Is depleted uranium causing cancer in Iraq?

aurelius79

The U.S. military has been using depleted uranium in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Local Iraqis and doctors suspect DU is responsible for the dramatic rise in cancer cases. Iraqis are demanding an immediate investigation.

I believe the use of DU should be halted immediately and sites where it was used should be made safe by the U.S. and others that have used DU.

nesf

Do not link to videos without providing substantial debate beyond a claim.

Please put the source for your video in the post if you're linking to one.

Also please provide something more substantial than a youtube video as a source for claims like these. Dig up a newspaper article with the story or something.

aurelius79

nesf wrote: »

Do not link to videos without providing substantial debate beyond a claim.

Please put the source for your video in the post if you're linking to one.

Also please provide something more substantial than a youtube video as a source for claims like these. Dig up a newspaper article with the story or something.

I think Al Jazeera is a credible enough source. The fact that this is on Youtube is irrelevant. The Associated Press have a Youtube account.

The current use of depleted uranium should be banned by the EU. The U.S. is covering up the extent of it's use and denying the effects of DU on civilian populations. What else do you want me to say?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

nesf

aurelius79 wrote: »

I think Al Jazeera is a credible enough source.

Not for science it isn't. These are medical claims, produce some serious scientific basis for them.

Would you accept someone linking to Fox News saying that DU is harmless? I don't think so.

aurelius79

All "official" statements concerning the effects of DU are based on the the false assumption that DU munitions are composed entirely of uranium-238. The following report shows that plutonium-239, a highly radioactive material, is also present in DU munitions.


Actinide analysis of a depleted uranium penetrator from a 1999 target site in southern Serbia :

Department of Experimental Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

“VinImage a”, Institute of Nuclear Sciences, Belgrade, Yugoslavia

"In this paper, we report the results of uranium and plutonium analyses carried out on a depleted uranium penetrator recovered from a target site in southern Serbia. Our data show the depleted nature of the uranium and confirm the presence of trace amounts of plutonium in the penetrator. The activity concentration of 239+240Pu, at 45.4±0.7 Bq kg–1, is the highest reported to date for any penetrator recovered from the Balkans."

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VB2-45XT4JD-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1152480195&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d32475e5f66209c883c1cc7f31b24afb


UNEP has also confirmed the presence of uranium-236, a by-product of nuclear fission (nuclear waste), in spend DU penetrators found in Kosovo in 2000.

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/unep81.doc.htm


4 Jan, 2001

"In Iraq it is almost impossible to do any research that will satisfy Nato governments.

Sanctions mean the equipment needed cannot be imported, and although Iraqi and foreign doctors report serious health problems in which they think DU may be implicated (much higher rates of some forms of cancer, birth defects, etc.), Nato says pre-war record keeping was not good enough to allow any firm conclusions to be drawn.

In Kosovo, Nato did finally admit that it was using DU weapons, but refused for a long time to give details of where and in what quantities.

Even when it finally came up with some details, these were initially too imprecise to allow a UN task force to assess whether there was a problem, and if so how big it was."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1101447.stm


Nov 12, 2002

"DU shell holes in the vehicles along the Highway of Death are 1,000 times more radioactive than background radiation, according to Geiger counter readings done for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclear medicine expert from the Iraq Department of Radiation Protection in Basra, and Col. Amal Kassim of the Iraqi navy.

The desert around the vehicles was 100 times more radioactive than background radiation; Basra, a city of 1 million people, some 125 miles away, registered only slightly above background radiation level. "

"A second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round hits its target. As much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up 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."

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/95178_du12.shtml

aurelius79

The following pictures illustrate alleged child deformation caused by the use depleted uranium.

WARNING-The following links contain graphic content. Please do not follow links if you are easily upset by images of extensive child deformation.

http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/depleted_uranium_effects4.jpg

http://thewe.cc/thewei/&_/_/p2/depleted_uranium_baby.jpe

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_b3GHoGMBNpY/SRIhYvPM57I/AAAAAAAACXQ/IN_14Jmu3lc/s400/DUBaby.jpg

http://gorillasguides.com/wp-content/20070625_deformed_child_corpse_radiation_from_american_depleted_uranium_munitions.jpg

http://blikk.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/depleted-uranium.jpg

FlutterinBantam

"Alleged " being to operative word.

Manic Moran

From the doubtlessly unbiased site http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/, I'd copy these official statements from various fairly reputable organisations:

Canada: The health impact of depleted uranium has been extensively studied by specialists from around the world, and no study — including those conducted by UNEP and WHO — has found any definitive link between the use of depleted uranium in operational theatres and damage to human health.

