‘Definitive Answer’ on Depleted Uranium Sought for Veterans

Years After Gulf War Veterans Plead for Help the Government is ‘Looking Into It’

DAYTONA BEACH — After years of veterans pleading for help with illnesses occurring after service in the Gulf wars, the U.S. House and Senate are calling for an immediate study of health effects of exposure to a radioactive metal used in U.S. weapons and armor.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., co-author of a Senate bill on depleted uranium that passed June 20, said other studies have been done on the subject. Those studies concluded there was no evidence that exposure to the metal caused illnesses.

“It is time for a review by the Pentagon to see if there has been scientific progress that would provide a more accurate and definitive answer to possible links to adverse health,” Lieberman said in a written statement to The News-Journal. “This amendment would require the Pentagon to provide that assessment.”

The House passed a similar bill in May, and details are being hashed out in a joint committee. If the proposal becomes law, results of the study would be submitted to Congress within one year from its effective date. But the study comes too late for one Ormond Beach mother of an American soldier who believes exposure to depleted uranium in Iraq killed her son…

UNCOVERING A CONTROVERSY

In 2004, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Lori Brim’s son, Army Spc. Dustin Brim, died at 22 of very aggressive cancers. The military physicians who tried to save him said exposure to depleted uranium did not cause his diseases.

But Lori Brim took the whispered advice of a social worker there and started looking into the issue.

She discovered political and medical controversies — about whether the U.S. military should be using depleted uranium munitions and what effects exposure brings — that have been raging since soldiers began returning home from the first Gulf War with mysterious ailments.

Though that war marked the first time depleted uranium munitions had been used in combat, military sources have consistently discounted a link. Risks of exposure are minimal and abated by training, they say. And, they add, because tank armor and munitions made with the extremely dense material are so effective, use of depleted uranium saves U.S. lives.

Brim said she has been frustrated in her efforts to acquire medical records that might offer evidence the cancers that killed her son resulted from exposure to depleted uranium.

“I’m trying to share Dustin’s voice, create awareness and make a difference,” Brim said. “I believe to this day that, if soldiers and other personnel had been made aware of the risks of exposure to DU and how dangerous it is — Dustin said he went for medical help 11 times while he was in Iraq — somebody may have paid attention to him.”

Brim said she has been unable to find a Florida legislator willing to introduce a bill similar to several passed by other states, demanding study of the issue and testing for National Guard members returning from Iraq.

She also has been disappointed by attorneys unwilling to help her and other mothers she knows pursue a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of weapons she believes are polluting the Earth. She’s hired Holly Hill author Lonnie Story to write her son’s story.

BODY MAY BE EXHUMED

Dr. Asaf Durakovic, founder and head scientist at Uranium Medical Research Centre in Toronto, Canada, said Brim could exhume her son’s body to be tested for radiation exposure.

“If I found DU in his bones, it could prove his sickness could have been related to DU contamination,” said Durakovic in a phone interview from Washington D.C, where he also has an office. “Radiation will not decompose.”

Brim said that’s too emotional a decision for her to make now but continues to try to obtain the medical records.

Those who, like Brim, are looking for answers about depleted uranium’s health effects, “are facing a multibillion-dollar industry making radioactive ammunition,” Durakovic said.

Attempts to talk with some manufacturers of weapons containing depleted uranium went either unanswered or spokespeople declined interviews.

The Department of Defense takes the position that depleted uranium is the best metal available for tank armor and munitions to penetrate armor on enemy vehicles. The military says that all personnel who use such equipment are adequately trained to safely handle depleted uranium.

Doug Rokke, a veteran of the Gulf War, who has a doctorate in technology from the University of Illinois and was charged with cleanup of depleted uranium contaminated equipment after the first Gulf War, has been outspoken about the issue. He said soldiers are not properly trained and that “medical care has been willfully denied to a majority of DU casualties who are supposed to receive care.”

He said he’s not sure that, if the bill before the joint committee makes it to law, it would have any effect on the use of weapons or treatment of soldiers.

“The directive is to continue to use uranium munitions and avoid all liability,” said Rokke, 57, of Rantoul, Ill. He said he is seeking medical care for exposure to radiation from depleted uranium. “The legal requirement to provide medical care has always existed, but the military disregards that.”

The military said more than 2,100 Operation Iraqi Freedom service members have been tested for exposure to depleted uranium, and eight were found to be positive.

“All eight were involved in combat situations where they were exposed to depleted uranium fragments,” said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of Deployment Health Support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, in a written statement. “The depleted uranium testing that is done for the military personnel is done at the U.S. Army laboratory at the Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, and at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.” He said all testing is paid for by the Department of Defense.

At Northern Arizona University biochemist Diane Stearns said her recent studies should make the issue hard to ignore.

Her results — published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at a recent Society of Toxicology conference — established that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA, and the cells mutate. She said exposure during the Gulf wars may link to increased cancers and birth defects in soldiers and in civilian survivors of exposure in the Middle East.

audrey.parente@news-jrnl.com

Depleted Uranium in the News

Concerns over effects of depleted uranium are spreading.

· The Sunday Times, Great Britain, Feb. 19, 2006: UK radiation jump blamed on Iraqi shells.

“Radiation detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the ‘shock and awe’ bombing campaign against Iraq.”

· The Military Vaccine Resource Directory, April 13, 2006: Gulf War Vets Survey site now launched.

“Gulf Vet Survey, a dedicated group of veterans, health professionals and concerned citizens, today announced they were launching an effort to survey every veteran for multiple hazardous materials exposure. . . . For more information: http://www.gulfvetsurvey.org/BIZyCart.asp?ACTION=Home&CLIENT=Gwlorg&ACCOUNT=1183. ”

· Pal-item.com (a Richmond, Ind., news source), July 12, 2006: Veterans being encouraged to get information booklet.

“Recently (Republican) Congressman (Mike) Pence’s office sent . . . a booklet that every veteran should have. Veterans may get it by ordering it on the Internet at http://Bookstore.gpo.gov . . . It also includes Gulf war health problems and problems from exposure to depleted uranium. . . . The name of the book is ‘Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents 2006.’ “