Iraqi Cancers, Birth Defects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium

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October 24, 2010

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Published on Tuesday, November12, 2002 by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Iraqi Cancers, BirthDefects Blamed onU.S. DepletedUraniumby Larry JohnsonSOUTHERN DEMILITARIZEDZONE, Iraq -- On the "Highway ofDeath," 11 miles north of the Kuwait
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Six-year-old Fatma Rakwan,being held by her mother at the

border, a collection of tanks,armored personnel carriers and othermilitary vehicles are rusting in thedesert.

They also are radiating nuclearenergy.

In 1991, the United States and itsPersian Gulf War allies blasted the

vehicles with armor-piercing shellsmade of depleted uranium -- the firsttime such weapons had been usedin warfare -- as the Iraqis retreatedfrom Kuwait. The devastating resultsgave the highway its name.

Today,nearly12yearsafter

theuse ofthesuper-


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Basra Hospital for Maternity andChildren, was recently

diagnosed with leukemia.(November 12, 2002) Paul

Kitagaki Jr. / P-Iweapons was credited with bringingthe war to a swift conclusion, thebattlefield remains a radioactive toxicwasteland -- and depleted uraniummunitions remain a mystery.

Although the Pentagon has sentmixed signals about the effects ofdepleted uranium, Iraqi doctorsbelieve that it is responsible for asignificant increase in cancer and

birth defects in the region. Manyresearchers outside Iraq, andseveral U.S. veterans organizations,agree; they also suspect depleteduranium of playing a role in Gulf WarSyndrome, the still-unexplained

malady that has plagued hundreds ofthousands of Gulf War veterans.

Depleted uranium is a problem inother former war zones as well.


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Yesterday, U.N. experts said theyfound radioactive hot spots in Bosniaresulting from the use of depleteduranium during NATO air strikes in

1995.

With another war in Iraq perhapsimminent, scientists and others areconcerned that the side effects ofdepleted uranium munitions -- still a

major part of the U.S. arsenal -- willcause serious illnesses or deaths ina new generation of U.S. soldiers aswell as Iraqis.

THE DANGERS

Depleted uranium, known as DU, isa highly dense metal that is thebyproduct of the process duringwhich fissionable uranium used tomanufacture nuclear bombs and

reactor fuel is separated from naturaluranium. DU remains radioactive forabout 4.5 billion years.

Uranium, a weakly radioactive


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element, occurs naturally in soil andwater everywhere on Earth, butmainly in trace quantities. Humansingest it daily in minute quantities.

DU shell holes in the vehicles alongthe Highway of Death are 1,000times more radioactive thanbackground radiation, according toGeiger counter readings done for the

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Dr.Khajak Vartaanian, a nuclearmedicine expert from the IraqDepartment of Radiation Protectionin Basra, and Col. Amal Kassim ofthe Iraqi navy.

The desert around the vehicles was100 times more radioactive thanbackground radiation; Basra, a cityof 1 million people, some 125 milesaway, registered only slightly above

background radiation level.

But the radioactivity is only oneconcern about DU munitions.


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A second, potentially more serioushazard is created when a DU roundhits its target. As much as 70percent of the projectile can burn up

on impact, creating a firestorm ofceramic DU oxide particles. Theresidue of this firestorm is anextremely fine ceramic uranium dustthat can be spread by the wind,inhaled and absorbed into the

human body and absorbed by plantsand animals, becoming part of thefood chain.

Once lodged in the soil, themunitions can pollute the

environment and create up to ahundredfold increase in uraniumlevels in ground water, according tothe U.N. Environmental Program.

Studies show it can remain in human

organs for years.


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Dr. Khajak Vartaanian, aradiation expert, holds a Geiger

counter next to a hole in an Iraqi

tank destroyed by depleteduranium weapons in the Persian

Gulf War in 1991. The shellholes show 1,000 times the

normal background radiationlevel. (November 12, 2002) Paul

Kitagaki Jr. / P-I

eU.S.Army

acknowledges the hazards in atraining manual, in which it requiresthat anyone who comes within 25meters of any DU-contaminatedequipment or terrain wear respiratory

and skin protection, and states that"contamination will make food andwater unsafe for consumption."

Just six months before the Gulf War,


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the Army released a report on DUpredicting that large amounts of DUdust could be inhaled by soldiers andcivilians during and after combat.

Infantry were identified as potentiallyreceiving the highest exposures, andthe expected health outcomesincluded cancers and kidneyproblems.

