Australia/Troops 'face uranium danger'

[cal04]

AUSTRALIAN troops being sent to Iraq in May could be at risk of contracting cancer or conceiving deformed children, doctors said today. The Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) has written to Defence Minister Robert Hill advising him against deploying troops to the Al Muthanna province in southern Iraq. Association vice president Dr Gillian Deakin said research teams had found depleted uranium wherever the US attacked Iraqi tanks using weapons tipped with the toxic nuclear waste.

"United Nations statistics for southern Iraq where depleted uranium was used heavily in 1991 reveal a seven-fold increase in cancer rates between 1989 and 1994," he said. "Congenital deformities of types virtually never seen in other circumstances are occurring in newborns in Iraq in areas where depleted uranium is present."

There is no proof that depleted uranium - nuclear waste recycled to make new bombs - causes the cancers and deformities. However, MAPW said alarm was growing among the international medical community over its possible effects on human health. "The South Australians sensibly refused to have it stored in concrete in remote parts of their state, yet our government is willing to risk exposing our troops to it," Dr Deakin said.

"MAPW calls on the Government to refuse the participation of Australian troops in any military activity where depleted uranium might be used or in any location where depleted uranium has been used in the past." Four hundred and fifty Australian soldiers will leave Australia in stages by sea and air for southern Iraq between mid-April and mid-May. Comment was being sought from Senator Hill and the Australian Defence Force today.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12677654%255E1702,00.html

[Something of Reason]

1. Well....

MAPW calls on the Government to refuse the participation of Australian troops in any military activity where depleted uranium might be used or in any location where depleted uranium has been used in the past

That would include pretty much every part of Iraq that a western tank or AFV has passed through.

[Massacure]

2. "toxic nuclear waste."

Their credability just went out the window right there. DU is not nuclear waste. It is a heavy metal like lead. Why cannot people get this seemily simple fact strait. :shrug:

[Something of Reason]

3. Agree

Unless you go out of your way to handle it, its not that dangerous. US (and I'm assuming) Australian troops, especially those going to Iraq, are given information on handling, dealing with DU weapons/fragments.

This doesn't help the folks in Iraq much though. Since the first gulf war they've been running around the wrecks to take scrap metal for smelting and sale. Most of that scrap metal is in the form of blown up Iraq tanks and many of them were blown up with DU shells.

[brindis_desala]

4. That report is factually accurate; the high rate of birth deformities

in IRAQ following GULF WAR I are also documented.

If US fights Iraq, it would use a weapon that left a radioactive trail in Gulf War.
By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

KHARANJ, IRAQ – The rusting tanks are gathered in Iraq's southern desert like an open-air exhibit of the 1991 Gulf War.
But these are not just museum pieces. This still radioactive battlefield - and the severe health problems many Iraqis and some US Gulf War veterans ascribe to it - may also be an omen of an unsettled future
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1220/p01s04-wome.html

Uranium shells held 'cocktail of nuclear waste'
by Jonathon Carr-Brown
MAINPAGE
SHELLS fired in the Gulf war and Kosovo were made out of material
contaminated by a potentially lethal cocktail of nuclear waste,
according to a book published this week.
The claim, supported by American army and government documents, suggests that the military in Kosovo and Iraq used depleted uranium (DU) shells containing traces of elements that indicate the probable presence of plutonium and other highly toxic nuclear by-products.
The allegations contained in Depleted Uranium: The Invisible War will embarrass the British and American governments, which have consistently denied DU is harmful, and enrage veterans of the Gulf and Kosovo. Martin Messonnier, Frederick Loore and Roger Trilling, the authors of the book, are convinced that the Pentagon has misled the world with claims that its DU is safe.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/waste-du.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0121-02.htm

[Massacure]

5. DU can be measured with a geiger counter.

It is 40% less radioactive than the uranium found naturally in the Earth. Birth defects could just be because it is a heavy metal toxin like lead, mercury, and arsenic. Those cuase birth defects as well and they arent radioactive.

[Nostradammit]

6. Oh... well, in that case, DU all around!!!

Belly-up, boys, the Depleted Uranium's on me!

[OneBlueSky]

7. that may well be true, but "exposure" per se is not the problem . . .

the problem comes when the stuff is aerosolized upon impact, creating a fine dust that humans and other living creatures inhale . . . that's what's causing the health problems and birth defects . . . and the use of these weapons is a war crime of the highest order . . . not only do they kill and maim, they also contaminate he countryside . . . well . . ., forever . . .

[Massacure]

8. That's what i've been trying to say.

The military acknowledged that lead causes environmental problems and stopped using it but refuse to acknowledge DU. They are a bunch of hypocrits. At least lead doesn't burn up into a fine vapor.

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. Australia has ordered new US tanks, specs require NO Depleted Uranium

.
.
.

They knew the dangers long ago

A contract drawn up last year between Australia and the US for tanks specifically required that armor and munitions NOT contain Depleted Uranium . .

BUT

a few thousand soldiers infected, and hundreds of families with deformed kids later - they take notice -

AND STILL

won't admit it is really the DU doing this

just a coincidence I suppose

as more than one DUer has stated, the military and others will dance around the RADIOACTIVE properties of DU, however, the most damage is done with the particles that are ingested by the person, by breathing or open wounds or cuts, and is laying around the ME by the tons in the soil, water and air.

Walking by this stuff is not that much of a problem - but disturb it - ya know - like kids playing in the dirt or climbing in and around destroyed tanks etc., - and you are at risk.

DU is the upgraded version of the infected blankets the US gave the native Americans over a century ago - planned genocide.

They are "blanketing" the ME with poison dust - while we watch

(sigh)