Explaining How Depleted Uranium is Killing Civilians, Soldiers, Land
Depleted uranium weapons, and the untold
misery they wreak on mankind, are taboo subjects in the mainstream media. This
exclusive report should break the media embargo imposed on the American people.
Despite being a grossly under-reported subject in the mainstream, there is
intense public interest in depleted uranium (DU) and the damage it inflicts on
humankind and the environment.
While this writer has been actively investigating DU weapons and how they
contribute to Gulf War Syndrome, the corporate-controlled press ignores the
illegal use of DU and its long-lasting effects on the health of veterans and the
public.
In August 2004, my former employer AFP published a ground-breaking four-part
series on DU weapons and the long-term health risks they pose to soldiers and
civilians alike. Information provided to me by experts and scientists, and the
articles that were published threreafter, have increased public awareness of how
exposure to small particles of DU can severely affect human health.
Leuren Moret, a Berkeley-based geo-scientist with expertise in atmospheric dust,
corresponds with me on DU issues. Recently Moret provided a copy of her letters
to a British radiation biologist, Dr. Chris Busby, about how nanometer size
particles—less than one-tenth of a micron and smaller—of DU once inhaled or
absorbed into the body, can cause long-term damage to one’s health.
Busby is one of the founders of Green Audit, a British organization that
monitors companies “whose activities might threaten the environment and health
of citizens.”
Moret’s writings were meant to assist Busby in a legal case being heard in the
High Court in London where a former defense worker, Richard David, 49, is suing
Normal Air Garrett, Ltd., an aircraft parts company now owned by Honeywell
Aerospace, claiming exposure to DU on the job has made his life a “living hell.”
David worked as a component fitter on fighter planes and bombers but had to quit
due to health problems. He says he developed a cough within weeks of starting
work.
Today, David suffers from a variety of symptoms like those known as Gulf War
Syndrome, including respiratory and kidney problems, bowel conditions and
painful joints. Medical tests reveal mutations to his DNA and damage to his
chromosomes, which, he says, could only have been caused by ionizing radiation.
He has also been diagnosed with a terminal lung condition.
Honeywell denies DU was ever used at the plant in Yeovil, Somerset, where David
worked for 10 years until 1995. David claims that DU’s existence at the plant
was denied because it is an official secret.
David has asked the High Court for more time to gather evidence. The hearing is
due to resume in April. “I don’t have any legal representation,” David said, “so
I am representing myself. It is a real David versus Goliath case.
“I am confident I will win. I hope to set a precedent for other cases of people
who have suffered from the effects of depleted uranium,” he said.
Moret’s letters on the particle effect of DU is based on research done by Marion
Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist and former scientist with the Manhattan Project
and the National Laboratory at Livermore, Calif. Fulk, who has developed a
“particle theory” about how DU nano-particles affect human DNA, donates his time
and expertise to help bring information about DU to the public.
Asked about Fulk’s particle theory, Busby said it is “quite sound.”
“DU is much more dangerous than they say,” Busby added. “I’ve always said that
it contributes significantly to Gulf War Syndrome.”
When Moret’s correspondence to Dr. Busby was posted on the Internet over the New
Year’s holiday under the title “How Depleted Uranium Weapons Are Killing Our
Troops,” some 6,000 people read the letter in the first two days. The following
Monday, a producer from BBC’s Panorama program contacted Moret to arrange an
interview.
If the BBC follows up with an investigation on the health effects of DU, it may
be hard for the U.S. media to maintain their cover-up. More than 500,000 “Gulf
War Era” vets currently receive disability compensation, many of them for a
variety of symptoms generally referred to as Gulf War Syndrome. Experts blame DU
for many of these symptoms.
“The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get worse,” Robert
C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services wrote in an article about
DU weapons entitled “Silent Genocide.”
“DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who breathe
it or touch it; the substance also alters one’s genetic code,” Koehler wrote.
“The Pentagon’s response to such charges is denial, denial, denial. And the
American media is its moral co-conspirator.”
U.S. GOVERNMENT KNOWS
The U.S. government has known for at least 20 years that DU weapons produce
clouds of poison gas on impact. These clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with
billions of toxic sub-micron sized particles. A 1984 Department of Energy
conference on nuclear airborne waste reported that tests of DU anti-tank
missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass of a DU penetrator is
converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs the percentage of
aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent, Fulk told AFP.
DU is harmful in three ways, according to Fulk: “Chemical toxicity, radiological
toxicity and particle toxicity.”
Particles in the nano-meter (one billionth of a meter) range are a “new breed of
cat,” Moret wrote. Because the size of the nano-particles allows them to pass
freely throughout the organism and into the nucleus of its cells, exposure to
nano-particles causes different symptoms than exposure to larger particles of
the same substance.
Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as “a non-specific catalyst” in both
“nuclear and non-nuclear” ways. This means that the uranium particle can affect
human DNA and RNA because of both its chemical and radiological properties. This
is why internalized DU particles cause “many, many diseases,” Fulk said.
Asked if this is how DU causes severe birth defects, Fulk said, “Yes.”
MILITARY AWARE
The military is aware of DU’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A 2001
study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces
Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical
instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected
from its radiation effect alone, Moret wrote.
Dr. Miller requested that questions be sent in writing and copied to a military
spokesman. She did tell AFP that it should be noted that her studies showing
that DU is “neoplastically transforming and genotoxic” are based on in vitro
cellular research.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than
micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British
toxicopathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the
nano-particle is due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13
microns) in a University of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when
mice were exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the
mice died within 4 hours.
“Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation,
and ingestion,” Moret wrote. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can
easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the
most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood
barrier directly into the blood.
“When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb
directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all
through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted
uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought
processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for
the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the
brain.
“Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and nerves,
can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease
and Hodgkin’s disease.”
Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical
chemist and former scientist with the Manhattan Project and the National
Laboratory at Livermore, California, with Christopher Bollyn
Photo courtesy of Helje Kaskel