Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq

Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq

May 21, 2004 — By Lisa Richwine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military should clean up depleted uranium ammunition scattered across Iraq to prevent future health problems such as cancer and birth defects, a leading anti-nuclear activist said on Friday.

The Pentagon said it had not found any evidence the material, which is so dense it can pierce steel tanks, causes long-term health consequences. An ongoing study of 1991 Gulf War veterans has shown no ill effects.

But Dr. Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician and president of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, linked depleted uranium to higher rates of cancer and birth defects in Iraq following the Gulf War.

Depleted uranium ammunition is being used by U.S. troops in Iraq and could seriously harm civilians living there in the decades to come, said Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-nuclear group that shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20040521_329.html


question - Dr. Caldicott - her name sounds familiar. Is the scientist who took the known information per the Anthrax attacks and wrote a report that zeroed in on the small number of people who could have been responsible - a report that (at least briefly) pushed those investigations to be more public/active again?

DU's foremost DU skeptic!

I seriously do consider using DU a crime against humanity.

Photos of its effect on children can be seen here:

http://www.firethistime.org/extremedeformities.htm

Dr. Helen Caldicott a Pediatrician has been relentless anti-nuke and peace activist. She is a remarkable person. If you are an activist and get down-hearted about the road ahead her efforts on behalf of humanity provides real inspiration.

*She founded and headed Physicians for Social Responsibility and helped start similar medical organisations in many other countries.

*She founded the Women's Action For Nuclear Disarmament (WAND).

*She wrote (Nuclear Madness.- What You Can Do and Missile Envy).

*She is Founder and President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute headquartered in Washington DC."

*She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling.

*She founded the Adelaide Children's Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Clinic in 1975.

*She is an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School specialising in CF and on staff at the Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, she resigned in 1980 to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war.

She divides her time between the US and Australia where she lectures widely.

Of course her name sounds so familiar. Thanks for the refresher.