Stop the BS of Depleted Uranium!

I'm sorry, anyone who took a highschool science class that talked about the table of elements, and had a class discuession on Uranium knows this stuff is not friendly to anything it even comes close to.

We use this stuff in Atomic energy plants, Nuclear bombs and alot of other places where the general public is not allowed to go near due to health reasons..

Chernobyl is another example of Uranium in a wide area effect.

Uranium is as safe as breathing asbestos, or eating arsenic..

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
Theres a good documentary out there called weapons of mass deception.
most people have probably seen it.

In one section, you see an Old Iraqi tank, that has been destroyed by a US tanks munitions.

The tank is rusting, laying half angled upwards in a ditch, with a large gaping slice in the armour.

The reporter, wearing a gas mask uses his Geiger counter to get a reading of the RADS..

and its screaming its little a55 off.

Yet, a soilder comes walking up, touching it, placing his body next to it, debating with the docco dood , saying it ISNT radio active. HE has been told its safe, so its safe.

This tank is DEFINATELY radio active because of the DU munitions used.

Prove the Geiger counter is picking up DU.
Russian tank also have radium and tritium used to illuminate gages, gunsights and other things in the tank.

You take any burned out russian tank in iraq and it will cause a Geiger counter to scream its little a88 off even if its never been hit with DU.

Heck you take the same Geiger counter and check your and your friends homes and i bet you will find something that will cause it to scream.

Check everyone's guns for tritium night sights.
or all old clocks for radium on the dials.
or the big one your smoke detector.

All these contain radioactive materials, burn them and they will contaminate the area.

Why do you think firefighters wear air breathing units in burning building.
we don't know what is being spread by the fire.

It takes a very special Geiger counter to tell DU from any other source of radioactivity.

And this special Geiger counter does not scream.
it measures the amounts of alpha beta and gamma radiation and the level of each.
Every radioactive element has its own signature.

the people troops doing the test on these burned out tank would have known this and used the right type of geiger counter.

Yet, a soilder comes walking up, touching it, placing his body next to it, debating with the docco dood , saying it ISNT radio active. HE has been told its safe, so its safe.

The troops just love to see stupid reporters and will NEVER let a good laugh pass by.

Likely by the hole in the tank the trooper knew it was not hit by a DU weapon.
Not all US anti tank weapons have DU in them. hellfire missiles. anti tank bomblets, shaped charge weapons, do not contain DU

Originally posted by drew hempel
Depleted Uranium goes into your bones and organs (thereby not showing up in urine tests) and the military doesn't want people tested for the radiation:

Blah, blah, blah.

I have heard it all before and it changes nothing. You can test for the presences of radioactive material in the body using far cheaper methods.

Why doesn't your report mention the fact that they were not using proper procedure in the presence of the DU? Why doesn't it talk about the other materials they were exposed to? Could it be that it is a bias piece and of no value?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Pretty sensational all right. I have a friend whose husband was a Marine frontline with the depleted uranium. He came home, turned yellow and died from it within 9 months. She was told not to even sleep near him as he was so toxic. The women in that area have stopped having children because it's so devastating. Sensational? If you don't near puke because it's hella sick do you have any sensations besides selfishness?

www.uruknet.info...

Here's what Depleted Uranium has done to Iraqis.

video.google.com...#

[edit on 3-3-2010 by drew hempel]

reply to post by drew hempel


What good is that piece?

How about a name so we can confirm the story with outside sources?

I have a friend of a friend who claims that DU is safe, so it must be just as true a statement as what you are presenting.

reply to post by COOL HAND


www.gulfwarvets.com...

www.bgs.ac.uk...

Parrish, R. R., Arneson, J.Brewer, T., Chenery, S., Lloyd, N., Carpenter, D. 2008. Depleted uranium contamination by inhalation exposure and its detection after >25 years: implications for health assessment. Science of the Total Environment, Science of the Total Environment v. 390, 58-68.

www.truthout.org...

Dustin Brim, a 22-year-old Army specialist had collapsed three years ago in Iraq from a very aggressive cancer that attacked his kidney, caused a mass to grow over his esophagus and collapsed a lung. The problems she saw during her time at Walter Reed, including her son screaming in pain while doctors argued over medications, had nothing to do with mold and shabby conditions documented in recent news reports. What this mother saw was an unexplainable illness consuming her son. And what she has learned since her son's death is that his was not an isolated case. Lori Brim has joined other parents, hundreds of other sick soldiers, legislators, research scientists and environmental activists who say the cause of their problems results from exposure to depleted uranium, a radioactive metal used in the manufacture of U.S. tank armor and weapon casings.

