I'm not an expert on such things, but “depleted”. . .what does that mean?
From what I have read years past is the dust from the 30mm round (and anti-tank rounds) cause respiratory issues. . .if you live through the attack.
Depleted rounds are excellent at penetrating armor, killing the bad guys. What would you use in its stead?
DU is a hazard, but our troops were exposed to much worse during Desert Storm. During this period, I worked range support and worked on every type of weapons platform in the inventory. We cleared ranges that were so contaminated from DU that we ran beach combers to pick up the rounds (there were so many rounds accumulated in the ground that new rounds were ricocheting off the old ones—literally tons of DU per acre.) We also cleared the debris, to include disposing of all the targets after the tests—Swiss-cheese metal fragments coated in DU.
All of the personnel from our shop tested positive for DU contamination in the early 90s. I can guarantee that I and every one of those men were exposed to a level of DU never approached in any war zone. I don’t doubt we will all experience negative effects in the coming years, but none of the men ever showed signs of Gulf War Syndrome.
During the same period, many of my friends who deployed and did develop GWS as well as numerous unidentified illnesses ranging from autoimmune disorders to exotic cancers. Many talk about being downrange from burning bunkers, and various facilities that belched particulates and smoked for weeks.
These bunkers contained weapons and chemicals that were never identified and many were mixed munitions, the combinations of which have never been tested in any environment. Having worked chemical and thermal remediation projects, I can attest that the process to safely render such materials safe is a little more complicated than setting off an HE or thermal round in the middle of a bunker.
Troops in these areas were exposed to God-knows-what and the effects were much more immediate, debilitating and long ranging than DU exposure. There is a huge level of comorbidity (many overlapping symptoms and causes) such that it is virtually impossible to define root causes. It has taken decades to even catalogue the symptoms, with many vets being completely disabled and doctors are left trying to alleviate the worst symptoms.
DU is the bogey-man, but the truth is a little more complicated. Admitting to chemical stockpiles was politically inconvenient at the time and became even more so since the GWOT. Unfortunately, US troops have been in the same situation since the dawn of the modern era. We like to imagine that things have changed drastically since the days when troops walked into nuclear test zones, but they really haven’t. The fog of war can be literal, and that cloud is often more toxic than we are comfortable imagining.
The chemical element Uranium exists in several isotopes. The nuclei of all uranium atoms contain 92 protons (by definition: if that number were different, the atom wouldn't be uranium), but varying numbers of neutrons. All uranium isotopes are also unstable, that is they will naturally break down into two atoms of some other element, with corresponding emission of radiation. Natural uranium consists primarily of 238U (92 protons, 146 neutrons) with trace amounts of other isotopes. The most common (by far, and most important) other isotope is 235U, which will support a nuclear chain reaction in a nuclear reactor (or bomb), if present in sufficient quantities. Various processes may be used to separate these two isotopes, resulting in "enriched uranium" (greater proportion of 235U than normal) and "depleted uranium" (almost exclusively 238U). "Depleted uranium" is radioactive, but barely. "Enriched uranium" is used for reactor fuel or in the case of "highly enriched uranium" the fabrication of atomic bombs. "Depleted uranium" is used for balancing weights in aircraft, anti-tank ammunition, and feedstock for "breeder reactors" (in which the non-fissionable uranium is converted into fissionable plutonium; the latter a reactor fuel in its own right).
Hope this helps ...