The Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium

[Guest guest]

http://www.tv.cbc.ca/national/pgminfo/du/index.html

 

 

Silver Bullet: Depleted Uranium

 

 

Depleted uranium is the super weapon of the '90s; used in the Gulf

War and the conflict in Kosovo. But now Canadian troops, soldiers and

peacekeepers alike, may be exposed to depleted uranium with its

potential danger. Now this threat wasn't one raised by a hostile

enemy, but by the arms used by the United States and other NATO

allies. They defeated the toughest armoured vehicles with the use of

depleted uranium. It packed a knockout punch, but what soldiers often

didn't know was that depleted uranium poses a threat to victor as well

as vanquished. Dan Bjarnason reports this cautionary tale. The story

producer was Marijka Hurko.

 

Jerry Wheat went off to war in the Gulf, He drove a Bradley armoured

personnel carrier for the Third armoured Division. Then the war

followed Jerry home to New Mexico.

 

" I have had real bad joint pain, abdominal problems, " Wheat says. " I

get real bad headaches. I went from 220 pounds down to 160 pounds for

no reason, and that's when I started suspecting that it was something

related to the Gulf. "

 

Jerry WheatThe shadows of that war eight years ago still haunt him.

Wheat brought back more than victory from the front. Awarded a Purple

Heart after being wounded in combat, Wheat came home with pieces of

shrapnel embedded in his body and with mysterious body pains. Jerry

Wheat is convinced these ominous souvenirs from the firing line are

connected.

 

The ground campaign in the Gulf War involved much fighting by armoured

forces. Wheat's unit was in the thick of it, and his vehicle was

accidentally hit twice by fire from his own side. What Wheat did not

know was that the shells that hit him were made from depleted uranium,

the pride of the American arsenal.

 

" It blew off my helmet and blew me into the front of the vehicle, "

Wheat recalls. " I could feel it. I could feel the burning because when

the rounds went through, the aluminum melted. And as it goes in you,

just burns; it cauterizes as it goes in. At that point, I felt the

shrapnel hit me in the back -- hit me in the back of the head. I had

second and third degree burns on the back of my head. "

 

It's the new wonder weapon the Pentagon calls a " silver bullet. "

 

What is depleted uranium? Depleted uranium is still uranium. There

are three types of uranium, U238, U234 and U235. Uranium 234 and 235

are fissionable material, the kind used in bombs. Depleted uranium is

what is left over when the U234 and U235 is removed. The remaining

U238 is still highly radioactive.

Depleted Uraniun shell

Depleted uranium shell A DU round is made from the leftover U238. The

killing punch comes from the solid depleted uranium metal rod in the

shell. A 120 mm tank round contains about 4000 grams or 10 pounds of

solid DU.

Depleted uraniuim shell

DU shell hits A DU rod is very dense. At high speed, it slices

through tanks like a hot knife through butter. It burns on impact,

creating flying bits and dust that are toxic and radioactive with a

half-life of 4.2 billion years.

 

In the Gulf War, the U.S. fired almost a million DU rounds, leaving a

battlefield littered with 1,400 wrecked radioactive Iraqi tanks,

crawled over by victorious GI's who were breathing in contaminated dust.

 

Jerry Wheat and the other Gulf vets were never told of the risks of

being exposed to a DU campaign. But after the shooting stopped and

back home in Los Lunas, New Mexico, Wheat -- now out of the army --

grew mystified as his health deteriorated. Military doctors had no

answers.

 

Wheat with shrapnelThen a year after war's end, Wheat got startling

evidence from his father -- a technician at the famous Los Alamos

Nuclear Research Centre, who just out of curiosity tested the shrapnel

that came from his son's body and gear. The shrapnel was radioactive.

Today, eight years after the Gulf War, that shrapnel still lights up a

Geiger counter. He also keeps other pieces.

 

" This is shrapnel out of my gear. And there was just a couple pieces

that I took out of my body -- a couple small pieces… I kept it since I

found out the vehicle was hit with a DU penetrator, I just kept it so

I would have it. Just kind of proof, " Wheat says.

 

The pieces on the table are not a danger, he says. " But if you

actually got a piece that was depleted uranium and you had inhaled it

or swallowed it or something, then you would have a potential heavy

metal problem, " Wheat says.

 

Jerry's great fear is that whatever he brought back with him from the

Gulf is now afflicting his family. His older son Joe was hospitalized

with breathing problems the day after Wheat dragged his contaminated

gear into the house. Derrick, his youngest son, who was born after the

war, suffers strange blisters on his hands. His wife suffered a

miscarriage. Jerry himself recently had a tumour removed from his

shoulder. He now worries continually about cancer.

 

Jerry says the military has never shown any interest in his shrapnel.

The military said Jerry's health problems are due to post traumatic

stress.

 

At the Pentagon, depleted uranium is no mystery weapon. The American

military has been testing it for 40 years, yet no one in the corridors

of power gave much attention to ensuring that American GI's knew how

to handle the new weapons system. Bernard Rostker is the under

secretary of the army, and he admits that over the years, troops were

given no proper training. Rostker himself reported in 1998 that

American soldiers in their thousands had been unnecessarily exposed to

DU; this seven years after the end of the Gulf War, when it was first

used.

