, including a range about 40 miles west of Neah
Bay. That range is from 800 to 1,400 fathoms deep and
abuts the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. 

The rounds are 40 percent less radioactive than
naturally occurring uranium found in seawater, the
Navy says. But Navy officials say that as the rounds
dissolve, they can't be distinguished from background
radiation. 

The weapons are found on all surface ships, but the
Navy has been slowly phasing out DU rounds in favor of
tungsten munitions, said Cmdr. Karen Sellers,
spokeswoman for the Navy's Pacific Northwest Region.
She could not say why the Navy was switching rounds. 

Navy officials could not say yesterday how often the
Washington range is used, but Sellers said most tests
are done off the coast of California or in the open
sea. 

Local peace activist Glen Milner learned of the tests
after obtaining an internal Navy memo dated June 25,
2001, giving the Everett-based destroyer USS Fife the
green light to conduct gunnery operations. 

"How can the Navy fire depleted-uranium rounds and
spread radioactive material into prime fishing areas
off our coast?" asked Dave Mann, a Seattle
environmental attorney. A coalition of peace and
environmental groups is considering filing an
injunction to stop future DU operations off the coast.

The Department of Defense has sent mixed signals. In
1993, the military required all soldiers participating
in exercises involving DU to be tested for DU and
related oxide particles in the feces, said Dr. Doug
Rokke, a former Army health physicist and opponent of
DU use. At the same time, the military says there is
no evidence showing the material is dangerous. 

"First off, when you fire the Navy Phalanx, you're
going to have DU contamination on the end of the
barrel and on the ship where they're fired," Rokke
said. "These things are fired thousands of rounds a
minute, and if you're near any sanctuary that's simply
irresponsible, you simply don't take solid radioactive
waste and throw it in somebody's back yard." 

DU is only mildly radioactive, but it has a half-life
of 4.5 billion years. And the Pentagon revealed two
years ago that some DU munitions were contaminated
with more highly radioactive substances, such as
plutonium. 

Defense analysts also question whether the munitions
are toxic. 

"The science is not clear here," said Patrick Garrett,
an associate analyst with GlobalSecurity.Org, a
Washington D.C.-based think tank. "The military tells
you these things are OK unless you're on the receiving
end of this weapon, but civilians and other doctors
and scientists have been looking at this issue and
screaming bloody murder about it for a long time, and
it's not readily apparent what the long-term health
impacts are." 

A United Nations subcommission has asked for a ban on
DU weapons, claiming they're inhumane. The World
Health Organization in January 2001 recommended
further health-risk studies. In January 2001, NATO
declined to ban depleted-uranium weapons as requested
by Italy, Germany, Norway and Greece — primarily under
pressure from the U.S. 

In 1999, Canadian fishermen were outraged to learn the
Canadian navy had left several tons of depleted
uranium on the ocean floor off the coast of Nova
Scotia. The radioactive rounds were fired from ships
with Phalanx weapons systems. The navy insisted there
was no danger. 


**

Toxic Ammo is Tested in Fish Areas
U.S. Navy uses depleted uranium in coast waters; activists may go to court 
 
by Larry Johnson 
  
The Navy routinely tests a weapon by firing radioactive, toxic ammunition in 
prime fishing areas off the coast of Washington, raising concerns from 
scientists, fishermen and activists. 

The Navy insists the use of depleted uranium off the coast poses no threat to 
the environment. Depleted uranium, known as DU, is a highly dense metal that 
is the byproduct of the process during which fissionable uranium used to 
manufacture nuclear bombs and reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium. 
DU remains radioactive for about 4.5 billion years.

   
Cmdr. Karen Sellers, a Navy spokeswoman in Seattle, also said there are no 
hazards to the servicemen and women on board the ships, adding that "all crew 
members are medically monitored" to ensure their safety.

But a coalition of Northwest environmental and anti-war activists say they 
are considering seeking an injunction to halt the tests. 

"The Navy is willing to put us all at risk, including its own sailors, to 
improve its war-fighting capabilities," said Glen Milner, of Ground Zero 
Center for Nonviolent Action, one of the groups weighing a suit to stop the 
Navy tests. Milner received information on the Navy's tests of depleted 
uranium ammunition off the coast in a memo released in response to a Freedom 
of Information Act request.

No major studies apparently have been done on the effects of such weapons in 
the ocean. Where depleted uranium munitions have been used in combat on land, 
such as in Iraq during the Gulf War, or in tests on land, such as Vieques 
island in Puerto Rico, they not only give off relatively small amounts of 
radiation, but produce toxic dust that can enter the food chain. 

Seattle environmental attorney David Mann asked, "How can the Navy fire 
depleted uranium rounds and spread radioactive material into prime fishing 
areas off our coast?"

