COLLATERAL DAMAGE: PART TWO

Other Exposures

In addition to the thousands of troops who passed through areas contaminated with DU, many others were more than likely exposed to DU as a result of the war. Soldiers and civilians downwind of burning vehicles on the battlefields could have been exposed to airborne DU. A-10 and M1A1 maintenance crews may have come in contact with DU in the course of their work. Medical personnel may have been exposed to DU when they treated wounded soldiers and civilians. In fact, recent testimony at a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses suggested that some medical personnel were afraid to work on people who had been wounded by uranium shrapnel.⁵⁴

Though the routes of exposure are numerous, the largest numbers of people exposed to DU during and after the Persian Gulf War are those who came in contact with some of the more than 300 tons of DU scattered among the wreckage on the battlefield. The United States has denied any responsibility for the cleanup of DU on battlefields in Kuwait and Iraq, and as a result, virtually no battlefield cleanup of DU has taken place.⁵⁵

Local populations, and U.S. troops who continue to deploy to Kuwait and train in battlefield areas, are being exposed to DU on an ongoing basis. In addition, because DU particles can be transported by wind or water, the contamination may be migrating to other areas and possibly into the food and water supplies of local populations.

Health Effects

The long term effects of internalized depleted uranium are not fully known, but the Army has admitted that "if DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences."⁵⁶ Inhaled DU particles of respirable size may become permanently trapped in the lungs. Inhaled DU particles larger than respirable size may be expelled from the lungs and ingested.

DU may also be ingested via hand-to-mouth transfer or contamination of water or food supplies. DU which is ingested, or enters the body through wound contamination, will enter the bloodstream and migrate throughout the body, with most of it eventually concentrating in the kidney, bone, or liver. The kidney is the organ most sensitive to DU toxicity.⁵⁷

Much of the ingested DU will be excreted by the body shortly after the exposure, but the DU that remains acts as a chemical and radiological toxin in organs and bones for the remainder of a person's lifetime. Because many of the soldiers exposed to DU during the war were in their twenties, they have many years in which to develop the cancers, kidney problems, and other health problems. Veterans who have shown elevated levels of DU in their urine several years after the war may have received significant internal DU exposures on the battlefield. For those who have not yet been tested, urinalysis may no longer be effective for determining levels of internalized DU.

Reports from Iraq indicate that large numbers of children who lived in or near contaminated areas have developed leukemias and other health problems which may be associated with exposure to DU.⁵⁸ In addition, many children of American veterans exposed to DU have been born with birth defects and serious health problems. The relationship between exposure to DU and the health problems affecting American and Iraqi children needs to be further investigated.

The Army admits that it has not fully assessed the risks to troops who are exposed to DU on the battlefield.⁵⁹ However, they now have a large soldier and civilian control group in which they will study the long term health effects of internalized DU.

Research

In its rush to field DU weapons for battlefield use, the Army failed to exercise enough vision to consider the health and environmental consequences of DU use. Only since the Persian Gulf War has the Army begun to assess the extent to which even its own troops may be exposed on the battlefield. The 1995 AEPI report noted that "previous studies of the health and environmental consequences of the use of DU have indicated that the Army needs to conduct several additional investigations to more fully understand its consequences."⁶⁰

Additional studies are needed, but we cannot trust the Army to do them. Even the Army's own AEPI report recommended that:

Reports should be reviewed inside and outside DoD to increase the number of expert reviewers and to enhance the credibility of reports. Independent peer review is crucial because too often studies are performed by or for an organization that has a vested interest in the results.⁶¹

Unfortunately, most of the current research on DU is being conducted by the military, industrial, and federal organizations which have a "vested interest" in the continued use of DU weapons. In addition to removing all research from the hands of these vested interests, previous studies which are invoked by the Army to deny that troops were exposed to DU should be reviewed for their accuracy.