 

Rostker " We were not diligent in training our troops, " Rostker says.

" That doesn't mean that there were any health consequences. These are

men who survived friendly fire incidences and have been traumatized;

some had been burned, some have lost limbs. So they are not without

health problems. But those health problems are not attributable to the

heavy metal toxicity or the radioactivity of depleted uranium. "

 

" So what do you tell the vets who are ailing from something and they

feel it's because of depleted uranium weapons? " reporter Dan Bjarnson

asks.

 

" We, first of all, don't believe that this is people's imagination. We

think people are ill. We have an extensive program trying to

understand what they may have been exposed to on the battlefield. We

have published over 23 reports. Unfortunately, we have not found a

smoking gun. "

 

The number of Gulf War vets who were in contact with radioactive tanks

or breathed in contaminated dust could be in the tens of thousands.

Yet so far, only a fraction -- about 200 vets, like Jerry Wheat -- are

being monitored. The Pentagon still insists there is not enough

evidence to link exposure with illness.

 

Doug RokkeDoug Rokke is a thorn in the side of the military today

because of what he learned eight years ago in the Gulf, where he

served as lieutenant with the U.S. Army Preventitive Medicine Command.

There he led army teams that cleaned up contaminated vehicles hit by

DU rounds. Now he is collecting evidence that the Pentagon knew of the

health hazards to himself and other vets all along. He now teaches at

Jackson State University in Alabama.

 

" It's obvious today that the military did know, but they didn't inform

anybody, " Rokke says. " There were two memorandums that came to us in

March of 1991 as we started the cleanup of the contaminated equipment

and the casualties in the Gulf. One memo was known as the Los Alamos

memorandum. "

 

The Los Alamos memo, written by a Lt.Col. M. V. Ziehmn read, in part,

" there has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of

DU on the environment. Therefore, if no one makes a case for the

effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU rounds may become

politically unacceptable and thus, be deleted from the arsenal.

....Keep this sensitive issue in mind when after action reports are

written. "

 

" The Los Alamos memorandum specifically gave us guidance that said

when we are writing a report, or reporting our findings, make sure --

make sure that we don't disrupt the future use of depleted uranium

munitions, " Rokke says.

 

Then a second memo, from the Defence Nuclear Agency, arrived about the

same time. It read " Alpha particles (uranium oxide dust) from expended

rounds is a health concern but, Beta particles from fragments and

intact rounds is a serious health threat... "

 

" The two memos, added together now after eight years of thought and

research and discussions now, in my mind, are very clear. The United

States and the world know about the health and the environmental

consequences of using this munition and they don't care, " Rokke says.

 

We asked Roskter, if there is no DU problem, why these warnings about

DU hazards issued as far back as 1991?

 

" There has been concern all along with every weapon, " Roster says, " We

have done testing on depleted uranium, from the beginning, to

determine whether it is of particular concern. "

 

After the Gulf War, Doug Rokke was assigned to produce a Pentagon

training video to teach soldiers how to handle depleted uranium. It

was a video that was ultimately shelved and never shown to the troops.

 

" There are four general situations during which depleted uranium

may present hazards to soldiers. One: if the equipment is damaged or

destroyed in combat or in an accident, " the video says.

 

Rokke " This is part of the training video that we finished in 1995, "

Rokke says. " The important part here, what we learned from our

research, is everybody involved in working with depleted uranium

contaminated equipment must wear respiratory protection and they must

have some kind of coveralls or covering that can protect their

clothes. What we learned, is you can't get this off the clothing. "

 

" In the Gulf, we basically just had dust masks. We were told that the

dust masks and the surgical masks would work and we could wear gloves.

And all we had was the uniforms that we had available. "

 

" And they knew no better; no one had ever hinted to them they were in

peril? " Bjarnason asked.

 

" And that's criminal, " Rokke replies.

 

The CBC showed that training video to Bernard Rostker at the Pentagon.

 

Rostker " Very interesting film, because you notice something that has

been very confusing to some of the troops. Some of them were in full

mop gear -- chemical protective gear and a gas mask. But they show

other soldiers who were in a bandanna. In fact what you really need is

a dust respirator and that's to meet the standards of the EPA. That

does not mean anybody who didn't meet the standards during the Gulf

War have levels of depleted uranium were likely to be impacted

permanently. "

 

The Pentagon built a high security, high priced, high tech cocoon at

the Savannah River nuclear facility in Georgia to process radioactive

materials from contaminated equipment. It has special walls and

flooring to prevent any air or dust from escaping into the outside

world. It's known as Building 101.

 

" If they're going to spend millions and millions of dollars to clean

up the contaminated equipment that's come back from the Gulf, which

you have seen here, then how could they say there is no hazard? " Rokke

asks.

 

" Look at the amount of effort we do to take asbestos out of a building

or lead paint. That doesn't mean that if you walk past a window that

has had lead paint that you're going to immediately get lead paint

poisoning, " Rostker counters.

