Depleted Uranium EXPOSED

This article that follows should set the Comments section to this submission on fire!  I am really tired of the lack of comments made on articles here on VT.  I am sure that the usual subjects will again but I am truly hoping to have the VETERANS, Family Members, Medical Professionals, elected officials, etc get in there to comment!

Depleted Uranium and Fraudulent Science
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 00:50 Added by PT Editor Sameh A. Habeeb    .
US, September 30, 2009,

Depleted Uranium and Fraudulent Science
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 00:50 Added by PT Editor Sameh A. Habeeb    .
US, September 30, 2009, (Pal Telegraph)-

A sophisticated web of deceit hinders humanity from understanding how the debris of depleted uranium weapons produces sickness in exposed populations. As citizens of the twenty-first century, we put our faith in science to unambiguously distinguish truth from falsehood. We trust that what appears in the professional journals and the university textbooks is an accurate depiction of nature.

Such naiveté blinds us from recognizing when fraudulent science is fabricated as an instrument of political propaganda. In the case of the toxicology of battlefield uranium, the subject is rife with misinformation, purposely planted in the minds of men and women to prevent liability from ever being assigned to those who field modern chemical/radiological weapons.

Uranium munitions were introduced into combat during the first Gulf War in Iraq in 1991. Since that time, evidence has confirmed that the United States deployed uranium weapons is Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and again in Iraq starting in 2003. Credible evidence also exists that the Israeli military used uranium weapons in Lebanon (Busby and Williams). The jury is still out as to whether or not these weapons were fielded in Gaza.

In response to mounting worldwide opposition to the onset of low-level radiological warfare, a number of humanity’s guardian institutions published studies professing to prove that battlefield uranium poses no hazard to health. In the UK, the Royal Society published a two-part study entitled The Health Hazards of Depleted Uranium Munitions. The World Health Organization authored Depleted Uranium: Sources, Exposure and Health Effects. A paper prepared for the European Parliament was written under the title Depleted Uranium: Environmental and Health Effects in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. The European Commission published Opinion of the Group of Experts Established According to Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty: Depleted Uranium. In the United States, the Rand Corporation penned numerous volumes addressing the possible causes of Gulf War illness, including A Review of the Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses: Volume 7 – Depleted Uranium. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, under the auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services, published a lengthy study entitled Toxicological Profile for Uranium. The National Research Council sponsored a work entitled Review of Toxicologic and Radiologic Risks to Military Personnel from Exposure to Depleted Uranium During and After Combat. Environmental Exposure Report: Depleted Uranium in the Gulf was written for the Department of Defense. The US Army Environmental Policy Institute published Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the US Army. In addition to these studies, a number of fact sheets, abstracts and summarizations of DU’s effects can be found on the internet sites of the publishers of these studies as well as the sites of such reputable organizations as the International Atomic Energy Agency, NATO, the Health Protection Agency, the UK Ministry of Defense, the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board, the Canadian Army, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Health Physics Society and on and on and on.

As if written by a single hand, what knits together this body of information is that all of it is an expression of fraudulent science. Its reason for being is not to disseminate knowledge, but rather, to obstruct true understanding of the radiological and chemical toxicity to the human body contaminated by weaponized uranium. A more perfect example is nowhere to be found of the worldwide propaganda matrix that has been erected to control thought, quell vocal opposition and protect criminals from liability for producing illnesses in victimized populations

At the outset, it must be emphasized that there is no falsehood in any of the information contained in the studies mentioned above. None of them are guilty of committing sins of commission. Their sly deception is delivered by what they withhold. Thus, they are guilty of sins of omission. By means of what they leave unsaid, those who deploy weapons of indiscriminate effect are being given license to commit crimes against humanity.

The studies that find DU biologically benign all make mention at some point that very little research has actually been conducted on DU’s effect on human health. Consequently, now watch the card being sloughed under the table, they divert their discussion from DU’s effects to a discussion about previous research on the effects to health of natural and enriched uranium. The justification given for this divergence may at first sound perfectly reasonable. Given that all isotopes of uranium are chemically identical, their chemical effects to the body as a heavy metal will be identical, and since DU is less radioactive than either natural or enriched uranium, the radiological effects it produces in the body will be correspondingly less significant. On the basis of this logic, some kind of review is then made of the large body of past research on the medical consequences of uranium exposure to such groups as uranium miners, uranium millers, workers within the nuclear industry, and populations whose drinking water was found to contain inordinately high levels of uranium. By using as a means of comparison exposure scenarios that have only limited or no relevance to DU exposure, the possible medical effects of battlefield DU are circumscribed: kidney damage due to uranium’s chemical characteristics or cancer due to uranium’s radioactivity. Having craftily defined the only possible medical effects of DU in doses likely to be encountered on the battlefield, the observation is then made that, with few exceptions, ill veterans or enemy noncombatants are not manifesting any signs of kidney disease. Furthermore, the dose of radiation, according to the International Commission on Radiological Protection, is too small to induce cancer. The conclusion, resoundingly proclaimed, is that battlefield uranium cannot possibly be the cause of illness in exposed populations.

