Cause Bulletin
Iraq littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, study finds
• Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites • Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in report More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war and neglect having left environmental ruin in large parts of the country, an official Iraqi study ha… Read More
Recent Cause Activity
Updated: The cause has reached 3,000 members.
Depleted uranium needs to become one of the top priorities for every environmental advocacy organizations in the entire world. The environmental damage that is being caused by these weapons is of an unprecedented magnitude and it will never be able to be cleaned up.
This is a new song demo that my sweetheart, Sandra, turned into a really cool video. I hope you like the message, "We Are One."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmvGU...
I'm writing a book on my story, which is absolutely packed with STORIES, of impossibilities I have helped make possible... thanks for asking.
The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq. DU shells can go straight through the side of a tank it says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term effects. It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is out of date.
A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years after it was used. DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser than lead, and very effective for punching through armoured vehicles. When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of a tank, it goes
straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of vapour. This settles as chemically poisonous and radioactive dust.
Risk studies
Both the US and the UK acknowledge the dust can be dangerous if inhaled, though they say the danger is short-lived, localised, and much more likely to lead to chemical poisoning than to irradiation. One thing we've found in these various studies is that there are no long-term effects from DU
Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, Pentagon spokesman But a study prepared for the US Army in July 1990, a month before Iraq invaded Kuwait, says: "The health risks associated with internal and external DU exposure during combat conditions are certainly far less than other combat-related risks. "Following combat, however, the condition of the battlefield and the long-term health risks to natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of DU."
A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, told BBC News Online: "Since then there've been a number of studies - by the UK's Royal Society and the World Health Organisation, for example - into the health risks of DU, or the lack of them.
"It's fair to say the 1990 study has been overtaken by them. One thing we've found in these various studies is that there are no long-term effects from DU. "And given that, I don't believe we have any plans for a DU clean-up in Iraq."
Part of the armoury
The UN Environment Programme study, published in March 2003, found DU in air and groundwater in Bosnia-Herzegovina seven years after the weapons were fired.
The UN says the existing data suggest it is "highly unlikely" DU could be linked to any of the
health problems reported.
But it recommends collecting DU fragments, covering contaminated points with asphalt or clean
soil, and keeping records of contaminated sites.
Reports from Baghdad speak of repeated attacks by US aircraft carrying DU weapons on
high-rise buildings in the city centre.
The UK says: "British forces on deployment to the Gulf have DU munitions available as part of
their armoury, and will use them if necessary." It will not confirm they have used them.
Many veterans from the Gulf and Kosovo wars believe DU has made them seriously ill.
One UK Gulf veteran is Ray Bristow, a former marathon runner.
In 1999 he told the BBC: "I gradually noticed that every time I went out for a run my
distance got shorter and shorter, my recovery time longer and longer.
"Now, on my good days, I get around quite adequately with a walking stick, so long as it's short
distances. Any further, and I need to be pushed in a wheelchair."
Ray Bristow was tested in Canada for DU. He is open-minded about its role in his condition.
But he says: "I remained in Saudi Arabia throughout the war. I never once went into Iraq or
Kuwait, where these munitions were used.
"But the tests showed, in layman's terms, that I have been exposed to over 100 times an
individual's safe annual exposure to depleted uranium
sorry for my sentencing accidently got screwed up when i sent it put sentences off a little i posit fine and it came out like this i also have one more thing to say
The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium
(DU) weapons it is using in Iraq.
DU shells can go straight through the side of a tank. It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term effects.
It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is out of date.
A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years after it was used.
DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser than lead, and very
effective for punching through armoured vehicles.
When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of a tank, it goes
straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of vapour. This settles as chemically
poisonous and radioactive dust. Risk studies Both the US and the UK acknowledge the dust can be dangerous if inhaled, though they say the
danger is short-lived, localised, and much more likely to lead to chemical poisoning than to
irradiation.One thing we've found in these various studies is that there are no long-term effects from DU
Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, Pentagon spokesman
But a study prepared for the US Army in July 1990, a month before Iraq invaded Kuwait, says:
"The health risks associated with internal and external DU exposure during combat conditions
are certainly far less than other combat-related risks.
"Following combat, however, the condition of the battlefield and the long-term health risks to
natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of
DU." A Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel David Lapan, told BBC News Online: "Since then
there've been a number of studies - by the UK's Royal Society and the World Health
Organisation, for example - into the health risks of DU, or the lack of them.
"It's fair to say the 1990 study has been overtaken by them. One thing we've found in these
various studies is that there are no long-term effects from DU."And given that, I don't believe we have any plans for a DU clean-up in Iraq."
Part of the armoury
The UN Environment Programme study, published in March 2003, found DU in air and
groundwater in Bosnia-Herzegovina seven years after the weapons were fired.
The UN says the existing data suggest it is "highly unlikely" DU could be linked to any of the
health problems reported. But it recommends collecting DU fragments, covering contaminated points with asphalt or clean
soil, and keeping records of contaminated sites. Reports from Baghdad speak of repeated attacks by US aircraft carrying DU weapons on
high-rise buildings in the city centre.The UK says: "British forces on deployment to the Gulf have DU munitions available as part of
their armoury, and will use them if necessary." It will not confirm they have used them.
Many veterans from the Gulf and Kosovo wars believe DU has made them seriously ill.
One UK Gulf veteran is Ray Bristow, a former marathon runner.
In 1999 he told the BBC: "I gradually noticed that every time I went out for a run my
distance got shorter and shorter, my recovery time longer and longer.
"Now, on my good days, I get around quite adequately with a walking stick, so long as it's short
distances. Any further, and I need to be pushed in a wheelchair." Ray Bristow was tested in Canada for DU. He is open-minded about its role in his condition.
But he says: "I remained in Saudi Arabia throughout the war. I never once went into Iraq or
Kuwait, where these munitions were used.
"But the tests showed, in layman's terms, that I have been exposed to over 100 times an
individual's safe annual exposure to depleted uranium
Sorry for mistakes in hand writing it's 1 am and there is no electricty thats the new Iraq !!
Stop nucluar weapons I get cancer from DU I cant be nother six chemo therophy but saved by a merical stop that dead we need life who pay the coast of war in Iraq ?? only civilain and children ..
THEY ALSO TEST IT NEAR THE SOLWAY FIRTH IN SCOTLAND WHERE THERE HAS BEEN A HIGH CANCER RATE AMONG HUMANS AND ANIMALS.
Updated: The cause has reached 2,500 members.
This is an issue that every one should be aware of. Treaties prohibiting poision on the battlefield came from it's use in World War 1 in the battles on Flanders Field where thousands of soldiers and civilians fell to their death from poision. Let's not let their deaths go unnoticed nor people in the Middle East who are being exposed today to the poision 'depleted uranium'. It is being used by U.S. Forces and some of it's allies abroad. There are also many testing ranges across the United States and abroad where depleted uranium is been tested whith little reguard to the environment or the health of the surrounding population. We need to stand up and be counted and demand that this horrible weapon is banned immediately. I urge you to send a letter to President Obama and ask him to stop our military from using uranium weapons.
Happy New Year and power to the people.
AUSTRIA against Depleted Uranium = DU!!! Please help?
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid...
Help us ban depleted uranium weapons because they are chemical toxic and radio active !!! They affect this generation and the future generations in polluted areas.
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I'm all for recycling, but there's gotta be a better way to get rid of nuclear waste than shooing it at people.