 

Doug Rokke's experiences in the Gulf ended eight years ago, but he

still fights his battles with the Pentagon from his home in

Jacksonville, Alabama. He is convinced his health started to slip away

because of his work among contaminated vehicles over there in the

deserts of Iraq and Kuwait.

 

" The problems that I have are breathing problems. My lungs have scar

tissue in them. When I run or exercise, there are secretions -- fluids

just fill up in the lungs. I don't have the fine motor control to do

all the fine things that I used to be able to do because the nerves

don't work like they should. Eye problems, vision problems, kidney

problems, " Rokke says.

 

Rokke has one important ally in his fight with the Pentagon. He is Dr.

Jack Zerimba, head of the Gulf War Clinic at a U.S. Veteran's affairs

clinic in Birmingham, Alabama.

 

He studied Rokke's breathing problems and the scar tissue on his lungs

and says, " That is consistent with uranium exposure and other things

too, such as metal exposure. "

 

This official affirmation of a link is for Doug Rokke, his biggest

victory in eight years.

 

In Washington, the Gulf War vets have enlisted the attention of many

politicians. Wisconsin Democrat Senator Russ Finegold pressed for and

got an investigation by the high powered and independent General

Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

 

" The evidence is contradictory with regard to the connection between

depleted uranium and the many soldiers from the Gulf War who are

complaining of ill effects, " Finegold says. " Some reports indicate a

real problem here; others question it. I think we need an independent

investigation to determine whether this is really true. We have been

through this before with many years of denial with regard to Agent

Orange and its use in Vietnam. I don't want to see our government in

any way, in fact or in perception, stonewall this issue of the health

effects of depleted uranium.

 

In the latest chapter of this revolutionary new weapons system, DU

ammunition was fired in this spring's NATO war in Yugoslavia. As usage

becomes more frequent, for Finegold, the need for answers becomes more

urgent.

 

Finegold " Keep in mind that depleted uranium was used recently in

Kosovo and may well have effected people there as well, " Finegold

says, " This is not just old news. It is real current news for those

who are ill from the Gulf War. And we may be finding other people,

from the Kosovo conflict, who will experience similar problems in the

future because of depleted uranium. "

 

 

Canada once had depleted uranium in its inventory shells for the Navy

during the Gulf War, but they were never fired and are now being

disposed of because of the expense of special handling and storage

facilities.

 

But Canadian troops must still deal with DU in Kosovo. Some 1,400

soldiers are now on patrol as part of a NATO peacekeeping contingent.

They're equipped with small radiation detection devices and they're

also under orders to stay away from any damaged Serb vehicles they

come across; vehicles that may have been contaminated by DU ammunition

fired by American planes last Spring during the air offensive.

 

JerkowskiAt Defence headquarters in Ottawa, Brig.-Gen. David Jerkowski

is in charge of all the operations of all Canadian troops overseas;

their supplies and movement and safety.

 

" Our soldiers are not at risk, " Jerkowski says. " There are other risks

that are much greater than depleted uranium: there are many many more

threats out there: landmines, diseases, reptiles. It depends on where

we work in the world, and there are many greater risks than that. "

 

A Canadian Forces routine order refers to " the inhalation of

radioactive material as a primary health hazard. "

 

" It depends on who wrote that particular order, " Jerkowski says. " They

are making sure that our troops are going to heed this and stay away

from tank hulks, for example. "

 

But U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Doug Rokke, who once ran the DU Project for

the Pentagon, insists that an order simply to stay away from damaged

vehicles is far from enough.

 

" Just staying away from it is only part of an answer, because unless

the contamination is completely removed from all areas, how are you

going to avoid it? How do you avoid it on a battlefield that's

littered with uranium? "

 

Thousands of returning refugees are now fanning out across Kosovo,

through a countryside strewn with rubble and war wreckage. No one has

the particular task of keeping them clear of high-risk areas. U.N.

environmental teams are running tests to check for signs of

contamination; they need maps indicating where NATO DU hits were made.

The Pentagon has not obliged.

 

" I don't think it's necessary and I don't know whether they could,

even with any rigour, be created, " Rostker says. " I mean the targets

were combat vehicles and I'm not sure the pilots would have known

where they were. The best thing you could find is the destroyed

vehicle and I don't know of any that have been reported. "

 

The stockpiling of DU weapons is spreading. As depleted uranium is

becoming more, not less popular with the world's generals, more than

20 countries now have DU In their arsenals. If the lessons from past

eras are anything to go by, there is often great ignorance about the

path being charted when new weapons come along. For example when

atomic testing was all the rage in the '50s, or when Agent Orange was

used in Vietnam. When revolutionary new technology is introduced on

the battlefield, no one at the time has any real idea of the consequences.

 

Rokke " The next time we go to war, the enemy may fire uranium at us, "

Rokke says. " So whether or not we decide to have it or not, or decide

to use it or not, somebody else may decide to use it. We need to make

sure that everybody knows what medical care to provide and how to

complete the environmental cleanup. Everybody needs to know. "

 

The military predict that depleted uranium will shape the battlefields

of the future, but the future is already here.