This argument is profoundly sophisticated. Even trained scientists, giving uncritical thought to its flawed logic, will be fooled by it. Easily taken for granted are the underlying assumptions that are being passed off as indisputable fact.

All claims that depleted uranium produces no hazard to health in exposed populations rely on the same fundamental premise: exposure to depleted uranium aerosols on the battlefield is no different from exposure to the uranium found in nature or industry. This foundational assumption has never been validated by objective scientific research. It is mere conjecture. To be true, a reasonable correlation would need to exist between DU and the forms of uranium involved in more traditional avenues of exposure. Specifically, for the kinetics and biochemistry to be the same once inside the body, particles of natural uranium and particles of DU would need to be similar both in their physical characteristics and their chemical composition. This is most certainly not the case.

Weaponized uranium is so different in its composition from the uranium found in nature that to "assume" the two are comparable in their toxicology is nothing less than unscientific twaddle. The depleted uranium used by the army is a little less than 98 percent pure uranium. Of this, 99.797% is uranium-238, 0.202% is uranium-235, and 0.0008% is uranium-234. The uranium is alloyed with 0.5% titanium, 0.75% molybdenum, 0.75% zirconium and 0.75% niobium. Due to the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium-234, protactinium-234m and protactinium-234 are also present in infinitesimally small quantities. Further, as a result of the introduction of spent nuclear fuel into the enrichment cascade of the Paducah gaseous diffusion facility, the entire US stockpile of depleted uranium is contaminated by trace quantities of uranium-236 plus the transuranic elements plutonium-239, americium-241, neptunium-237 and the fission product technetium-99. This is only the beginning of the chemical and radiological nightmare that is depleted uranium.

While traversing the air on its way to the target, a DU penetrator is set ablaze by air friction. Upon impact with its target, this burning is intensified. Between the heat of combustion and the friction of the dense uranium metal slicing through an armored vehicle, temperatures are created ranging between 3000o and 6000o C. This inferno vaporizes all materials in its vicinity. Metals, rubbers, plastics, fabrics and glass from the destroyed vehicle plus diesel fuel and organic matter from incinerated victims are sublimated. Minute particles from all these materials mix together in the super-hot cloud and commingle with the aerosolized uranium particles. For a brief period of time, conditions are perfect for the aerosols within the fume to recombine into novel metal alloys and other potentially toxic chemical compounds. As cooling and condensation begins, the molecular structure of the metal particles is reconfigured, transforming the particles into a crystalline-structured ceramic, spherical in shape and highly insoluble (Gatti and Montanari). The end-product of the conflagration is a witch’s brew of uranium- and nonuranium-bearing particles possessing a complex chemistry. A preliminary study of the elements in the dust produced by the impact of DU munitions with an armored target revealed the presence of significant quantities of uranium, iron, aluminum and silicon plus trace quantities of silver, boron, barium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, strontium, titanium, zinc and zirconium (Mitchel and Sunder). In addition, complex spherical porous particles containing aluminum, potassium and silicon may be formed by DU munitions impacting with soil and alloying with clay and sand, or when hot, reactive, secondary particles from the initial impact interact with the soil environment (WHO, CHPPM). Because of the likelihood that novel uranium compounds are created from this complex chemical inventory of their targets, it is premature to declare that inhaled DU is harmless. Previous study of common uranium compounds has produced the cautionary discovery that each exhibits its own toxicological profile. Needless to say, the full spectrum of chemicals created by the impact event has yet to be scientifically analyzed. Neither the biokinetics or toxicology of this concoction of particles is known. On the subject of the hazardousness of depleted uranium, this is terra incognita.

Acute exposure events in the uranium industry are a rare event. The reasons for this are many. First, almost all of the particles inhaled by uranium workers are greater than 10 microns. These sized particles are non-respirable: they don’t reach the nonciliated portion of the bronchial tree and the alveolar surfaces where absorption into the systemic circulation takes place. Either they are immediately exhaled, scavenged by macrophages and transported to the lymph nodes or translocated to the nasopharynx by mucociliary action, swallowed and eliminated via the gastrointestinal tract (with perhaps a tiny fraction being absorbed in the gut.) By contrast, the size of particles produced on the contaminated battlefield is significantly smaller. Impact studies of DU penetrators have revealed that anywhere from 0.9% to 70% of the debris becomes airborne (Chambers et al.). Of this material, a majority of the particles produced are respirable. Inhalation can draw them deep into the lung where they can become trapped. As they slowly dissolve over a period of years, uranium crosses the aveoli and enters the circulation. Glissmeyer and colleagues reported in their study of the particles formed by the incineration of DU ammunition that 73% of the particles were respirable. Referencing a different study, the RAND Report includes this information: "For particles generated by fire, the percentage smaller than 10 micron aerodynamic equivalent diameter (AED) ranges from 0.1 to 33, while particles generated from impact of a hard target are virtually all smaller than 10 micron AED" (Harley et al., USArmy CHPPM).

