Radioactive Wounds of War

[Guest guest]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082605A.shtml

 

Radioactive Wounds of War

By Dave Lindorff

In These Times

 

Thursday 25 August 2005

 

Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of

depleted uranium use in Iraq.

 

Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq

tour a year and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New

York State National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate,

Sgt. Ray Ramos, and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit

had accepted an offer by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan

Gonzalez to be tested for depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had

tested positive.

 

Matthew, 31, decided that since he'd spent much of his time in

Iraq lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he'd better get tested too.

It turned out he was the most contaminated of them all.

 

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of

their unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to

those with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand

had only two digits.

 

So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other

genetic disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for causing

her deformity and angry at a government that never warned him about

DU's dangers.

 

US forces first used DU in the 1991 Gulf War, when some 300 tons

of depleted uranium - the waste product of nuclear power plants and

weapons facilities - were used in tank shells and shells fired by A-10

jets. A lesser amount was deployed by US and NATO forces during the

Balkans conflict. But in the current wars in Afghanistan and,

especially, Iraq, DU has become the weapon of choice, with more than

1,000 tons used in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 tons used in Iraq.

And while DU was fired mostly in the desert during the Gulf War, in

the current war in Iraq, most of DU munitions are exploding in

populated urban areas.

 

The Pentagon has expanded DU beyond tank and A-10 shells, for use

in bunker-busting bombs, which can spew out more than half a ton of DU

in one explosion, in anti-personnel bomblets, and even in M-16 and

pistol shells. The military loves DU for its unique penetration

capability - it cuts through steel or concrete like they're butter.

 

The problem is that when DU hits its target, it burns at a high

temperature, throwing off clouds of microscopic particles that poison

a wide area and remain radioactive for billions of years. If inhaled,

these particles can lodge in lungs, other organs or bones, irradiating

tissue and causing cancers.

 

Worse yet, uranium is also a highly toxic heavy metal. Indeed,

while there is some debate over the risk posed by the element's

radioactive emissions, there is no debate regarding its chemical

toxicity. According to Mt. Sinai pathologist Thomas Fasey, who

participated in the New York Guard unit testing, the element has an

affinity for bonding with DNA, where even trace amounts can cause

cancers and fetal abnormalities.

 

Dr. Doug Rokke, a health physicist at the University of Illinois

who headed up a Pentagon study of depleted uranium weapons in the mid

'90s after concerns were raised during the Gulf War, concluded there

was no safe way to use the weapons. Rokke says the Pentagon responded

by denouncing him, after earlier commending his work.

 

No one knows how many US soldiers have been contaminated by DU

residue. Despite regulations authorizing tests for any military

personnel who suspects exposure, the US military is avoiding doing

those tests - or delaying them until they are meaningless.

 

" When we asked to be tested at Ft. Dix, they wrongly told us we

didn't have to worry unless we had DU fragments in our body, " says

Matthew. His buddy, Sgt. Ramos, who exhibits symptoms resembling

radiation sickness and heavy metal poisoning, adds that at Walter Reed

Medical Center he was grilled for hours about why he wanted to be

tested and was then branded a troublemaker by his own unit. Matthew

says Walter Reed " lost " his sample.

 

At the war's start, the United States refused to allow UN or other

environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now the United

Nations won't even go near Iraq because of security concerns.

 

" It doesn't seem right that we are poisoning the places we are

supposed to be liberating, " Ramos says.

 

The Pentagon continues to insist, on the basis of no field

evidence, that DU is safe. To date, only some 270 returned troops have

been tested for DU contamination by the military and Veterans Affairs.

But even those tests, mostly urine samples, are useless 30 days after

exposure, because by that time most of the DU has left the body or

migrated into bones or organs.

 

Gonzalez and the Daily News paid for costlier tests for nine

Guardsmen - tests that could pinpoint uranium inside the body and

identify the special isotope signature of man-made DU. Four of the

nine tested positive for DU; all had symptoms of uranium poisoning.

 

Even harder evidence may soon arrive. Connecticut State

Representative Pat Dillon (D-New Haven), a Yale-trained

epidemiologist, has crafted state-level legislation that Connecticut

and Louisiana have unanimously passed, authorizing returned National

Guard troops to request and receive specialized DU contamination tests

at the Pentagon's expense. This approach bypasses the Pentagon's

feet-dragging because National Guard troops fall under state, rather

than federal, jurisdiction.

 

" This was not a Democratic or a Republican issue, " Dillon says.

" These are our kids and someone needs to protect them. " She says that

since passage of her bill, which takes effect this October, military

groups and family organizations, state legislators, and even National

Guard unit commanders have contacted her for copies of her bill to

promote in their states. Bob Smith, a veteran in Louisiana who got

hold of Dillon's bill and spearheaded a successful effort to pass

similar legislation in Louisiana, claims that 14 to 20 other states

are considering similar measures.

 

If enough Guard troops avail themselves of the testing - and start

testing positive for contamination - it seems likely that reservists

and active duty troops and veterans will demand similar access to

rigorous tests, which can cost upwards of $1000 per person.

 

One way or another, the Pentagon will pay a price. " DU is a war

crime. It's that simple, " Rokke says. " Once you've scattered all this

stuff around, and then refuse to clean it up, you've committed a war

crime. "

 

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