Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Twelve Essential Facts Americans Should Know About Depleted Uranium
by Barbara Bellows-TerraNova, www.oneperson-knowmore@blogspot.com , Updated 11/06/07, 05:30 AM.
1. Depleted Uranium is not "depleted" of radiation; 99.3% of it is Uranium238, which emits radioactive alpha particles at the rate 12,400/second.
2. Depleted Uranium is in the penetrators, bunker busters, missiles, tanks and much more which the United States and the United Kingdom both use and sell to other countries and political factions.
3. When Depleted Uranium strikes, it sharpens in an explosion of flames, throwing off the excess in vaporized particles that hang in the air.
4. Some of the Depleted Uranium particles are picked up by air currents, and can even move across national boundaries, while some move into the water and soil.
5. The vaporized Depleted Uranium particles easily enter the human body: by breathing them in, by ingesting them from contaminated hands, food and water, and through open wounds.
6. Depleted Uranium’s so-called "low-level" radiation actually only means that its range is short, making it an extremely effective carcinogen, as the larger particles move slowly through the body, attacking the DNA of cells at close range, often causing multiple cancers. Other effects have included damage to sexual partners and birth defects.
7. The Depleted Uranium’s radioactive emissions, activated in our environment by its use in weapons, will continue to bombard whatever is nearby – forever, essentially. It has a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
8. Depleted Uranium weaponry was first used in the U.S. bombing of Iraq in 1991, under President George H.W. Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.
9. Depleted Uranium was later used by President Bill Clinton in the NATO "peace-keeping" missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia. By January 2001, as the 2nd President Bush and Dick Cheney were moving in to the White House, there was a furor in Europe about the alarming increase in leukemia and other cancers amongst the multinational NATO troops.
10. The United Nations then sent the World Health Organization to investigate Depleted Uranium and its effects in the Balkans in 2001, but when the team of scientists and doctors led by Dr. Keith Baverstock, the top expert on radiation and health at the World Health Organization, came back with a report detailing the Depleted Uranium’s toxicity, the report was suppressed and not published until 2004 when Baverstock, no longer at the WHO, gave the report to Rob Edwards at Scotland’s Sunday Herald.
11. The current Bush/Cheney administration has used the lack of findings in 2001 by the World Health Organization connecting Depleted Uranium to health problems as their rationalization for continuing the use of Depleted Uranium weapons as the literal core of their never-ending Shock and Awe campaigns.
12. In spite of Rep. Jim McDermott’s (D-WA) amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2007, signed in October 2006, which calls for a study of the health effects of Depleted Uranium on returning soldiers, due now, there remains no federal program for all members of the U.S. military and National Guard returning from the Middle East to be tested and treated for the presence of depleted uranium in their bodies. There is, of course, a signing statement by Bush which includes the right to withhold information "which could impair foreign relations."
Still, there is hope.
Last week, on October 31st, the United Nations First Committee passed the "Effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing depleted uranium" Resolution, requesting that states and international bodies submit a report on depleted uranium to the UN General Assembly by next year’s session. The vote was 122 to 6, with 35 abstentions. The countries voting against it were the United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Israel.
Now, what we still need to know is:
Where do the Presidential candidates stand on this issue?
Who is willing to be the leader who will stop this?
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There are articles and documents that span decades which shed light on Depleted Uranium and the deceptions that surround it. The evidence is plentiful, often overwhelming, but one should be aware that there is also much out there that is designed to confuse the public and discredit the scientists and activists, and that has its effects on those who are trying to inform us.
That is why I've tried to be concise, and provide some links.
To verify or learn more, you might try your own Google search, and you'll see what the rest of the world knows.
Meanwhile, for starters I suggest:
Campaign Against Depleted Uranium.
http://www.cadu.org.uk/ Founded by one of the great long-time scientist/activists, Dr. Rosalie Bertell.
International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) is probably the best of the best all-in-one place
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/ . I particularly like their FAQs list at
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/8.html#4 . This is a site well worth looking around.
Dr. Keith Baverstock’s November 2001 report, suppressed by the World Health Organization is here:
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DU-Radiological-Toxicity-WHO5nov01.htm.Rob Edwards' article on Baverstock can be found here:
http://www.robedwards.com/2004/02/who_suppressed_.htmlFor insight into International Law and DU, I recommend Karen Parker, a Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Lawyer:
http://www.webcom.com/hrin/parker.html Scroll down on the page and you’ll find her documents on DU.
Representative Jim McDermott is here:
http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/pr061020.shtmlThe October 17, 2006 Presidential signing statement is at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/200 61017-9.html .