Battlefield

Contamination
Brillantes, Jane Marianne G.
 August 8, 2005
 A massive sandstorm that left thousand of
suffocating people hit Iraq
 Residents tried to protect themselves from
this fog-like cloak of orange dust
 What they do not know is that DEPLETED
URANIUM (DU) dust is usually so small
that it passes right through the mask
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/depleted-
uranium-tests-for-us-troops-returning-from-iraq-508667.html
What is Depleted Uranium?
 a heavy metal that is also slightly radioactive
 used in armor-piercing munitions and in enhanced
armor protection
 also used in civilian industry, primarily for
stabilizers in airplanes and boats
 what is left over when most of the highly
radioactive types (isotopes) of uranium are
removed for use as nuclear fuel or nuclear
weapons
What is Depleted Uranium?
 have chemical toxicity properties that, in
high doses, can cause adverse health
effects
 Depleted uranium that remains outside the
body can not harm you.

[Department of Defense, Frequently Asked Questions,

Depleted Uranium]
 What are other
weapon systems that use du?
 Navy ships carrying Phalanx rapid fire guns are
capable of firing thousands of DU rounds per
minute.
 Some Tomahawk missiles launched from U.S.
ships and subs are DU-tipped.
 M1 Abrams tanks are armored with DU, as are
British tanks.
 The A-10 "tank buster" aircraft fires DU 30-mm
shells at machines and people on the battlefield.
[BBC News, "US To Use Depleted Uranium," March 18, 2003; U.S. General Accounting Office, Operation Desert Storm: "Early Performance Assessment of
Bradley and Abrams," 1-2-92; covered also by Shirley, op. cit]
. [."Nukes of the Gulf War," John Shirley, Zess@aol.com. See this article in archives at www.gulfwarvets.com]

[."DO
D Launches Depleted Uranium Training," Linda Kozaryn, American Forces Press Service, 8-13-99]
[Shirley, op. cit.]
 DEPLETED URANIUM
 "When a DU shell is fired, it ignites upon impact.
Uranium, plus traces of plutonium and americium,
vaporize into tiny, ceramic particles of radioactive
dust. Once inhaled, uranium oxides lodge in the
body and emit radiation indefinitely. A single
particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can
devastate the entire immune system according
to British radiation expert Roger Coghill."

." ["US Shells Leave Lethal Legacy," Toronto Star, July 31, 1999; also "Radiation Tests for Peacekeepers in the Balkans
Exposed to Depleted Uranium," www.telegraph.co.uk, 12-31-02]
 WHY AND HOW DO
MILITARY FORCES USE DU?
 DU was dirt cheap, since it was the left over
material from processing Uranium into nuclear
weapons and was normally just being thrown
away
 It is extremely dense, which enables it to punch
and burn its way through hard targets such as
tanks
 DU is used extensively in all armor piercing
munitions

. ["Depleted Uranium: America's Military 'Gift' That Keeps on Giving", By Dan Fahey, L.A. Times, 2/18/01.]
 WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 A single particle of DU lodged in a lymph node can
devastate the entire immune system
 Once exploded, DU munitions turn instantly into fine
dust. This dust then mixes with the dust on the ground
and starts to kill civilians who breathe it into their lungs.
If people could avoid breathing this dust, they could
avoid contamination and prevent the onset of slow,
agonizing radioactive death. When a person travels
through the battlefield, they breathe in the particles that
are now lingering in the air, plus they get a lot of
radiation on their clothes.

["US Shells Leave Lethal Legacy," Toronto Star, July 31, 1999; also "Radiation Tests for Peacekeepers in the Balkans Exposed to Depleted Uranium," www.telegraph.co.uk, 12-31-02]
 WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 that battlefield soldiers who inhale or
swallow high levels of DU can suffer kidney
failure within days
 Other soldiers that breathe in lesser
amounts do not suffer immediately, but
have a high chance of breathing in enough
to cause serious problems later on.

["Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys In Days," Rob Edwards, New Scientist.com, 3-12-02; also "Uranium Weapons Too Hot to Handle," Rob Edwards,
New Scientist.co.uk, 6-9-99]
 WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 "Any soldier now in Iraq who has not
inhaled lethal radioactive dust is not
breathing."
 every single soldier -- and every single
civilian -- has tiny particles of Depleted
Uranium dust lodged in their lungs, emitting
radioactivity throughout their body 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week

[Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops", Worthington, Amy The Idaho Observer, 4/16/03]
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 DU emits alpha particles, which are 20 times
more dangerous than other forms of radiation
such as beta particles and gamma rays. Alpha
radiation destroys normal cells inside the body
 Although alpha radiation does not penetrate skin
or clothing, particles of DU can "cause problems
in the kidney or cause cells in the lungs to mutate
and become cancerous," says Douglas Collins, a
health physicist and an NRC division director of
Nuclear Material Safety in Atlanta.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 Cancer is initiated in a person when that
person ingests just "one alpha particle"!
When either a soldier or a civilian breathes
in just one dust speck contaminated with
DU, that person will ultimately get cancer.
The process may take 3-12 years, but that
person will eventually die.
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 Since D.U. poisons the air, the dust, the
water and the food chain, the battlefield
after the war will not be suitable for human
habitation.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/depleted-uranium-tests-for-us-troops-returning-from-iraq-508667.html
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS OF
DU?
 Bassim Hachem Thamer, a
formerIraqi Republican
Guard anti-aircraft gunner,
is supported by his brother,
Hadi, a week before he died
from Hodgkin's lymphoma, a
cancer associated with
radiation exposure.
Thamer's tank unit was hit
by American aircraft near
Basra in 1991.

 http://www.gulfweb.org
Protection
 Systematized information dissemination
 discipline, camouflage, cover, concealment,
dispersion, and immediate reaction
 soldiers take protective measures without
receiving detailed directions
Radiological monitoring
 detection of radiation and the measurement
of dose rate with radiac instruments
 a number of individual measurements
considered together can give a picture of
the radiation pattern over an area
 Avoidance of contamination
 Detection and Identification
 use of chemical-agent alarms and chemical
detection kits
 Provide early warning of contamination
 Determine the extent of contamination
 Find clear routes through or around contamination
 Identify the hazard
 Mark the contamination

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/71-2/Appe.htm
references
 REFERNCES:
 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/03/000328085443.htm
 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041104005801.htm
 http://www.merip.org/mer/mer211/211_peterson.html
 http://www.gulfweb.org/doc_show.cfm?ID=75
 http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/71-2/Appe.htm
 http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1877069
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/depleted-uranium-
tests-for-us-troops-returning-from-iraq-508667.html
 http://www.sftt.org/pb02072003a.html
 http://cuttingedge.org/news/n2063.cfm
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/depleted-uranium-
tests-for-us-troops-returning-from-iraq-508667.html