One veteran in that suit, Gerard Matthew, says not only is he sick, but contends his little girl's birth deformities are related to his exposure to depleted uranium. The deformity, Matthew said, is similar to many being reported within the Iraqi population since the first Gulf War.

www.gulfwarvets.com...

Reed says he unknowingly breathed DU dust while living with his unit in Samawah, Iraq. He was med-evaced out in July 2003, nearly unable to walk because of lightning-strike pains from herniated discs in his spine. Then began a strange series of symptoms he'd never experienced in his previously healthy life. At Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C, he ran into a buddy from his unit. And another, and another, and in the tedium of hospital life between doctor visits and the dispensing of meds, they began to talk. "We all had migraines. We all felt sick," Reed says. "The doctors said, 'It's all in your head.' " Then the medic from their unit showed up. He too, was suffering. That made eight sick soldiers from the 442nd Military Police, an Army National Guard unit made up of mostly cops and correctional officers from the New York area. But the medic knew something the others didn't. Dutch marines had taken over the abandoned train depot dubbed Camp Smitty, which was surrounded by tank skeletons, unexploded ordnance and shell casings. They'd brought radiation-detection devices. The readings were so hot, the Dutch set up camp in the middle of the desert rather than live in the station ruins.

if all the DU munitions are causing all of the claimed effects, using them should be considered a war crime, but good luck charging anyone from the US with something like that.

Originally posted by Travellar
The radioactivity of DPU is actually very small, such that most living animals are already more radioactive.

The danger is from heavy metal toxisity. Simply put, a battlefield contaminated with DPU is along the same lines of an ecological headache as a battlefield contaminated with high quantities of lead and/or mercury. Most bullets contain lead, and many high explosives contain mercury.

In other words, modern weapons are rarely ecologicly friendly.

DU breaks down into dust, which is then inhaled. Standing near DU is not all that bad. Breathing it is terrible.

Originally posted by COOL HAND
Folks,
Puke.

DU is only hazardous if you are present (at close range) when it vaporizes. Chances are if you are close enough to see it vaporize you probably already have other problems to worry about.

I would be willing to believe that DU was hazardous to your health if we had more stories of folks who load it getting sick, with proof that they followed all safety precautions when loading it.

1)When it breaks down into dust, it becomes part of the landscape.
2)Handling it is nowhere NEAR as dangerous as breathing it in once it has broken down.
3)You have got to be kiding me if you are denying the danger of DU. Seriously. That is appalling....

I'm sorry but I get so tired of this. You do understand depleted uranium has a multitude of uses right? The external rad dose is about 60% of natural uranium. It's used in tank armor, aircraft counterweights,RADIATION SHIELDING in medical equipment, industrial radiography equipment, etc... It's weakly radioactive.. Its used because of the density as opposed to the radioactivity. And chronic exposure can cause birth defects, genetic issues, reproductive problems and neurological effects. Now the depleted uranium is only .2-.4% u-235. And the DoD munitions are 0.2% U-235.

Now I hear how important this is to the UK. The US has the largest stockpile of DU. 480,000 tons. Russia 460,000. France 190,000. UK 30,000. Nobody else is close. China has about 2000 tons.

Now most DU rounds are incendiary. The rounds are most commonly 30 mm when we use them, and each round contains 280g of DU. Now other than the US these countries use DU: UK, France, Russia, China, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Thailand, Iraq and Taiwan.

Now the International Court of Justice has said that DU is exempt from the laws on poisonous weapons. Along with other nuclear weapons. Because their primary purpose isn't to poison.

Now DU is a Cat II nuclear weapon. Most governments accept that there is no conclusive scientiffic study that proves that DU munitions have a negative impact on the environment and human health.

Most sailboat keels are DU. Anyone have porcelain veneers or dentures? You've got DU in your mouth. Been on a plane lately? Whoa you've been really close to DU used as counterweights.

Now for you to be poisoned by uranium, well there aren't many ways to do it. Eat it, drink it, breath it or rub it on your skin. The biggest danger is it's pyrophoric. So when the rounds become incendiary the powder can get into wounds. And the radiation doesn't cause the problem it's the heavy metal toxicity. Mercury and arsenic are far worse for ya.

The World Health Organization has established a daily "tolerated intake" of soluble uranium salts for the general public of 0.5 µg/kg body weight, or 35 µg for a 70 kg adult. Your body has about 90 micrograms of natural uranium in it from water intake.


