Depleted Uranium: War Hazard?

[OneBlueSky]

I know there's some disagreement here on whether the other DU is actually hazardous . . . think I'll believe Dr. Doug Rokke, who has first-hand experience with the stuff in Iraq . . . the article's just over a year old, but more relevant now than when it was written, imo . . .

http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1687

It may be tempting to dismiss Rokke as a crank or a conspiracy theorist, but Rokke is 35-year-veteran of the U.S. Army, and he isn't just a disgruntled grunt. Rokke ran the U.S. Army's depleted uranium project in the mid-90s, and he was in charge of the Army's effort to clean up depleted uranium after the Persian Gulf War. And he directed the Edwin R. Bradley Radiological Laboratories at Fort McClellan, Ala.

Yet if you type Rokke's name into a search engine on any military website, you will draw a blank, as if he doesn't exist.

If you read through hundreds of pages of government documents and transcriptions of countless government hearings regarding the military use of depleted uranium, not once will you come across his name.

That is more than a little unusual, since Rokke and his team were at the forefront of trying to understand the potential health and environmental hazards posed by the use of depleted uranium, or DU, on the battlefield.

- much more . . .

http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1687

[FloridaPat]

1. Out of the 300,000 troops in Gulf War i, 100,000 are on disability

and 50,000 have put in for disability. As far as I'm concerned, Bush is responsible for any health care programs our troops encounter over there. I think this would be called criminal negligence?

[I AM SPARTACUS]

2. it would be call ed criminal negligence, except in front of...

...one of his recess-appointment-reactionary-activist judges...

[Katarina]

3. I had bookmarked this article from last year

It's worth reading . Rokke is included in this article.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4074.htm

[G_j]

4. WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears

WHO suppressed scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears

Edited on Tue Feb-24-04 01:33 AM by DenverDem
<http://www.sundayherald.com/print40096 >

An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret.
The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.

Baverstock also believes that if the study had been published when it was completed in 2001, there would have been more pressure on the US and UK to limit their use of DU weapons in last year’s war, and to clean up afterwards.

Hundreds of thousands of DU shells were fired by coalition tanks and planes during the conflict, and there has been no comprehensive decontamination. Experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have so far not been allowed into Iraq to assess the pollution.

“Our study suggests that the widespread use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq could pose a unique health hazard to the civilian population,” Baverstock told the Sunday Herald.

“There is increasing scientific evidence the radio activity and the chemical toxicity of DU could cause more damage to human cells than is assumed.”

..more..

[Cell17N]

5. Like a computer.

You can use it to flame someone online or to strike someone on the head with it.

Just like U-238. It can be used in more complicated breeder reactors. Or it can be just used for it's high density to pierce tank armor.

Due to lack of many breeder reactors second use is more commonplace.