A second reason why uranium workers rarely suffer acute exposure events is that the uranium dust to which they are exposed contains uranium in low concentrations. Typically, one ton of ore contains only one to four pounds of uranium oxide (0.05 to 0.20 percent). Thus, dust particles inhaled by miners are a blend of extremely low concentrations of uranium molecules intermixed with high concentrations of the molecules of the various minerals with which the uranium is found. In contrast, aerosolized uranium on the battlefield is 100% metal. The entire surface area of each particle is chemically toxic to the body’s molecular environment in the immediate vicinity around each internalized particle.

The amount of radioactivity released within the body of exposed individuals is the third reason why uranium workers are less at risk of acute events than soldiers on the contaminated battlefield. The specific activity of ore with a concentration of 0.20 percent uranium is 4 nanocuries per gram. This is equivalent to 148 atoms undergoing radioactive decay within that gram each second. In contrast to this, the specific activity of depleted uranium metal is about 400 nanocuries per gram (Makhijani and Smith). This equals 14,800 disintegrations per second. Obviously, DU poses an enhanced radiological hazard over more traditional forms of uranium exposure.

As mentioned previously, there are two vectors to uranium’s toxicity. It is radioactive and it is chemically hazardous due to being a heavy metal. All the studies which give depleted uranium a clean bill of health treat these vectors as separate. In fact, the study published by the Royal Society is published in two volumes, one addressing uranium’s radioactivity and one addressing its heavy metal toxicity. Current research has proven this mode of thinking to be wrong. A number of studies have confirmed that uranium’s radiation effects and its chemical effects work together synergistically, each enhancing the hazard of the other. Thrown into this mix is a third vector, not addressed at all by the so-called "definitive" studies on depleted uranium. Battlefield uranium enters the body as "nanoparticles". (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. One hundred nanometers is equivalent to 0.1 micron.) This vector acts in synergy with the other two vectors, further magnifying DU’s biological hazard.

In the mid-1980s, the US military conducted tests to determine the size of particles produced by the impact of DU munitions (Glissmeyer et al. 1984). Using sophisticated filter systems, the discovery was made that 31% of created particles were less than 0.18 microns. These ultrafine particles are commonly the product of combustion. The toxicology of nanoparticles has received intense scrutiny in recent years due to concern over the possible hazards to health of various application of nanotechnology ("the manipulation, precision placement, measurement, modeling, or manufacture of sub-100 nanometer scale matter" (Meyer et al.).

Important to this discussion is the fact that nanoparticles migrate throughout the body in ways not exhibited by larger particles. For instance, in traditional exposure scenarios, insoluble respirable particles slowly dissolve in the nonciliated portion of the bronchial tree, allowing uranium to enter the circulation over an extended period of time. Nanoparticles behave differently. While in an insoluble form, they can freely translocate across the alveolar epithelium. A Belgian research group confirmed this phenomenon when observing that insoluble 100 nm particles freely crossed the alveolar barrier and entered the blood within one minute of inhalation. Within an hour, this material was found in the liver (Fontanova). However, rapid and complete filtration of nanoparticles from the blood by the liver and spleen may not always occur. Consequently, they are capable of gaining access to all areas of the body. Further, nanoparticles have been observed migrating out of the lung by crossing the pulmonary epithelium. This translocation through tissue that is impermeable to larger-sized particles is another unique avenue by which nanoparticles attain ready access to an organism’s internal environment. In addition, it has been demonstrated that under some conditions nanoparticles are able to avoid detection by macrophages. This invisibility to the immune system results from the failure of nanoparticles to set off the chemical signaling mechanisms that alert and guide macrophages to invaders. Nanoparticles have also been shown to promote autoimmune disorders (Donaldson et al. 2004). Not to be overlooked is that nano-sized particles are capable of migrating along the axons of nerve cells. In both the nasal and tracheobronchial regions, some varieties of nanoparticles have been observed passing into nerve cells through nerve endings of the olfactory and trigeminus nerves and the sensory nerves endings in the tracheobronchial region (Oberdörster et al.). Inhaled nanoparticles can cross the nasal olfactory mucosa and cross into the olfactory bulb. From there they can translocate along nerve fibers. This access to the central nervous system is one route by which nanoparticles can enter the brain.

