Depleted uranium in Afghanistan: America's warheads of slow death

tehelka.com ^ | March 16 2002 | Robert James Parsons

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Every so often, we get some environmental "experts" who smoke too much grass and eat too many magic mushrooms moan about the environmental damage that we are doing with depleted uranium projectiles.

[Bogey78O]

Well it's more dangerous than lead. That's about it.

[general_re]

All that, and not a single reference to a medical study showing what the dangers of DU are supposed to be. And this part...

1. Radiation emitted by DU threatens the human body because, once DU dust has been inhaled, it becomes an internal radiation source; international radiation protection standards, the basis of expert claims that DU is harmless, deal only with external radiation sources

...is patently false.

[11B3]

A$$holes should just be thankful that the ammunition uses depleted uranium rather than ENRICHED uranium. (Wouldn't need to put tracers in anymore ammo.)

[spqrzilla9]

This article is a huge pack of lies. For instance, depleted uranium is not "nuclear waste". It is not the waste product of a reactor. Instead, it is what is left over from enriching bombgrade uranium. In essence, it is ordinary uranium with much of one isotope removed, that of U235.

The rest of the article is filled with similar lies to numerous to catalog.

[the]

Once again forces unknown greatly exagerate the toxicity of DU to further their anti-US causes.

See this article from Jane's Defence News for a brief but thorough analysis.

Highlights

Depleted uranium is only very weakly radioactive, and virtually all of the observed or expected effects are from nephrotoxicity associated with deposition in the kidney tubules and glomeruli damage at high doses.

...

The total radiation dose to the lung from even relatively high exposures to airborne depleted uranium particles is not remarkable.

...

There is no known or expected leukemia risk associated with small amounts of U-238 in the bone because the marrow is not efficiently irradiated.

...

As to its "heavy metal" toxicity, the closest analogy is lead. However, metallic lead has considerably higher toxicity than metallic uranium. Compounds of lead are much more hazardous than compounds of uranium since uranium tends to form relatively insoluble compounds which are not readily absorbed into the body. Also, lead within the body affects the nervous system and several biochemical processes, while the uranyl ion does not readily interfere with any major biochemical process except for depositing in the tubules of kidney where damage occurs if excess deposition occurs. Glomeruli damage has been reported at high doses as well. The kidney damage is dosage dependent and somewhat reversible. Lead bullets are probably more dangerous than uranium bullets.

(Emphasis mine)

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, on January 16 this year admitted that the US had found radiation in Afghanistan (10).

You don't go out and find "radiation" in the countryside, you find "radioactive contamination". This person's use of terms shows how clueless they are.

Think of it like dog crap: radiation is what you smell; contamination is what you stepped in.

[11B3]

Not "forces unknown" - we know who and what they are......

[spqrzilla9]

Depleted uranium is actually radioactive ... but in almost the smallest amount one can imagine. It takes literally billions of years for half of depleted uranium to fission. Dangerous radioactive materials have half-lives measured in days, months or years. Not billions of years.

So you are correct, that this is in essence a lie.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Hey now! Ain't no reason to have the facts get in the way of good scaremongering and hype to advance the liberal agenda!

[kimosabe31]

bump

[mv1]

Wonder what the long term health consequences will be for the Yugoslavs?

[TC Rider]

The uranium came out of the ground radioactive, it goes back depleted. Where's the problem.

As an added benefit, it should encourage 3rd world countries to straighten up and fly right.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wonder what the long term health consequences will be for the Yugoslavs?

Actually I would be a lot more worried about their poor economic status and standard of living. They're more likely to die prematurely from malnutrition.

[the]

Good point. How much damage can you do to people that go from age 12 to age 30 and change like this?

[Toddsterpatriot]

uranium-234: half life = 244 thousand years, 0.0055% of all uranium.

uranium-235: half life = 704 million years, 0.72% of all uranium.

uranium-238: half life = 4.5 billion years, 99.28% of all uranium

It's just about the least radioactive an element could be and still be called radioactive.