Pakistan
may use it against India
in future.
By
Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
Recently I got the chance to see a film on uranium disaster.
Film was based on the effect of depleted uranium used in the wars of Iraq and Bosnia. Still today many people in
the world are unaware of the effects of the radioactive radiation. Information
on children dying due to cancer after the war were reported and published.
Thousands and thousands of people, including many children,
died after the war in Bosnia
from the use of depleted uranium projectiles. Completely healthy people who
have lived or are still living in locations were targeted missiles out of the
blue they got cancer or leukemia and after a longer or shorter disease died.
For the first time this scientific report on poisoning was confirmed in the
movie “Deadly Dust” by German author Frider Wagner.
According to Wagner, one-third or half of the particles that
remain in the affected area are tiny, "fine" dust. Inhalation it
stays in the lungs person who happened to be at the scene of the explosion and
the continuously radiates lethal radiation. The consequence is a range of
diseases, most cancer and leukemia, miscarriages in women, dry blood vessels
and, subsequently, a number of genetic deformities. Children were born deformed
or dead, no limbs, ears, nose, eyes, and even the head.
Increased rates of immune system disorders and other
wide-ranging symptoms, including chronic pain, fatigue and memory loss, have
been reported in over one quarter of combat veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Combustion
products from depleted uranium munitions are being considered as one of the
potential causes by the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans'
Illnesses, as DU was used in 30 mm and smaller caliber machine-gun bullets
on a large scale for the first time in the Gulf War. Veterans of the conflicts
in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia
and Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome
abnormalities in their genes. Increased
rates of immune system disorders and other wide-ranging symptoms, including
chronic pain, fatigue and memory loss, have been reported in over one quarter
of combat veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. Combustion products from depleted
uranium munitions are being considered as one of the potential causes by the
Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, as DU was used in
30 mm and smaller caliber machine-gun bullets on a large scale for the
first time in the Gulf War. Veterans of the conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and
Kosovo have been found to have up to 14 times the usual level of chromosome
abnormalities in their genes.
The tests found radiation at two sites in the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici and one in Han Pijesak, in the Bosnian Serb republic, according to preliminary results released by the United Nations Environmental Program.
During its 1995 bombings of Serb positions around Sarajevo, NATO used munitions containing depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive heavy metal that is used to pierce armor. The Bosnian government said about 10,800 rounds with the material were fired in its territory.
Once lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and create an up to 100-fold increase in uranium levels in groundwater, according to the U.N. Environmental Program.
Depleted uranium (DU) was widely used in tank kinetic energy
penetrator and auto cannon rounds for the first time in the Gulf War and has
been suggested as a possible cause of Gulf War syndrome.
Troops responsible for cleaning up Iraqi ammunition dumps may have been exposed to depleted uranium, a form of uranium used in munitions because of its density and metallurgical properties.
Depleted uranium has been used in at least the last four
wars by the United States
and its allies: Gulf War 1, Bosnia
and Kosovo in the Balkans, Afghanistan
and Gulf War 2. The last two of the four wars, took place in 2001 (Afghanistan) and 2003 (Iraq). Effects
of the contamination can manifest from within a few hours to five years.
Increases in the rate of birth defects for children born to Gulf War veterans have been reported. A 2001 survey of 15,000 U.S. Gulf War combat veterans and 15,000 control veterans found that the Gulf War veterans were 1.8 (fathers) to 2.8 (mothers) times as likely to report having children with birth defects. After examination of children's medical records two years later, the birth defect rate increased by more than 20%.
Tests of 5 Gulf War Veterans in 2007 and analyzed by Wayne State University Medical staff revealed the 5 Veterans studied have severe chromosome damage. The damage uncovered is 10 times the level found in the normal population. The chromosome damage is similar to that seen when exposed to Alpha radiation and could be related to Depleted Uranium munitions exposure. Further, more widespread tests need to be conducted before conclusions can be drawn from this research.
Since 2001, medical personnel at the Basra hospital in southern Iraq have reported a sharp increase in the incidence of child leukemia and genetic malformation among babies born in the decade following the Gulf War. Iraqi doctors attributed these malformations to possible long-term effects of DU, an opinion which was echoed by several newspapers.
Hospital statistics in Basra
document that cancer rates are indeed on the rise. In 1988, there were 11 cases
of cancer per 100,000 people in the city. By 2001, that number had increased to
116 per 100,000.
Iraq's
1999 National Cancer Registry in Baghdad, also
noted an alarming increase in leukemia cases, particularly near Basra. Countrywide, the
number of overall cancer cases has grown steadily since the Gulf War, with
7,481 cases in 1989 and 8,592 in 1997, according to registry statistics.
Doctors in Basra
say that they have no explanation other than depleted uranium for the rise in
cancer cases, even factoring in the growing population and greater awareness of
cancer symptoms. 'The only factor that has changed here since the '91 war is
radiation.
