[NewsJournalOnline] 'Definitive Answer' On DU Sought for Troops

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'Definitive answer' on depleted uranium sought for troops

 

 

AUDREY PARENTE

Staff Writer

 

DAYTONA BEACH -- After years of veterans pleading for help with

illnesses occurring after service in the Gulf wars, the U.S. House

and Senate are calling for an immediate study of health effects of

exposure to a radioactive metal used in U.S. weapons and armor.

 

 

Lori Brim photo

Dustin Brim with his mother, Lori Brim, in the summer of 2004 at

Fisher House near Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington

D.C. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., co-author of a Senate bill on

depleted uranium that passed June 20, said other studies have been

done on the subject. Those studies concluded there was no evidence

that exposure to the metal caused illnesses.

 

" It is time for a review by the Pentagon to see if there has been

scientific progress that would provide a more accurate and

definitive answer to possible links to adverse health, " Lieberman

said in a written statement to The News-Journal. " This amendment

would require the Pentagon to provide that assessment. "

 

The House passed a similar bill in May, and details are being hashed

out in a joint committee. If the proposal becomes law, results of

the study would be submitted to Congress within one year from its

effective date. But the study comes too late for one Ormond Beach

mother of an American soldier who believes exposure to depleted

uranium in Iraq killed her son.

 

UNCOVERING A CONTROVERSY

 

 

In 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Lori

Brim's son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, died at 22 of very aggressive

cancers. The military physicians who tried to save him said exposure

to depleted uranium did not cause his diseases.

 

But Lori Brim took the whispered advice of a social worker there and

started looking into the issue.

 

She discovered political and medical controversies -- about whether

the U.S. military should be using depleted uranium munitions and

what effects exposure brings -- that have been raging since soldiers

began returning home from the first Gulf War with mysterious

ailments.

 

Though that war marked the first time depleted uranium munitions had

been used in combat, military sources have consistently discounted a

link. Risks of exposure are minimal and abated by training, they

say. And, they add, because tank armor and munitions made with the

extremely dense material are so effective, use of depleted uranium

saves U.S. lives.

 

Brim said she has been frustrated in her efforts to acquire medical

records that might offer evidence the cancers that killed her son

resulted from exposure to depleted uranium.

 

" I'm trying to share Dustin's voice, create awareness and make a

difference, " Brim said. " I believe to this day that, if soldiers and

other personnel had been made aware of the risks of exposure to DU

and how dangerous it is -- Dustin said he went for medical help 11

times while he was in Iraq -- somebody may have paid attention to

him. "

 

Brim said she has been unable to find a Florida legislator willing

to introduce a bill similar to several passed by other states,

demanding study of the issue and testing for National Guard members

returning from Iraq.

 

She also has been disappointed by attorneys unwilling to help her

and other mothers she knows pursue a class-action lawsuit against

manufacturers of weapons she believes are polluting the Earth. She's

hired Holly Hill author Lonnie Story to write her son's story.

 

BODY MAY BE EXHUMED

 

 

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, founder and head scientist at Uranium Medical

Research Centre in Toronto, Canada, said Brim could exhume her son's

body to be tested for radiation exposure.

 

" If I found DU in his bones, it could prove his sickness could have

been related to DU contamination, " said Durakovic in a phone

interview from Washington D.C, where he also has an

office. " Radiation will not decompose. "

 

Brim said that's too emotional a decision for her to make now but

continues to try to obtain the medical records.

 

Those who, like Brim, are looking for answers about depleted

uranium's health effects, " are facing a multibillion-dollar industry

making radioactive ammunition, " Durakovic said.

 

Attempts to talk with some manufacturers of weapons containing

depleted uranium went either unanswered or spokespeople declined

interviews.

 

The Department of Defense takes the position that depleted uranium

is the best metal available for tank armor and munitions to

penetrate armor on enemy vehicles. The military says that all

personnel who use such equipment are adequately trained to safely

handle depleted uranium.

 

Doug Rokke, a veteran of the Gulf War, who has a doctorate in

technology from the University of Illinois and was charged with

cleanup of depleted uranium contaminated equipment after the first

Gulf War, has been outspoken about the issue. He said soldiers are

not properly trained and that " medical care has been willfully

denied to a majority of DU casualties who are supposed to receive

care. "

 

He said he's not sure that, if the bill before the joint committee

makes it to law, it would have any effect on the use of weapons or

treatment of soldiers.

 

" The directive is to continue to use uranium munitions and avoid all

liability, " said Rokke, 57, of Rantoul, Ill. He said he is seeking

medical care for exposure to radiation from depleted uranium. " The

legal requirement to provide medical care has always existed, but

the military disregards that. "

 

The military said more than 2,100 Operation Iraqi Freedom service

members have been tested for exposure to depleted uranium, and eight

were found to be positive.

 

" All eight were involved in combat situations where they were

exposed to depleted uranium fragments, " said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick,

deputy director of Deployment Health Support in the Office of the

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, in a written

statement. " The depleted uranium testing that is done for the

military personnel is done at the U.S. Army laboratory at the Center

for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and at the Armed

Forces Institute of Pathology. " He said all testing is paid for by

the Department of Defense.

 

At Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns said her

recent studies should make the issue hard to ignore.

 

Her results -- published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at

a recent Society of Toxicology conference -- established that when

cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA, and the

cells mutate. She said exposure during the Gulf wars may link to

increased cancers and birth defects in soldiers and in civilian

survivors of exposure in the Middle East.

 

audrey.parente

 

Depleted Uranium in the News

 

Concerns over effects of depleted uranium are spreading.

 

· The Sunday Times, Great Britain, Feb. 19, 2006: UK radiation jump

blamed on Iraqi shells.

 

" Radiation detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in

uranium levels in the atmosphere after the 'shock and awe' bombing

campaign against Iraq. "

 

· The Military Vaccine Resource Directory, April 13, 2006: Gulf War

Vets Survey site now launched.

 

" Gulf Vet Survey, a dedicated group of veterans, health

professionals and concerned citizens, today announced they were

launching an effort to survey every veteran for multiple hazardous

materials exposure. . . . For more information:

http://www.gulfvetsurvey.org/BIZyCart.asp?

ACTION=Home & CLIENT=Gwlorg & ACCOUNT=1183. "

 

· Pal-item.com (a Richmond, Ind., news source), July 12, 2006:

Veterans being encouraged to get information booklet.

 

" Recently (Republican) Congressman (Mike) Pence's office sent . . .

a booklet that every veteran should have. Veterans may get it by

ordering it on the Internet at http://Bookstore.gpo.gov . . . It

also includes Gulf war health problems and problems from exposure to

depleted uranium. . . . The name of the book is 'Federal Benefits

for Veterans and Dependents 2006.' "

 

-- Compiled by Staff Writer Audrey Parente