Very little literature directly addresses DU's health effects. However, extensive material deals with the effects of natural uranium, which is relevant to assessing DU's effects. Chemically, DU has the same properties as natural uranium. Radiologically, DU emits types of radiation similar to natural uranium's, but DU is 40% less radioactive than natural uranium.
Uranium is all around us. A heavy metal similar to tungsten and lead, it occurs in soils in typical concentrations of a few parts per million (equivalent to about half a teaspoon of uranium in a typical 8-cubic yard dump truck-load of dirt). The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) estimates there are typically 4 tons of uranium in 1 square mile of soil 1 foot deep[13] and that we add 180 metric tons (about 198 US tons) of uranium decay products to US agricultural lands each year due to the trace amounts of uranium in phosphate fertilizer.[14] We all take in uranium every day from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat. On average, every day each of us takes in 1.9 micrograms (about two-millionths of a gram) of uranium from food and water and inhales a very small fraction (7 x 10-3 or 0.007) of a microgram.Note that the uranium we're normally exposed to is 40% more radioactive than DU. It does seem to me that those who might be exposed should wear a breathing filter...in the U.S. army they would mainly be those who ventured near armored vehicles hit by American DU rounds.
Hope it was interesting...
I know I won't be the only one to do this, but...it's great somebody finally adresses the lethal effect of Democratic Undergound. Oh, wait....