The water, soil and air in large areas of Iraq, including Baghdad, are contaminated with depleted
uranium that has a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years.
Accounts of children being born with cancer and birth
defects have been highlighted in German newspaper Der Spiegel, where Iraqis who
were interviewed were not sure of the explanation behind so many dead and
deformed newborn babies in the Iraqi city of Basra.
"Some had only one eye in the forehead. Or two heads,”
Askar Bin Said, an Iraqi graveyard owner, told the newspaper, describing some
of the dead newborn babies that are buried in his cemetery.
“One had a tail like a skinned lamb. Another one looked like a perfectly normal child, but with a monkey's face. Or the girl whose legs had grown together, half fish, half human," he added.
The report cites a study published in the Germany-based Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology saying there was a “sevenfold increase in the number of birth defects in Basra between 1994 and 2003. Of 1,000 live births, 23 had birth defects,” adding that similar high numbers were reported from the city of Fallujah.
“One had a tail like a skinned lamb. Another one looked like a perfectly normal child, but with a monkey's face. Or the girl whose legs had grown together, half fish, half human," he added.
The report cites a study published in the Germany-based Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology saying there was a “sevenfold increase in the number of birth defects in Basra between 1994 and 2003. Of 1,000 live births, 23 had birth defects,” adding that similar high numbers were reported from the city of Fallujah.
War of Iraq
(Gulf War):
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and
occupation of neighboring Kuwait
in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt
called on the United States
and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security
Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the
Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation
Desert Storm. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in
the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a
cease-fire on February 28; by that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or
fled.
Gulf War II:
The 2003 Invasion of Iraq (19 March – 1 May 2003),
was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi
Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United
Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam
Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations. The invasion phase consisted of
a conventionally fought war which concluded with the capture of the Iraq capital Baghdad
by United States
forces.
War of Bosnia:
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communist system at the end of the Cold War. The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1 March 1992 and 14 December 1995. Bosnia's war, which witnessed the worst atrocities Europe, has seen since the Second World War.
The internecine conflict between the Serb, Croat and Muslim communities is remembered worldwide for the horrific scenes of ethnic cleansing, concentration camps and mass graves.
By the end of the war in 1995, more than 100,000 people had been killed and almost a million more injured and displaced.
What is Gulf War syndrome?
In the early 1990s, about 700,000 US troops were deployed to the Middle East to take part in a 5-week air bombing campaign and a 5-day ground operation that involved almost no traditional combat. Of these soldiers, about 150,000 subsequently became ill, almost all had to leave the service, and many remain unemployable.
Gulf War syndrome (GWS), affecting a number of men and women who served in the Persian Gulf War, represents a group of medical and psychological complaints, including fatigue, respiratory illness, muscular pain, spasms, skin rash, memory loss, dizziness, peripheral numbness, and sleep disturbances.
The postulations being most scrutinized are exposure to
toxins in the environment (such as oil fires), chemical and biological weapons,
low-level uranium exposure, an immune reaction to a drug administered to
protect against attacks of Soman (a nerve gas), dust, and even the
immunizations (specifically, the anthrax vaccine and polio booster) given to
the troops prior to deployment.
A total of 24 soldiers from Europe have died of cancer since
their 1994 and '95 service in Bosnia.
In response, Portugal's
Prime Minister Antonio Guterres wrote to NATO's Robertson demanding an explanation
of where and why DU munitions were used in Europe.
Between 300 and 800 tons of DU munitions were blasted into Iraq, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait by U.S. forces in
1991. The Pentagon says the U.S. fired about 10,800 DU rounds -- close to three
tons -- into Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. More than 31,000 rounds, about 10 tons,
were shot into Kosovo in 1999 according to NATO.
Toxic, radioactive uranium-238 so-called depleted uranium --
used in munitions, missiles and tank armor may be responsible for deadly health
consequences among U.S. and allied troops and populations in bombed areas, and
has probably caused permanent radioactive contamination of large parts of Iraq,
Bosnia, Kosovo and perhaps Afghanistan. Depleted uranium
"penetrators" as they are called burn on impact and up to 70 percent
of the DU is released (aerosolized) as toxic and radioactive dust that can be
inhaled and ingested and later trapped in the lungs or kidneys.
The primary radiation danger from depleted uranium is due to
alpha particles, which do not travel far through air, and do not penetrate
clothing. Thus, the primary concern is internal exposure, due to inhalation,
ingestion or shrapnel contamination.
Mystery of Depleted Uranium:
After more than 50 years producing atomic weapons and nuclear
energy, the USA has 500,000 tonnes of depleted
uranium stored, according to official data. Depleted uranium is radioactive
also and has an average lifetime of 4.5 thousand million years. This is why
such waste has to be stored safely for an indefinite period of time, an extremely
costly procedure. In order to save money and empty their tanks, the Department
of Defence and Energy assigns depleted uranium free of charge to national and
foreign armament companies. Apart from the USA, countries like the United
Kingdom, France, Canada, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Gulf monarchies,
Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan or Japan purchase or manufacture weapons with
depleted uranium.