The report also warned that publicknowledge of the health andenvironmental effects of depleteduranium could lead to efforts to banDU munitions.

But today the Pentagon plays downthe effects. Officials refer queries onDU munitions to the latestgovernment report on the subject,last updated on Dec. 13, 2000,

which said DU is "40 percent lessradioactive than natural uranium."

The report also said, "Gulf Warexposures to depleted uranium (DU)


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have not to date produced anyobservable adverse health effectsattributable to DU's chemical toxicityor low-level radiation. . . ."

In response to written queries, theDefense Department said, "The U.S.Military Services use DU munitionsbecause of DU's superior lethalityagainst armor and other hard

targets."

It said DU munitions are "warreserve munitions; that is, used forcombat and not fired for trainingpurposes," with the exception that

DU munitions may be fired at sea forweapon calibration purposes.

In addition to Iraq and Bosnia, DUmunitions were used in Kosovo andSerbia in 1999.

Also in 1999, a United Nationssubcommission considered DUhazardous enough to call for aninitiative banning its use worldwide.


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The initiative has remained incommittee, blocked primarily by theUnited States, according to KarenParker, a lawyer with the

International EducationalDevelopment/Humanitarian LawProject, which has consultativestatus at the United Nations.

Parker, who first raised the DU issue

in the United Nations in 1996,contends that DU "violates theexisting law and customs of war."

She said there are four rules derivedfrom all of humanitarian law

regarding weapons:

Weapons may only be used in thelegal field of battle, defined as legalmilitary targets of the enemy in war.Weapons may not have an adverse

effect off the legal field of battle.

Weapons can only be used for theduration of an armed conflict. Aweapon that is used or continues to


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act after the war is over violates thiscriterion.

Weapons may not be unduly

inhumane.

Weapons may not have an undulynegative effect on the naturalenvironment.

"Depleted uranium fails all four ofthese rules," Parker said last week.

On Oct. 17, 2001, Rep. CynthiaMcKinney, D-Ga., introduced a billcalling for "the suspension of the

use, sale, development, production,testing, and export of depleteduranium munitions pending theoutcome of certain studies of thehealth effects of such munitions. . . ."

More than a year later, the bill -- co-sponsored by Reps. Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico; Tammy Baldwin,D-Wis.; Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio;Barbara Lee, D-Ca.; and Jim


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Hamdin and his brother Amhidare receiving follow-up

treatment after being treated

successfully for leukemia twoyears ago at the Basra Hospital

for Maternity and Children.(November 12, 2002) Paul

Kitagaki Jr. / P-I

McDermott, D-Wash. -- remains incommittee awaiting comment fromthe Defense Department.

THE STUDIES

GulfWar

veterans faced a wide array of

potentially toxic materials during thewar: smoke from oil and chemicalfires, insecticides, pesticides,vaccinations and DU.


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Of the 696,778 troops who servedduring the recognized conflict phase(1990-1991) of the Gulf War, at least20,6861 have applied for VA medical

benefits. As of May 2002, 159,238veterans have been awardedservice-connected disability by theDepartment of Veterans Affairs forhealth effects collectively known asthe Gulf War Syndrome.

There have been many studies onGulf War Syndrome over the years,as well as on possible long-termhealth hazards of DU munitions.Most have been inconclusive. But

some researchers said the previousstudies on DU, conducted by groupsand agencies ranging from the WorldHealth Organization to the RandCorp. to the investigative arm ofCongress, weren't looking in the right

place -- at the effects of inhaled DU.

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, director of theprivate, non-profit Uranium MedicalResearch Centre in Canada and the


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United States, and center researchassociates Patricia Horan andLeonard Dietz, published a uniquestudy in the August issue of Military

Medicine medical journal.

The study is believed to be the firstto look at inhaled DU among GulfWar veterans, using theultrasensitive technique of thermal

ionization mass spectrometry, whichenabled them to easily distinguishbetween natural uranium and DU.

The study, which examined British,Canadian and U.S. veterans, all

suffering typical Gulf War Syndromeailments, found that, nine years afterthe war, 14 of 27 veterans studiedhad DU in their urine. DU also wasfound in the lung and bone of adeceased Gulf War veteran.

That no governmental study hasbeen done on inhaled DU "amountsto a massive malpractice," Dietz saidin an interview last week.