A 2002 study from the Australian defense ministry concluded that “there has been no established increase in mortality or morbidity in workers exposed to uranium in uranium processing industries... studies of Gulf War veterans show that, in those who have retained fragments of depleted uranium following combat related injury, it has been possible to detect elevated urinary uranium levels, but no kidney toxicity or other adverse health effects related to depleted uranium after a decade of follow-up.”[104] Pier Roberto Danesi, then-director of the IAEA Seibersdorf +Laboratory, stated in 2002 that "There is a consensus now that DU does not represent a health threat".[105]

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in 2003 that, "based on credible scientific evidence, there is no proven link between DU exposure and increases in human cancers or other significant health or environmental impacts," although "Like other heavy metals, DU is potentially poisonous. In sufficient amounts, if DU is ingested or inhaled it can be harmful because of its chemical toxicity. High concentration could cause kidney damage." The IAEA concluded that while depleted uranium is a potential carcinogen, there is no evidence that it has been carcinogenic in humans.

A 2005 study by Sandia National Laboratories’ Al Marshall used mathematical models to analyze potential health effects associated with accidental exposure to depleted uranium during the 1991 Gulf War. Marshall’s study concluded that the reports of cancer risks from DU exposure are not supported by veteran medical statistics, but Marshall did not consider reproductive health effects.

Now the biggest dangers from DU are for people hit by one of the rounds. And odds are they're dead. If they survive the impact of the round, they still aren't having any problems. I imagine if you unload a few hundred tons in a small water supply you might have some minor issues. But most of the comments I've seen people don't really understand what DU is.

And I'll clarify one thing to the OP because my post was soooo long. Uranium in MILDLY RADIOACTIVE. DU is about 60% the radioactivity of natural uranium. Heavy metal poisoning is a bigger concern. But radiation poisoning from DU isn't a huge issue. Utah has so much natural uranium everywhere and interacting with the air and environment that the OP should be amazed that mormons are still alive and well.

Stop eating Banannas too. They all contain Potassium-40.

Have you ever seen an area evacuated because of naturally occurring uranium? No. People live and work in areas with the equivilant of 100x what we've shot off in Iraq and they have no negative health effects.

If your going to worry about anything worry about the chemical issues not the radioactive ones. I can't believe people still freak when they hear the word nuclear or radioactive. Every time you drink water your ingesting uranium.

From actual measurements, if a tank crewman were to stay continuously inside a "heavy armor" tank that uses DU armor panels, fully loaded with only DU ammunition, with the gun pointed to the rear to maximize any exposure - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - he would receive only about 25 percent of the permitted annual dose. Since nobody sits inside such a tank 24/7 for an entire year, exposure levels from realistic times, such as 900 hours per training year, are about the same dosage you might receive from cosmic radiation on a round-trip between New York and Los Angeles.

Natural uranium isn't dangerous. DU is less radioactive. It's no more dangerous than lead. Stop fearmongoring and educate yourself.

reply to post by DrJay1975


All of these studies ignore waht I have already brought up. The use of DU, just as DU, is truly not that dangerous.

When the rounds are used or discarded, and they turn into dust, there is NO WAY to avoid breathing it in.

Let me repeat that. THERE IS NO WAY TO AVOID BREATHING IT IN.

Spew all the rhetoric about its radioactivity if you are so inclined.

But dont for one second think that those of us who are informed are going to buy into the deflectionary tactics when you blatantly ignore the ACTUAL MEANS IN WHICH DU IS DESTRUCTIVE.

reply to post by DrJay1975


Yeah if you study the DU -- because it's an aerosol at very high temperature then there are nanoparticles created which lodge in a person's organs and then migrate to the bones -- so the DU radiation is not passed out of the body through urine. It doesn't take much alpha radiation to do biological damage at close ranges -- if it's lodged in your bones and organs.

reply to post by Travellar


Actually it is hard to believe and over at ATS the constant mantra about DU is that the radiation is harmless -- this must be the source that Michio Kaku is referring to -- looks like solid results to me:

video.google.com...#

www.wise-uranium.org...

Ionization along the tracks of high-speed electrons in tissue can cause damage to genetic material in the nuclei of cells. Thus, a high energy gamma ray from Pa-234 is much more penetrating than a typical medical X-ray and can damage far more living cells. The many 2.29 MeV beta particles emitted by Pa-234 are extremely penetrating in body tissue (1 MeV = 1 million electron volts energy). Referring to the experimental data given by Gofman (Ref. 17), each one of these beta particles can traverse more than 500 body cells.

topdocumentaryfilms.com...

Just gotta add this amazing doc to this thread. Thanks ATS!!

Is Depleted Uranium covered under the new Healthcare Law?