Last sunday there was a BBC documentary on tele.
Some researcher went out to Basra in Iraq to find out what the long term consequences are when missile / bombs with deriched uranium (DU) are used.
I found the results to be shocking!

There is uranium 236 in the food chain in these area. They found spots next to public roads and foodstands measuring 20.000 (!!!!) times the allowed background radiaton.
Local people are already suffering severly because of this.

The main dangers are:
* radioactive particles have been found in waterstorage facilities.
* it is blown around in the air with the dust. It is 'airborn'.
* it is very likely that local food and local veggie's are contaminated.
* together with the uranium they also found traces of plutonium, wich is a milloin times more posion then uranium.

How serious is this? Well the investigators that hanged around and visited sites for two weeks had traceble quantities of radioactive material in there system that shouldn't be there. In other words a much higher risc for cancers, leukemia,... for the rest of there life.

Again, the main problem / danger is that you get into your body (food, dust, water,...) and it stays there. That is the worst contamination there is with radioactive material and should be avoided at all times.

Where are the hot spots:
* Iraq, any area wich has been bombed or the scene of a tank-battle. Smart bombs and anti tank bombs are the ones that had these DU missile heads. Sadly enough this means lots places in Iraq...
* Any tankwrecs should be avoided since they release the contaminated dust particles.
* same goes for bombed constructions
* wach out for the actual DU-heads. Childeren in Basra where playing with them after painting a face on them. The German researcher took one home and was arrested. He served prison time for transporting radioactive material and bringing a healthrisc into the country!
* Former Yougoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo,..) idem dito.
* Afhanistan, idem dito.

And... Uranium 236 takes 4.5 miljard (don't know what this exactly is in Enlgish, some 1000 times a million) years to get halve in radiation strength.... Sadly enough it is there forever.

[This message has been edited by fireboomer (edited 04 August 2004).]

This is all good advice, please heed it. As an ex veteran of GW1 I can confirm that DU was widely used in alot of munitions,and armour, so dont go poking around in old tanks or any wreckage.

Wash regularly even in the desret if there is signs of war damage and filter your water.

DU is not very dangerous, unless ingested on food hands or in water.

The other more immediate threat is from unexploded mines and munitions,around and they will kill you quicker than any du exposure. Old battlefields are far to dangerous places for sight seeing dont go there.

Charlie

Dont you feel safer fireboomer? What are you doing outside your 7 litre v10 F150 SUV or away from your flat screen TV anyway?..dont you know there is a world in there!

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Don,t you just love those american,s.

And to think that littering has a 500 USD fine in some state,s.

Maarten

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Simmo,

Love the world out there.
I leave my flatscreen because when I turn it around myself I do not see the other side of things. You have to go there yourself to realise and see that most things they show on your flatscreen do have an other side.

Off course is ammo out there way more accute problem then the DU arms.
But my family has friends in Kiev, not so far (or not far enough) from Tsjernobyl. And the result from that experiment is only starting to show... Years and years later.
That's the tricky thing with radiation.

I am with you fireboomer! I fear most dont care. When depleted uranium ordinance explodes its sprays a fine radioactive powder everywhere, after the 91 Gulf war the incidence of radiation associated diseases in Iraq went sky high, made worse by embargoes on medical treatments through sanctions. A freinds father had an organ transplant clinic in Irag prior to this war that had treated over 2,000 people. As a result of sanctions anti rejection drugs were no longer available..all have since died. They dont appear on casualty lists.

Now i have to go try and remove Bush's australian henchman from office at the ballot box.

alec

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Damn the bush pig won!

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