Also See:
Iraqi Cancers, Birth Defects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium 
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/12/02
 
 
Sellers, however, said that only 400 to 600 rounds would be fired during a 
typical test at sea. And even though these tests have been going on since 
1977, she said Navy environmental experts say that the DU dissolves very 
slowly in the ocean.

"It would be too diluted to distinguish from natural background uranium in 
the sea water," she said.

The weapon in question is the Phalanx, also known as a Close In Weapons 
System. Such a system is on virtually all U.S. Navy combat ships. It includes 
radar and rapid-fire 20mm guns. The guns are capable of firing up to 3,000 or 
4,500 rounds per minute of depleted uranium, a superhard material prized for 
its armor-piercing ability. 

The Defense Department says the military uses the munitions "because of DU's 
superior lethality against armor and other hard targets."

Although depleted uranium emits radiation, a second, potentially more serious 
hazard is created when a DU round hits a hard target. As much as 70 percent 
of the projectile can burn on impact, creating a firestorm of ceramic DU 
oxide particles. The residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic 
uranium dust that can be spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the 
human body and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food 
chain.

Once in the soil, DU can pollute the environment and create up to a 
hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water, according to the U.N. 
Environmental Program

The Defense Department said DU munitions are "war reserve munitions; that is, 
used for combat and not fired for training purposes," with the exception that 
DU munitions may be fired at sea for weapon calibration purposes."

Another Navy spokeswoman described those firings at sea as "routine" and says 
they occur regularly off both the East and West coasts.

"If the firing is with DU, it's probably with what we call the Close in 
Weapons System, and it is routine," said Lt. Brauna Carl, a Navy spokeswoman 
in Washington, D.C., and a former gunnery officer who has worked with DU 
weapons.

When asked if the tests of DU rounds posed any health hazards, she replied, 
"God, I hope not. All I know is I haven't started glowing."

But Milner says, "It just makes sense that if DU can contaminate land and get 
into the food chain, then it would do the same thing in the sea."

Robert Alverson, president of the Fishing Vessel Owners Association in 
Seattle, said he was "very troubled" to hear that the Navy was using depleted 
uranium off the coast of Washington. "I don't like what I'm hearing," he said.

The Navy memo obtained by Milner described a June 2001 operation by the USS 
Fife, an Everett-based destroyer. The memo said the Fife would conduct 
gunnery operations with depleted rounds in what was described as areas W237C 
and W237F. 

These areas are designated Navy Warning Areas and are about 25-100 miles off 
the coast between Ocean Shores and Ozette, south of Neah Bay, according to 
Milner. 

"These are certainly prime fishing areas" for some salmon, flounder and other 
bottomfish, Alverson said. "It is folly to be testing anything in this area 
that might contaminate the natural food supply."

"How would the Navy feel about eating fish caught there?" he asked. Alverson 
said even the perception that fish might be contaminated could scare 
consumers and have dire consequences.

"If any species ever turns up with radiation, it would be devastating to the 
fishing industry," he said.

Leonard Dietz, a research associate with the private, non-profit Uranium 
Medical Research Centre in Canada and the United States, said that the degree 
of environmental contamination the DU rounds will cause in sea water depends 
on what kinds of targets were hit and how much DU was fired.

"Corrosion of the DU by sea water would occur over a long time," said Dietz, 
who with Asaf Durakovic, director of the center, and research associate 
Patricia Horan, published a landmark study on inhaled DU that showed Gulf War 
veterans still had DU in their urine nine years after the war.

"The end result is that the ocean becomes a dumping ground for the spent DU 
penetrators and they add to the (natural) uranium content of sea water," he 
said.

The Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is one of five peace and 
environmental organizations already involved in a federal lawsuit against the 
Navy for violations of the Endangered Species Act over the Trident D-5 
nuclear missile upgrade at the Bangor submarine base.

DEPLETED URANIUM HAZARD
The Pentagon has sent mixed signals about the effects of depleted uranium, 
saying there have been no known health problems associated with the munition. 
At the same time, the military acknowledges the hazards in an Army training 
manual, which requires that anyone who comes within 25 meters of any 
DU-contaminated equipment or terrain wear respiratory and skin protection, 
and says that "contamination will make food and water unsafe for consumption."

Some researchers and several U.S. veterans organizations say they suspect 
depleted uranium of playing a role in Gulf War Syndrome, the 
still-unexplained malady that has plagued hundreds of thousands of Gulf War 
veterans.

On the Net: 

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action: www.gzcenter.org
U.S. Navy: www.navy.mil 
Iraqi birth defects, Gulf War Syndrome linked to depleted uranium  


Gulf War Legacy
By Thomas P. Healy
In Person: Doug Rokke.
 
