Depleted uranium tests for US troops returning from Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10433.htm
09/28/05 "The Independent" -- -- US troops returning from Iraq are for the first
time to be offered state-of-the-art radiation testing to check for contamination
from depleted uranium - a controversial substance linked by some to cancer and
birth defects.
Campaigners say the Pentagon refuses to take seriously the issue of poisoning
from depleted uranium (DU) and offers only the most basic checks, and only when
it is specifically asked for. But state legislators across the US are pushing
ahead with laws that will provide their National Guard troops access to the most
sophisticated tests.
Connecticut and Louisiana have already passed such legislation and another 18
are said to be considering similar steps. Connecticut's new law - pioneered by
state legislator Pat Dillon - comes into effect on Saturday.
"What this does is establish a standard," said Mrs. Dillon, a Yale-trained
epidemiologist. "It means that our Guardsmen will have access to highly
sensitive testing that can differentiate between background levels of
radiation." DU - a heavy metal waste-product of nuclear power plants - has been
used by the US military since the 1991 Gulf War. It is used to tip tank shells
and missiles because of its ability to penetrate armour. On impact DU burns at
an extremely high temperature and is widely dispersed in micro particles.
The science surrounding DU remains hotly contested though the majority of
studies have concluded there is no genuine risk from battlefield contamination.
One 2001 study by the Royal Society, concluded: "Except in extreme circumstances
any extra risks of developing fatal cancers as a result of radiation from
internal exposure to DU arising from battlefield conditions are likely to be so
small that they would not be detectable above the general risk of dying from
cancer over a normal lifetime."
But, campaigners such as the British-based Campaign Against Depleted Uranium (CADU),
cite other studies which suggest a risk. In 2003,New Scientist reported that a
study by the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland,
found that human bone cells could suffer genetic damage when exposed to DU, even
at levels deemed to be non-toxic.
Gerard Matthew has no doubts about the effect of DU. The former member of the
New York National Guard served in Iraq from April to September 2003. On his
return he was not offered testing until a New York newspaper offered to arrange
it for him and some friends. "[With the military] it never came up. They
suppressed the whole DU thing," he said.
Mr Matthew, who said he was found to have considerable radiation exposure, said
two years on he suffers from migraines, erectile dysfunction and a swollen face
- conditions that have developed since he returned from Iraq. But his conviction
about the dangers of DU was fixed when his daughter, Victoria Claudette, was
born with only two digits on her right hand.
Whatever debate may be going on among scientists, Mr Matthew is convinced his
daughter - conceived the month after he returned from Iraq - suffered because of
his own exposure to DU.
"It's concealment," he said. "We have 18 and 19-year-old coalition forces out
there fighting and they should not be exposed to this." Dr Doug Rokke, a health
physicist who was part of a Pentagon team that studied DU in the mid 1990s,
concluded that there was no way DU weapons could be used without the risk of
contamination. He said the Pentagon responded to his conclusions by denouncing
him.
He told the In These Times newspaper: "DU is a war crime. It's that simple. Once
you've scattered all this stuff around and then refuse to clean it up you've
committed a war crime."
© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.