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THE ACTIVIST

Dr. Doug Rokke was an Army health

physicist assigned in 1991 to thecommand staff of the 12thPreventive Medicine Command and3rd U.S. Army Medical Commandheadquarters. Rokke was recalled toactive duty 20 years after serving in

Vietnam, from his research job withthe University of Illinois PhysicsDepartment, and sent to the Gulf totake charge of the DU cleanupoperation.

Today, in poor health, he hasbecome an outspoken opponent ofthe use of DU munitions.

"DU is the stuff of nightmares," saidRokke, who said he has reactive

airway disease, neurologicaldamage, cataracts and kidneyproblems, and receives a 40 percentdisability payment from thegovernment. He blames his health


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problems on exposure to DU.

Rokke and his primary team of about100 performed their cleanup task

without any specialized training orprotective gear. Today, Rokke said,at least 30 members of the team aredead, and most of the others --including Rokke -- have serioushealth problems.

Rokke said: "Verified adverse healtheffects from personal experience,physicians and from personal reportsfrom individuals with known DUexposures include reactive airway

disease, neurological abnormalities,kidney stones and chronic kidneypain, rashes, vision degradation andnight vision losses, lymphoma,various forms of skin and organcancer, neuropsychological

disorders, uranium in semen, sexualdysfunction and birth defects inoffspring.

"This whole thing is a crime against


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God and humanity."

Speaking from his home in Rantoul,Ill., where he works as a substitute

high school science teacher, Rokkesaid, "When we went to the Gulf, wewere all really healthy, and we gottrashed."

Rokke, an Army Reserve major who

describes himself as "a patriot to theright of Rush Limbaugh," saidhearing the latest Pentagonstatements on DU is especiallyfrustrating now that another waragainst Iraq appears likely.

"Since 1991, numerous U.S.Department of Defense reports havesaid that the consequences of DUwere unknown," Rokke said. "That isa lie. We warned them in 1991 after

the Gulf War, but because of liabilityissues, they continue to ignore theproblem." Rokke worked until 1996for the military, developing DUtraining and management


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procedures. The procedures wereignored, he said.

"Their arrogance is beyond

comprehension," he said. "We havespread radioactive waste all over theplace and refused medical treatmentto people . . . it's all arrogance.

"DU is a snapshot of technology

gone crazy."

BIRTH DEFECTS IN IRAQ

At the Saddam Teaching Hospital inBasra, Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, a British-

trained oncologist, displays, in fourgaily colored photo albums, what hesays are actual snapshots of thenightmares.

The photos represent the surge in

birth defects -- in 1989 there were 11per 100,000 births; in 2001 therewere 116 per 100,000 births -- thateven before they heard about DU,had doctors in southern Iraq making


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comparisons to the birth defects thatfollowed the atomic bombings ofHiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII.

There were photos of infants bornwithout brains, with their internalorgans outside their bodies, withoutsexual organs, without spines, andthe list of deformities went on andon. There also were photos of

cancer patients.

Cancer has increased dramatically insouthern Iraq. In 1988, 34 peopledied of cancer; in 1998, 450 died ofcancer; in 2001 there were 603

cancer deaths.

On a tour of one ward of thehospital, doctors pointed out boysand girls who were suffering fromleukemia. Most of the children die,

the doctors said, because there areinsufficient drugs available for theirtreatment.

There was one notable exception, a


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young boy whose family was able tobuy the expensive drugs on theblack market.

Al-Ali said it defies logic to absolveDU of blame when veterans of theGulf War and of the fighting in theBalkans share common illnesseswith children in southern Iraq.

"The cause of all of these cancersand deformities remains theoreticalbecause we can't confirm thepresence of uranium in tissue orurine with the equipment we have,"said Al-Ali. "And because of the

sanctions, we can't get theequipment we need."

OTHER LINKS

U.S. Department of Defense:

www.defenselink.mil/

The National Gulf War ResourceCenter, Inc.:www.ngwrc.org/Dulink/du_link.htm
http://www.ngwrc.org/http://www.defenselink.mil/


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Uranium Medical Research

Centre: www.umrc.net/

Dr. Doug Rokke, a U.S. Army healthphysicist assigned to help clean updepleted uranium after the PersianGulf War, will speak in Seattle onSaturday from 2 to 4 p.m. atUniversity Baptist Church, Northeast

47th Street and 12th AvenueNortheast. Rokke is on a six-statespeaking tour sponsored by TheInterfaith Network of Concern for thePeople of Iraq, and co-sponsored bythe Traprock Peace Center in

Deerfield, Mass.

1999-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Iraqi Cancers, Birth Defects Blamed on U.S. Depleted Uranium

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