Though several studies are underway to further investigate the health and environmental consequences of depleted uranium weapons, the motivation behind these investigations is unclear. The following section from the introduction of the AEPI report, which was leaked to the Depleted Uranium Citizens' Network of the Military Toxics Project in late 1995, is particularly enlightening in this respect:

The potential for health effects from DU exposure is real; however, it must be viewed in perspective. It is unlikely that any of the DU exposure scenarios described in this report will significantly affect the health of most personnel. In several areas, neither the scientific community nor the Army have adequate medical or exposure information to defend this assertion. ... When DU is indicted as a causative agent for Desert Storm illness, the Army must have sufficient data to separate fiction from reality. Without forethought and data, the financial implications of long-term disability payments and health-care costs would be excessive.⁶²

The Army admits that it lacks the data needed to justify its assertions that few troops were exposed to DU on the battlefield, and that the health effects from battlefield DU exposure will not be significant. In addition, the Army appears to state that the primary motivating force driving their research and positions on DU weapons is a desire to avoid the "excessive" cost of disability compensation and health care for veterans exposed to depleted uranium.

In response to a congressional inquiry, Dr. Stephen Joseph, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, clearly stated the Pentagon's position on DU:

The Department of Defense fully recognizes the problems associated with DU in combat. However, the use of this material in shielding designs for combat vehicles substantially increases personnel survivability on the battlefield. In addition, the significant increase in the range of DU munitions provides the kind of tactical advantage that is important in reducing the casualty rate for our forces.⁶³

The Pentagon, and the American public, are concerned about reducing battlefield casualties. However, in the process of increasing battlefield survivability, the Pentagon has found it acceptable to sacrifice the long-term health of its own troops by exposing them to depleted uranium. If we allow the Pentagon or other federal agencies to conduct further research about DU, we can expect their "forethought and data" to be driven by a desire to deny and minimize the health and environmental consequences of depleted-uranium weapons.

Conclusion

The Persian Gulf War was the first war in which DU weapons were used, but it will not be the last. DU rounds are being developed for use in an increasing array of U.S. weapons systems, including the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the Vulcan air defense gun, and a variety of combat helicopters. The AEPI report ominously notes:

Since DU weapons are openly available on the world arms market, DU weapons will be used in future conflicts. ... The number of DU patients on future battlefields probably will be significantly higher because other countries will use systems containing DU.⁶⁴

Though the U.S. was the first country to use DU weapons in war, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Sweden, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, and other countries are now developing or have already developed DU weapons in their arsenals.⁶⁵ The rapid proliferation of depleted uranium weapons will eventually level the playing field and eliminate any battlefield advantage U.S. armed forces currently enjoy. In addition, if past wars give us any insight into the future, American troops may be killed or poisoned on the battlefield by "enemy" forces using DU weapons made in the U.S.A.

DU weapons are a symptom of a larger problem. That problem is war. The causes of war—greed, profit, racism, religion, injustice, and ethnocentrism—have not changed much throughout history. But the tools used to wage wars have changed to such an extent that, in just the last century, the weapons of war now threaten the "survivability" of life on our planet.

Starting today, we must clean up contaminated sites in the U.S., the Middle East, and wherever else DU weapons are being developed, tested and used. We must provide medical care and disability compensation for those who have already been poisoned by DU. And the Pentagon must begin periodic testing of servicemen and women who work with or are otherwise exposed to depleted uranium weapons.

As soon as possible, we must ban the development and use of weapons containing depleted uranium. Like land mines, nuclear weapons, herbicides such as Agent Orange, and chemical and biological weapons, depleted uranium weapons can kill friend and foe indiscriminately, for an extended time after their intended battlefield use. A ban of depleted uranium weapons, and all other weapons of mass destruction, is in the best interests of all Americans, and in the best interests of all the earth's peoples.

REFERENCES TO THIS CHAPTER

METAL OF DISHONOR TABLE OF CONTENTS

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