Grassroots Actions for Peace

Media Release by Depleted Uranium Education Team, c/o Disarmament & Security Centre, PO Box 8390, Christchurch

Belgium First State to Ban Uranium Munitions; New Zealand Should Become the Second

On Sunday 21 June, Belgium’s 2007 decision to ban the use, sale, manufacture, testing and transit of Uranium in all conventional munitions and armour comes into force.

The historic and courageous decision by Belgium’s Parliament to lead on this issue came after its members unanimously accepted that a growing body of evidence linking Uranium with potential health problems supported a precautionary approach to the use of such weapons.1 In particular, their use by US and UK military in Iraq and Afghanistan has raised international concern about the long-term health effects, associated with mystery illnesses and genetic damage among veterans and Iraqi and Afghan citizens. This echoed experiences of veterans of nuclear tests, and from the Vietnam War when veterans were exposed to Agent Orange.    See [ entire article ]

The earth shaking under your feet, clouds of choking smoke, explosions like a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, mushroom clouds of pinkish-red smoke, suffocating gas, harsh burns on the skin, extraordinary maimed live and dead bodies.

All of this is being caused by the bombs Israel is dropping on the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, according to reports and testimonies from there. Since the first day of the Israeli aerial attack, people have been giving exact descriptions of the side effects of the bombing, and claiming that Israel is using weapons and ammunition that they have not seen during the past eight years.   See [ entire article ]

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has not done enough to find uses for the depleted uranium (DU) left over from uranium enrichment and should do more to avoid having to treat the entire inventory as waste, according to the department's own internal watchdog. See [ entire article ]

GAO Report Concludes Program’s Technology “Unproven,” Could Cost More Than $44 Billion Per Plant

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, welcomed the release of a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that calls into question the Bush administration’s plans to rush ahead with construction of commercial scale nuclear material reprocessing facilities and the spread of nuclear power around the world.

"This report brings a much-needed dose of reality to the Bush administration's eternally sunny outlook on this deeply troubled program," said Rep. Markey. "Given all the concerns over this administration's nuclear plans, GNEP ought to stand for Good for Nothing Energy Program. Congress has repeatedly refused, on a bi-partisan basis, to fully fund the president's requests for this dangerous and unnecessary program. Enough is enough, it's time to say goodbye to GNEP." See [ entire article ]

text  WASHINGTON - In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate "important individuals" such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military's pursuit of a "new concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking to contaminate swaths of enemy land or to target military bases, factories or troop formations.See [  entire article ]

Inhaled depleted uranium (DU) oxide aerosols are recognised as a distinct human health hazard and DU has been suggested to be responsible in part for illness in both military and civilian populations that may have been exposed.   See [  entire article ]

A VICTIM of Gulf War Syndrome has died aged 48 after a failed heart transplant operation, leaving two children.

Former Lance Corporal Terry Walker, of Wheldrake, will be buried tomorrow at a "semi-military" funeral - with standards borne in a guard of honour and The Last Post played by a bugler - in his home village of Wheldrake, near York.

His parents Ted and Hazel said today they firmly believed that while their son died after complications set in following the heart transplant, they were firmly convinced that his exposure to radiation and innoculations in the Gulf War was the ultimate root cause of his death.  See [ entire article ]

CAIRO, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - Iraq's environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country.  See [ entire article ]

BASRA, 31 May 2007, Investor Relations Information Network (IRIN)- Recent studies by medical colleges, and statistics from local morgues and hospitals, have shown a higher than expected number of cancer-related deaths in Iraq's southern provinces. According to specialists, the main causes are the increased use of unsafe products in agriculture and the long-term effects of war on health.  See [ entire article ]

There are up to 400 polluted sites in Iraq that are serious health hazards to the population and urgently need to be cleaned, according to a specialist in the Iraqi government. But ongoing violence, particularly the targeting of municipal workers, and a lack of funds is hampering clean-up efforts. [ read more ]

A spokesperson for Alliant Techsystems [ATK], the U.S.’s biggest [depleted uranium ammunitions maker, located in Edina] DU producer, has said that DU protesters at its Minnesota headquarters have no “impact on any decision this company makes.” Yet the company has removed all mention of DU from its websites. And after critics broadcast the startling images widely, the company also removed photos of its haphazard cleanup operations at a contaminated DU production site.  See [ entire article ]

UK and US forces have continued to use depleted uranium weapons despite warnings they pose a cancer risk, a BBC investigation has found.

