Scientists Urge Depleted Uranium Testing in Iraq

[sassa]

Scientists Urge Depleted Uranium Testing in Iraq

Thu Apr 24, 1:55 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Britain's national science academy has called on U.S. and British military officials to reveal where depleted uranium was used during the conflict in Iraq.

The Royal Society said on Thursday the information about where ammunition containing depleted uranium (DU) was is needed so a clean-up and monitoring program for soldiers and civilians can begin.

Depleted uranium is used to harden the tips of armor-piercing shells. It is 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium, but the Royal Society says soldiers exposed to very high levels could suffer kidney damage and an increased risk of lung cancer. It could also pose a risk to civilians through contaminated soil or water.

"The coalition needs to make clear where and how much depleted uranium was used in the recent conflict in Iraq," said Professor Brian Spratt, chair of the Royal Society working group on depleted uranium.

"Although there are more pressing problems in Iraq ... the coalition needs to acknowledge that depleted uranium is a potential hazard and make in-roads into tackling it by being open about where and how much depleted uranium has been deployed."

ASSESSMENT A PRIORITY: UN

The Royal Society's demand came as the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) launched a study on Iraq's environment, saying a scientific assessment of sites hit by DU weapons should be a priority.

"The intensive use of DU weapons has likely caused environmental contamination of as yet unknown levels or consequences," the UN agency said on Thursday. "Conducting a DU study would require receiving precise co-ordinates of the targeted sites from the military."

The report recommends that military personnel and civilians be given guidance on how to minimize their risk for exposure to DU.

SOLDIERS SHOULD BE TESTED

The Royal Society also wants soldiers to be tested -- those who were exposed to high levels and others from across the battlefield.

"It is only by measuring the levels of DU in the urine of soldiers that we can understand the intakes of DU that occur on the battlefield, which is a requirement for a better assessment of any hazards to health," Spratt said.

He added that it was crucial to know the exposures of Iraqis living in areas where DU munitions were deployed. "We believe that exposures to DU will be low for most individuals but we need to take measurements," he said.

[ghhhhhost]

this happened in my country too..

they brought in "experts" and determined there were "low levels" of DU...and then procedeed to make DU look like a condiment..like its on the nutrition pyramid...like something every growing boy needs.....by the time they were done i was convinced that DU was the greatest ever

[cintron]

Originally posted by ghhhhhost

this happened in my country too..

they brought in "experts" and determined there were "low levels" of DU...and then procedeed to make DU look like a condiment..like its on the nutrition pyramid...like something every growing boy needs.....by the time they were done i was convinced that DU was the greatest ever

it aint so bad with some fried chicken and some beans & rice.

werkz like Ex Lax

[sassa]

it's just mentally incomprehensible in a way how people. or rather human beings, can do these kinds of things to one another...really...

[cintron]

Originally posted by sassa

it's just mentally incomprehensible in a way how people. or rather human beings, can do these kinds of things to one another...really...

it's not as incomprehensible as you might think.

human beings have developed more efficient ways of killing one another throughout history. As the technology grew, methods of defense grew. The weaponry required to penetrate those defenses became more effective and deadly.

DU serves one purpose: to break through thick armor. It's not effective as an anti-personnel weapon or as an area munition.

Tank guns use DU or Tungsten tips in their armor piercing sabot rounds. The A-10's GAU 8/A cannon uses DU-tipped shells because its primary usage is to destroy tanks. Other materials or methods tend to be excessively complex and expensive, or simply ineffective.

Either way, it's in our nature to destroy one another. That's a quality that society cannot breed out of us regardless of how refined and sophisticated we become. As long as individuals exist who resort to violent means to achieve their objectives, there will be a need for weaponry to defeat those individuals.

DU has its time now, in the aftermath of the cold war, where the hordes of soviet military equipment have been sold to client nations or on the black market. Now those tanks that were originally intended for the european battlefield in the 50's and 60's, are in the hands of other nations such as Syria, Iraq, Iran and more. DU shells were developed specifically for the purpose of destroying that hardware as efficiently as possible.

When countries have no use for armored vehicles, shelters or other forms of hardware, we will have no use for DU-hardened shells to penetrate that armor.

My personal vote would go to munitions such as HEAT rounds.

[High explosive antitank]. These devices use a "shell within a shell", to explode on contact with armor. The explosion turns a solid sabot, imbedded into the munition, into superheated plasma. As a superheated substance, it easily burns through most armor - the armor actually liquefies around it, while the round flows like water through it. Once beyond the armor plating, the sabot round rapidly cools as the heat transfers from it to the armor or to the atmosphere. It solidifies into a metal rod again, impacting a solid surface inside the vehicle and shattering into thousands of red-hot shrapnel shards. Effective and deadly, but environmentally friendly.

Unfortunately, HEAT rounds are currently used only as main tank-cannon munitions due to the size and complexity of each round. Shrinking a 120mm HEAT round down to 30mm to fit a cannon such as the GAU 8/A would require a considerably downsized sabot round and explosive charge, effectively reducing the ability of the round to penetrate thicker armor.

there's my essay. take it as you will.