Briton sues US giant over depleted uranium poisoning, could establish critical link for Gulf war veterans

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> " luckypig " <luckypig

> Sun, 11 Jul 2004 10:49:07 -0400

> Briton sues US giant

> over depleted uranium poisoning, could establish

> critical link for Gulf war veterans

>

> The Observer | UK News | Briton sues US giant over

> 'uranium poison'

> Landmark court case could establish critical link

> for Gulf war veterans

>

> Antony Barnett, public affairs editor

> Sunday July 11, 2004

> The Observer

>

> A former British defence worker has won legal aid to

> sue the giant US

> military corporation Honeywell over claims that he

> was poisoned by depleted

> uranium while working at its Somerset factory.

> The case is likely to have far-reaching implications

> for Gulf war veterans,

> aerospace workers and civilians living in former war

> zones.

> Richard 'Nibby' David, 49, suffers from serious

> respiratory problems, kidney

> defects and finds it extremely painful to move his

> limbs. Medical tests have

> revealed mutations to his DNA and damage to his

> chromosomes which he alleges

> has been caused by depleted uranium poisoning (DU),

> a radioactive waste

> product from the nuclear power industry that is used

> for shells because it

> can smash through tank armour.

> Millions of tonnes of DU shells have been fired by

> US and British forces in

> Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has also been used

> as ballast in aircraft

> and counterweights on helicopter blades. While it is

> believed to be

> relatively harmless lying in the soil, a growing

> body of scientists believe

> that when its fine dust is inhaled it can cause a

> range of cancers, kidney

> damage and birth defects.

> It has been alleged that DU used in the 1991 Gulf

> war was responsible for

> abnormally high levels of childhood leukaemia and

> birth defects in Iraq.

> France, Spain and Italy claim soldiers who served in

> Bosnia and Kosovo,

> where Nato used DU shells, have contracted cancers.

> It is also believed to

> be a possible cause of Gulf war syndrome, which has

> left thousand of

> veterans with mysterious health problems.

> While the defence and nuclear industries have played

> down the danger of DU,

> David's case is the first time that the arguments

> will be heard before a

> court. Should he win, the verdict will send

> shockwaves through the military

> establishment as it could pave the way for huge

> compensation claims against

> the armed forces. He also believes that dozens of

> his fellow workers at the

> Honeywell site in Yeovil have also suffered. A

> number of his closest

> colleagues have died or contracted liver cancers.

> Although the Legal Aid Board does not back personal

> injury claims, it

> decided that David's case was in the 'wider public

> interest'. The decision

> was a major victory after an eight-year struggle for

> justice after ill

> health forced him to give up his job in 1995 as a

> component fitter for

> Normalair Garrett, the Yeovil firm now owned by

> Honeywell, which makes parts

> for most of the world's fighter planes and bombers.

> After being struck down by a disorder that left him

> paralysed with pain and

> unable to breathe properly, David began looking for

> clues as to the cause.

> The breakthrough came in September 1995 while

> watching a news bulletin on

> Gulf war syndrome on which he saw how a UK army

> major struggled to get out

> of her car.

> 'I was in unbearable pain and unable to move. I

> thought I was going to die,'

> he said. 'But when I saw this woman major trying to

> move and saw the intense

> pain in her eyes I immediately knew she was

> suffering like me.'

> David had never been in the armed forces or the

> Middle East, but was

> convinced there was a link between his illness and

> those suffered by former

> Gulf troops. But it was not until February 1999 that

> the possibility that DU

> was the cause came when he heard a talk by US

> scientist Dr Asaf Durakovic, a

> former military doctor and nuclear medicine expert.

> Durakovic suggested that

> the debilitating, in some cases fatal, illnesses

> suffered by Gulf veterans

> were not necessarily caused by a cocktail of

> vaccines, as some claimed, but

> by DU poisoning.

> Durakovic decided to test the urine samples of 15 UK

> Gulf veterans and

> agreed to include David's. Six months later, the

> results showed that he had

> one of the highest levels of uranium contamination

> out of all the samples.

> 'It was unbelievable,' said David. 'I didn't know

> whether to laugh or cry.

> On one hand it gave an answer to why I was

> suffering, but also the knowledge

> I would never recover. Above all I was confused. How

> could I have been

> contaminated in England?'

> The answer was not long in coming. DU is a man-made

> material and experts

> told him that the most likely route of his

> contamination was his workplace.

> David decided to sue Honeywell Aerospace, but

> without being able to pay for

> lawyers it was impossible to collect evidence. But

> now he has been awarded

> legal aid he hopes to be represented by barrister

> Michael Mansfield QC and

> intends to call a stream of world experts to back

> his claim.

> One is Malcolm Hooper, emeritus professor of

> medicinal chemistry and chief

> scientific adviser to the Gulf Veterans'

> Association.

> 'This case will be highly significant not only for

> soldiers but for many

> others. We know of cases where firemen have had to

> deal with fires caused by

> burning DU at factories and prison officers have

> also been contaminated by

> inhaling fumes. I am in no doubt that inhaling DU

> has the potential to cause

> a great deal of damage.'

> Honeywell has declined to comment on details of the

> case, but will claim it

> never used DU at Yeovil. However, it is known that

> another aerospace group,

> Westland, which shared the Somerset site, has

> admitted using DU from 1966

> until 1982 as counterweights for helicopter blades.

> David also claims

> Honeywell used special heavy metal alloys for making

> components which he

> believes may have contained DU.

>

>

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