Few exposed troops test positive for DU

By Kelly Kennedy

New research using more sensitive testing found that only veterans who have fragments of depleted-uranium shrapnel still embedded in their bodies tested positive for chemicals indicating they have been poisoned.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, included 1,769 urine samples from veterans and service members with a history of exposure to depleted uranium, or DU. Only three — those with embedded shrapnel — tested positive for DU exposure.

DU has been used since the 1991 Persian Gulf War in armor-piercing munitions, as well as in armor itself. It has since been used in Bosnia and, to a lesser degree than in 1991, in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because the U.S. did not fight against countries with DU capabilities, the embedded bits of shrapnel in U.S. troops resulted from friendly fire incidents.

However, veterans also have been concerned about DU poisoning after inhaling the substance during explosions or riding around with it in armored vehicles. But since 1998, only four veterans have tested positive for depleted uranium in their urine, and so far, they have had no health issues beyond “subtle changes in renal proximal tubule markers” — cells in the kidneys.

The new study also showed that 2.2 percent of Gulf War veterans and 1.5 percent of post-Gulf War vets had urine uranium rates higher than the researchers’ cutoff level.

“The source of exposure for these individuals was most likely drinking water,” the report states.

Researchers said some water tables have higher levels of uranium because of what is in the underlying bedrock. They also suggested those veterans might live near a uranium mill or mine.

Two previous studies have shown the same results, but this time, researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology used improved testing methods.

“Only three of the 1,700 specimens for which we completed isotopic determination showed evidence of DU,” the researchers wrote. “Exposure histories confirmed that these three individuals had been involved in ‘friendly fire’ incidents involving DU munitions or armored vehicles.”

Of those samples, 404 are from Gulf War vets, and 1,365 are from people who deployed after 1992.

“These findings suggest that future DU-related health harm is unlikely in veterans without DU fragments,” the report states. “For most veterans who are concerned about exposure to DU as a result of their deployment, urine [uranium] concentrations outside the normal range are a rare occurrence, and DU isotopic signatures are even more uncommon.”

The study was conducted by the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore; and the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Service members and veterans concerned about DU exposure can be tested for it at any Department of Veterans Affairs medical center.