January 6, 2003
Gulf War Legacy
By Thomas P. Healy


Maj. Doug Rokke is “hot.” No, he’s not sweating. Nor is his physique the 
object of admiration. He’s “hot” because his body is contaminated by 
uranium—specifically, “depleted uranium” (DU), which was widely used in 
munitions during the Gulf War as well as in Bosnia. DU is also expected to be 
deployed in the event of military action in Iraq. 

“I was excreting over 1,200 micrograms a day, and [the U.S. Army] never even 
told me for two and a half years,” Rokke says. According to Army regulations, 
any uranium excretion over 250 micrograms a day warrants immediate medical 
care. 

Rokke is a Vietnam and Gulf War combat veteran who has specialized in 
hazardous materials and emergency medicine for more than 20 years. During 
Operation Desert Storm, he was part of a team that established 
decontamination procedures and facilities for nuclear, biological and 
chemical weapons. Later, he was given the mandate to clean up depleted 
uranium contamination in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. 

But the exposure came at great cost. DU—or more specifically, the radioactive 
isotope uranium 238—is a byproduct of the uranium enrichment process used to 
create reactor fuel and bombs. It was first used in the 1973 Arab-Israeli 
War. In the Gulf War, Rokke says, it was widely used for its effectiveness in 
penetrating armor and strengthening armor against penetration. 

Since then, more than 100,000 Gulf War veterans have reported unexplained 
illness, in a phenomenon sometimes known as Gulf War Syndrome. DU is a highly 
toxic heavy metal, and some studies have linked exposure to increased rates 
of cancer and birth defects. 

“We have willfully spread it all over the place,” Rokke says. “We’ve 
refused to clean up the mess; we’ve refused to provide medical care; not only 
to the American ‘friendly fire’ casualties who survived, but also to the DU 
cleanup teams; and we’ve refused to supply medical care to all the thousands 
and thousands of other people, including women and children—which makes it an 
indiscriminate weapon.” 

Indiscriminate weapons are banned by international law. The United Nations 
has issued several calls for a ban on DU, which the United States has 
rejected. “When you leave all the contamination there,” Rokke says of the 
Gulf War, “people are going to continue to get sick from just the uranium 
munitions alone—much less all of the millions of rounds of [unused] uranium 
238 that we just left there.” 

Scientific studies on DU downplay hazards, and the military denies it has any 
harmful effects at all. In 1999, the Department of Defense hired the Rand 
Corporation to review the existing medical literature surrounding the effects 
of DU. Though it said more studies were needed, Rand reported that U.S. 
troops were unlikely to suffer ill effects from exposure to DU during their 
Gulf War tours. 

But Rokke is convinced the Army is aware of the dangers of DU exposure. A 
March, 1991 memo from New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory notes 
“concern regarding the impact of DU on the environment.” The memo warns that 
without support for DU, “we stand to lose a valuable combat capability.” 

In 1992, Rokke co-authored a “theater cleanup plan” outlining the hazards of 
DU and making recommendations for remediation of the estimated 315 tons of DU 
fired during the Gulf War. “The plan went up through the military chain of 
command and was given to the Secretary of State and sent over to the emirate 
of Kuwait,” he says. He’s still waiting for the cleanup to start. “It’s 
just not been done.” 

“The army knows it’s a problem, and they just don’t care,” Rokke says. 
“They’re going to use DU. You have to understand that. The purpose is to 
kill. When you go to war, you use the best weapon you have, and you will not 
ever give it up.” 

Based in part on the DU assessment reports Rokke and his team filed after the 
Gulf War, the Defense Department released a directive on August 14, 1993, to: 
“1. Provide adequate training for personnel who may come in contact with 
depleted uranium equipment. 2. Complete medical testing of personnel exposed 
to DU contamination during the Persian Gulf War. 3 Develop a plan for DU 
contaminated equipment recovery during future operations.” 

Rokke says none of this has been done either. He just wishes the military 
would acknowledge the consequences of its actions. He’s in good company. Both 
the Military Toxics Project and the National Gulf War Resource Center are 
calling for the United States to exercise leadership and ban DU. 
International concerns are also growing, since England, China and 12 other 
nations have arsenals of depleted uranium. A 17-member international team of 
scientists working with the U.N. Environmental Program is currently examining 
the effects of DU in Bosnia. The commission is expected to issue a report in 
March. 

For the past decade, Rokke has taken his message, both independently and as 
an Army officer, to veterans’ groups, peace organizations and even Capitol 
Hill. His message is blunt: “I learned that real effective cleanup of this 
stuff is impossible. We need to ban DU.”