The use of DU in munitions is controversial because of
questions about potential long-term health effects. Normal functioning of the kidney,
brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems can be affected by uranium
exposure, because uranium is a toxic metal. It is weakly radioactive and
remains so because of its long radioactive half-life (4.468 billion years for uranium-238,
700 million years for uranium-235). The biological half-life (the average time
it takes for the human body to eliminate half the amount in the body) for
uranium is about 15 days. The aerosol or palliation frangible powder produced
during impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially
contaminate wide areas around the impact sites, leading to possible inhalation
by human beings.
Natural uranium metal contains about 0.71% U-235, 99.28% U-238,
and about 0.0054% U-234. In order to produce enriched uranium, the process of isotope
separation removes a substantial portion of the U-235 for use in nuclear power,
weapons, or other uses. The remainder, depleted uranium, contains only
0.2% to 0.4% U-235. Because natural uranium begins with such a low percentage
of U-235, enrichment produces large quantities of depleted uranium. For
example, producing 1 kg of 5% enriched uranium requires 11.8 kg of
natural uranium, and leaves about 10.8 kg of depleted uranium with only
0.3% U-235 remaining. Natural uranium metal contains about 0.71% U-235, 99.28% U-238,
and about 0.0054% U-234. In order to produce enriched uranium, the process of isotope
separation removes a substantial portion of the U-235 for use in nuclear power,
weapons, or other uses. The remainder, depleted uranium, contains only
0.2% to 0.4% U-235. Because natural uranium begins with such a low percentage
of U-235, enrichment produces large quantities of depleted uranium. For
example, producing 1 kg of 5% enriched uranium requires 11.8 kg of
natural uranium, and leaves about 10.8 kg of depleted uranium with only
0.3% U-235 remaining.
Depleted Uranium is also produced by recycling 'spent'
nuclear fuel, in which case it contains traces of Pu and Np and has therefore been called 'dirty DU'.
A 1995 technical report issued by the American Army indicates
that "if depleted uranium enters the body, it has the potentiality of
causing serious medical consequences. The associated risk is both chemical and radiological".
Deposited in the lungs or kidneys, uranium 238 and products from its decay (thorium
234, protactinium and other uranium
isotopes) give off alpha and beta radiations which cause cell death and genetic mutations causing cancer in
exposed individuals and genetic
abnormalities in their descendents over the years. In its 110,000 air raids against Iraq, the US
A-10 Warthog aircraft launched 940,000 depleted uranium projectiles, and in the
land offensive, its M60, M1 and M1A1
tanks fired a further 4,000 larger caliber also uranium projectiles.
It is estimated that there are 300 tonnes of radioactive waste in the area which might have already affected 250,000 Iraqis.
More widespread tests need to be conducted before conclusions can be drawn from this research
Threat of Depleted Uranium use in future war between India and Pakistan:
Seeing the tension mounting between India and Pakistan, use of depleted uranium from Pakistan cannot be ruled out if war starts between two countries. Pakistan is increasing its capacity to produce nuclear bomb. According to a report Pakistan may be using depleted uranium in manufacturing war weapons.
Pakistan Ordnance Factories is the biggest defence industrial complex in Pakistan meeting almost one hundred percent of the ordnance needs of its armed forces, mainly the army.
In 2001 Pakistan developed a 125mm armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) projectile with a depleted uranium (DU) long-rod penetrator. It was made for use with Chinese-made T-80UD tanks. The Pakistani defence industry works closely with China, sharing research and development - this is largely done as a strategic counter-balance to Russia's close links with India's arms industry.
Depleted Uranium is used by a variety of countries – about 17 at this point. These countries are currently using/stockpiling DU weaponry: U.S., Great Britain, France, Russia, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Turkey, and Kuwait. So it is not a small thing.
In 1996 the UN passed a resolution specifically about DU, that DU weapons are Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). They are illegal under all international laws and treaties, and the European Parliament in 2001 passed a resolution against DU, and that resolution was actually the result of the use of DU by NATO in Bosnia.
The Issue of Depleted Uranium (DU) is extraordinarily important. It represents a clear threat to the health of all humanity, and all life forms on planet Earth. Scientists, medical professionals, war veterans, active duty personnel, international lawyers and the global human community are calling for an awareness of this crisis and simply to stop the use of Depleted Uranium, in order to preserve life on the planet.
Reference:
The Nation, May 26, 1997.
New York Times, Feb. 14 & Jan. 29, 2001.
Susan Taylor Martin (2003-05-25). "How
harmful is depleted uranium?". St.
Petersburg Times.
http://www.i-amperfectlyhealthy.com/DepletedUranium.html
