DANGEROUSLY HIGH LEVELS OF RADIATION MEASURED AROUND BAGHDA

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Monday, September 01, 2003 11:55 PM

DANGEROUSLY HIGH LEVELS OF RADIATION MEASURED AROUND BAGHDA

 

 

> PAPER: DANGEROUSLY HIGH LEVELS OF RADIATION MEASURED AROUND BAGHDAD

> Mon Sep 01 2003 15:05:42 ET

> EXPRESS [LONDON]

>

> SOLDIERS and civilians in Iraq face a health timebomb after dangerously

> high levels of radiation were measured around Baghdad.

>

> Levels between 1,000 and 1,900 times higher than normal were recorded at

> four sites around the Iraqi capital where depleted uranium (DU) munitions

> have been used across wide areas.

>

> Experts estimate that Britain and the US used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of

> armour-piercing shells made of DU during attacks on Iraqi forces.

>

> That figure eclipses the 375tons used in the 1991 Gulf War. Unlike that

> largely desert-based conflict, most of the rounds fired in March and April

> were in heavily residential areas.

>

> DU rounds are highly combustible and tiny particles of the radioactive

> material are left on the battleground.

>

> If inhaled the material can attack the body causing cancers, chronic

> illness, long-term disabilities and genetic birth defects - none of which

> will be apparent for at least five years.

>

> Veterans of the first Gulf War believe that DU exposure has played a role

> in leaving more than 5,000 of them chronically ill and almost 600 dead.

>

> The Royal Society, Britain's leading scientific body, described America's

> failure to confirm how much or where they used DU rounds as an " appalling

> situation " .

>

> Professor Brian Spratt, chairman of the society's working group on DU,

> said: " The Americans are really giving us no information at all and think

> it is a pretty appalling situation that they are not taking this seriously

> at all.

>

> " We really need someone like the UN Environment Programme or the World

> Health Organisation to get into Iraq and start testing civilians and

> soldiers for uranium exposure. "

>

> Evidence of massive uranium radiation has emerged in recent weeks. The

Fred

> Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle analysed swabs from bullet

> holes in Iraqi tanks and confirmed elevated radiation levels.

>

> Last month Scott Peterson, of the respected Christian Science Monitor,

took

> Geiger counter readings at several sites in Baghdad. Near the Republican

> Palace, his radiation readings were the " hottest " in Iraq at nearly 1,900

> times background radiation levels.

>

> Even the Ministry of Defence, which has consistently refused to accept

> there are dangers involved in DU exposure or that it has played role in

> Gulf War illnesses is addressing the problem. Soldiers returning from this

> year's conflict will be routinely tested for uranium poisoning. Professor

> Malcolm Hooper, who sits on two committees advising the Government on Gulf

> health issues, said he is not surprised by the radiation levels.

>

> He said: " Really these things are dirty bombs. Exactly the sort of device

> that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair keep talking about being in

> the hands of terrorists. "

>

> Dozens of US soldiers, backed by armoured vehicles and helicopter

gunships,

> searched farms on the outskirts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul

> yesterday in their hunt for followers of Saddam Hussein.

>

> THOUSANDS of Iraqis packed into northern Baghdad yesterday for the funeral

> of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric slain by a

> car bomb which also killed scores of his followers.

>

> A senior official in Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in

> Iraq (SCIRI) said the Americans bore some blame for Friday's attack as

they

> had failed to ensure adequate security measures.

>

> Up to five suspects, all of them Iraqi, have been detained over the car

> bomb attack, the local governor said yesterday.

>

> END

>

> http://drudgereport.com/flash4.htm

>