Uranium nanoparticles migrating through the body’s interior set the stage for a unique exposure scenario, unequaled by more traditional routes of uranium exposure. Of all possible configurations, a mass of material presents a greater and greater surface area when broken down into a collection of smaller and smaller particles. Greater surface area translates into greater reactivity. Greater reactivity translates into greater biological effect. Uranium migrating through the body in the form of nanoparticles creates, for the quantity of uranium internalized, the maximum possible chemical and radiological exposure to the internal molecular architecture of the body. Further, insoluble DU particles likely serve as a platform for perpetual chemical interactions with the surrounding microenvironment of the body, producing chronic heavy metal poisoning enhanced by ongoing radiation exposure..

In March 2000, NATO announced that depleted uranium weapons had been used in the Balkans. Suspiciously, an undiagnosed illness similar to Gulf War Syndrome was identified among some soldiers serving in the former Yugoslavia, staffers of humanitarian missions and Yugoslavian residents. Using an innovative technique of electronic microscopy, Antonietta Gatti and Stephano Montanari analyzed tissue samples of those suffering from the mysterious disease. Every sample that was tested contained inorganic, combustion-derived, metal-alloyed microparticles and nanoparticles. The investigators made this observation: "Lymph nodes, for example, are the organs where lymphomas start and develop and where, in all pathological cases checked, we found the presence of inorganic particles. But also all the other pathologic specimens we had the possibility to observe show clearly and without any single exception the presence of debris." To confirm an environmental origin, the authors noted that particles found in tissues of diseased soldiers and civilians were "mutually compatible" with those found on the ground in the territories where the pathologies were contracted. This is one avenue of investigation, so far ignored in the U.S., that need be pursued in any sincere attempt to understand the origins of Gulf War Illness.

The most damning criticism of the so-called "expert" studies of uranium toxicology is that they are oblivious to the current knowledge base. Recent research has provided abundant evidence that uranium is genotoxic (capable of damaging DNA), cytotoxic (poisonous to cells), mutagenic (capable of inducing mutations), teratogenic (capable of interfering with normal embryonic development) and neurotoxic (capable of harming nerve tissue).

One example is particularly instructive. Oxidative stress is produced in the body when increased levels of free radicals, oxygen ions, and peroxides are produced which overwhelm antioxidant defenses. Under this condition, cells become vulnerable to adverse structural and functional changes. Free radicals can damage DNA, degrade mitochondria and cell membranes, interfere with intra- and intercellular communication, and obstruct proper synthesis of proteins, enzymes and hormones. In addition, oxidative stress can provoke an inflammatory response. It is by this means that combustion-derived nanoparticles are thought to produce their deleterious effects (Donaldson 2005). Internal contaminants that produce chronic oxidative stress and a chronic inflammatory response may be responsible for autoimmune-like disorders. Also, oxidative stress has been implicated as a causative factor in a number of diseases. It is also a major factor in the aging process.

So the question need be asked: What do the authoritative studies on uranium toxicology have to say about oxidative stress? Outside of a passing reference on the subject in a couple of works, these studies are mute on the subject. But how can this be? Scientific evidence exists that internalized uranium produces oxidative stress. When uranium undergoes radioactive decay, it produces free radicals. As a heavy metal, uranium produces free radicals. Nanoparticles produce free radicals. Married to these realities is the fact that oxidative stress is known to be genotoxic, mutagenic and cytotoxic. Further, oxidative stress is known to erode healthy cellular structure and contribute to the etiology of a number of neurological and degenerative diseases. It is quite feasible that oxidative stress in people chronically contaminated with uranium is a factor in the nonspecific disease process known as Gulf War Syndrome. And yet, those who control the discussion as to the health effects of DU don’t even deem the subject worthy of consideration.

Enough has been said to demonstrate that stale research on traditional forms of uranium exposure is inadequate in explaining internal contamination by weaponized uranium. So why do the published works in DU’s defense error by likening the two? The answer is, at this point, obvious. They are designed to obstruct understanding rather than further it. They are cleverly crafted political documents masquerading as scientific treatises. In the end, by their falsehood, they victimize us all.

The foregoing was a review, highly abridged, of a 127 page chapter in the book A Primer in the Art of Deception entitled "The Harlot of Babylon Unmasked: Fraudulent Science and the CoverUp of the Health Effects of Depleted Uranium." Included in that chapter is an extensive review of recent research into the toxicology of uranium, fully referenced, and a discussion of known uranium effects ignored in the published literature defending DU weapons as having no deleterious consequences to human health.

Paul Zimmerman is the author of A Primer in the Art of Deception: The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science. Excerpts, free to download, are available at www.du-deceptions.com.