Scientists have pointed to health statistics in Iraq, where the weapons were used in the 1991 and 2003 wars.

A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2001 said they posed only a small contamination risk.

But a senior UN scientist said research showing how depleted uranium could cause cancer was withheld.  See [ entire article ]

Veteran To Talk About Depleted Uranium:

>
> Herbert Reed
>
> SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) --
> A U.S. Army veteran of the war in Iraq will be speaking Friday
> night at the Socorro Public Library.
>
> Staff Sergeant Herbert Reed of the New York National Guard said he
> was exposed to Depleted Uranium while serving in Iraq in 2003, and
> that he has had numerous health problems because of the exposure
> which the Army and Veteran's Administration refuse to treat.
>
> Reed believes he breathed in DU contaminated dust while patrolling
> a bombed out train depot in Samawah.
>
> "Personnel from the Dutch army yelled at us to get out of the area,
> that is was contaminated and not safe," Reed told the Mountain
> Mail. "Not too much later I was experiencing pain and other symptoms."
>
> Reed said his gums bleed and a tumor has been removed from his
> thyroid.
>
> "I have rashes erupting everywhere and the itching is constant," he
> said. "I have migraines everyday, and my joints ache constantly."
>
> Reed said he told doctors at Walter Reed Army Hospital that there
> was something terribly wrong in his body, but they refused to test
> him for depleted uranium poisoning while he recovering from wounds.
>
> "They told me there was no test for it." he said. "But myself and
> seven other guys with me in the 442nd Military Police Company, the
> ones in Samawah, ended up going to Germany where doctors there
> tested us all positive for DU poisoning."
>
> He said everyday he takes several medications for his symptoms,
> inclding morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant,
> a stool softener, Viagra for sexual dysfunction, and Valium for his
> nerves.
>
> "I have to take the morphine every four hours for pain," he said.
>
> Reed, a 20-year veteran of the New York police department, said the
> U.S. military and the V.A. still refuse to investigate the
> possibility of depleted uranium poisoning of American troops.
>
> He is currently touring New Mexico as a Depleted Uranium Vet test
> bill is being debated in the Senate.
>
> Reed will be speaking at the Socorro Public Library at 7 p.m.
> Friday, March 16.
>
>
See [ entire article ]

Depleted Uranium Haunts Kosovo and Iraq

This book about Dr. Rosalie Bertell's life is set against the backdrop of the rise of the nuclear industry. Involvement in research on the Tri-State Leukemia Study started Rosalie Bertell on a road leading her to speak out against health hazards of the nuclear industry. This became her life's work. Bertell is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize).

A pioneering work on the use of DU munitions during the First Gulf War, its impact on veterans,and what the Pentagon should have done and didn't do. Contains many interviews with veterans . Gives political background to the issue of DU weapons, as well as discussion of scientific studies and US military memos. Meticulously researched.

The Woman Who Knew Too Much:
Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation - [review]

A critique of the philosophy and methodology of the ICRP (International Commission of Radiological Protection), an organization which sets safe radiation standards, with suggestions for better safety standards with emphasis on the dose of low level radiation on individual cells.

An excellent 15 minute video featuring Congressman Joseph Kennedy, Gen Calvin Waller, and affected veterans, and including video simulation of a DU shell hitting a tank.
Available through: American Friends Service Committee Film Rental, Paul Shannon, (617) 497-5273

Poison DUst - [review]

The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children