Finland: The exposure of Finnish peacekeepers to depleted uranium has been
scientifically examined. Analyses were made of samples taken from troops serving in Kosovo in 2000 and 2001. No indication of abnormal exposure was found.

Germany: Analysing more than 1,300 urine samples from peacekeeping personnel serving in the Balkans, residents of Kosovo and adjacent regions of Serbia and people living in Germany (unexposed control subjects) during the period from 1999 to 2006, as well as measuring ground and tap water samples from regions where depleted uranium munitions were deployed, the
study concluded that peacekeeping personnel and residents serving or living in the Balkans were not exposed to significant amounts of depleted uranium and thus no health effects related to the toxicity of incorporated uranium are expected.
<snip>
The result of these studies, conducted to determine the potential harmful effects of ammunitions and armaments containing depleted uranium on human health and the environment, was that significant effects could not be detected.

Netherlands: The Netherlands recognizes the need for additional research on the effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium and appreciates that this issue is being discussed in the forum of the United Nations. However, the resolution’s reference to the “potential” harmful effects of the use of depleted uranium munitions on human health and the environment cannot so far be substantiated by scientific studies conducted by relevant international organizations such as WHO.

Spain: In forming its opinion on this issue, the Spanish Government has drawn on the experience it accumulated in response to the expressions of national and international public concern, beginning in December 2000, over reports that military personnel of NATO who had served in the Balkans as part of various national contingents had abnormally high rates of cancer. This, in turn, was attributed to their having allegedly handled ammunition containing depleted uranium or the debris of such ammunition following detonation. In light of the possibility that Spanish soldiers having participated in peacekeeping missions in the Balkans in the 1990s or currently on mission had
contracted such diseases, a Scientific Committee was established to provide healthrelated advice to the Minister of Defence.
The report’s conclusions bore out all those of the preliminary report, to the effect that the situation presented no abnormalities. In comparison to the general Spanish population, the distribution of cancers in the sample studied was lower than expected, and no significant anomalies were identified in the study on exposure to the heavy metals analysed.
Spanish studies have not been able to demonstrate a cause-and-effect
relationship between the weak radiation detected in the debris of targets attacked with depleted uranium projectiles and the development of cancer or other diseases in soldiers or civilians. In addition, the numerous studies on the use of armaments containing depleted uranium in various situations, carried out by UNEP, WHO, the European Commission and NATO, indicate that the use of depleted uranium does not pose a significant radiological risk.

European Union:
The European Commission’s Environment Directorate-General published a report by a group of independent scientific experts commissioned to study the effects of depleted uranium. The group, made up of 35 physicians, chemists and nuclear scientists from member States, concluded that,
on the basis of available information, exposure to depleted uranium could not
produce detectable health effects.

NATO:
NATO established an ad hoc committee to study the effects on
troops and the civilian population of the depleted uranium used in Alliance
operations in the Balkans (depleted uranium was used in the 1991 Gulf War and in the 1999 Kosovo operations). The results of this study, to which institutions such as the International Committee of the Red Cross contributed, indicated that:
(a) There was no evidence of an increase in incidence of illness among
peacekeepers in the Balkans compared with the incidence of illness among armed forces not serving in the Balkans;
(b) There was no evidence of a link between depleted uranium and health
problems such as leukaemia or other cancers.

IAEA: A number of evaluation of the environmental and health impact of depleted uranium munitions have been performed by national and international organizations. IAEA participated together with UNEP and WHO in several international appraisals like those in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon. In general, the results of these assessments indicated that the existence of depleted uranium residues dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions. Estimated annual radiation doses
that could arise from exposure to depleted uranium residues would be very low and of little radiological concern. Annual radiation doses in the areas where residues do exist would be of the order of a few microsieverts, well below the annual doses received by the population from the natural sources of radiation in the environment and far below the reference level recommended by IAEA as a radiological criterion to help establish whether remedial actions are necessary.

World Health Organisation: To date, no consistent evidence of adverse effects of depleted uranium has been reported for the skeleton or liver. No reproductive or developmental effects have been reported in humans.
For the general population, neither civilian nor military use of depleted
uranium is likely to produce radiation doses significantly above normal background levels.

Generally, I'll take those of over a press statement.

NTM

nesf

aurelius79 wrote: »

All "official" statements concerning the effects of DU are based on the the false assumption that DU munitions are composed entirely of uranium-238. The following report shows that plutonium-239, a highly radioactive material, is also present in DU munitions.

Quoting from the abstract of that paper:

This concentration, however, is comparable to that expected to be present naturally in uranium ores and, from a radiological perspective, would only give rise to a very small increase in dose to exposed persons compared to that from the DU itself.

I'm locking this thread. You are not providing evidence for your case, you are misrepresenting scientific papers.