DEPLETED URANIUM WILL POLLUTE IRAQ FOR 4.5 BILLION YEARS
26 May 2004

The President of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute has called for a comprehensive cleanup initiative in Iraq, aimed at reducing the danger posed by Depleted Uranium, left over from artillery shells launched against Basra, Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.

According to Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the NPRI, Uranium 238, the radioactive isotope present in Depleted Uranium, has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. That means that the level of radioactivity of the molecules in a mass of Depleted Uranium will be halved only after 4.5 billion years. This means that land contaminated with DU spilled from exploding artillery shells, used by the US military against enemy tanks, artillery depots and fortifications, will still be radioactive and uninhabitable 4.5 billion years from now.

Dr. Caldicott told C-SPAN's Washington Journal today that after DU was used against Basra in 1991, there has been a five-fold increase in childhood cancer rates, with a shocking increase in birth defects. She also said that food throughout Europe is still radioactive, due to Strontium 90 contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, highlighting the need to reduce the level of radioactive human products in the environment.

The NPRI release calls for an immediate cleanup effort in Iraq, for the Pentagon to directly fund and execute tests of buildings and to remove all radioactive materials and bury them underground. There has also been a growing chorus of calls for testing of military personnel who had served in the Gulf War, and now in Iraq and Afghanistan. To this day, according to Dr. Caldicott, the Pentagon has refused to test any of its combat veterans' urine for contamination by Depleted Uranium.

The call comes now, due to an unprecedented use of the heavy radioactive metal in shells and vehicle armor in the Iraq conflict. This comes as countries like Canada have moved to ban the use of the substance in their military forces, and after the Daily News found in an independent study that a group of Iraq veterans had tested positive for DU contamination and radiation sickness. According to an article published in the Daily News, the Army has agreed to test National Guard members who tested positive for DU in the independent tests, but there is still no comprehensive Pentagon program to test, treat or overcome the crisis.

That same article cites an Army study predating the 1991 Gulf War, which found that DU can cause kidney damage, noting that other studies had found it to cause cancer and chromosomal abnormalities in mice.

The situation in Iraq is compounded by the natural environment, where there is an already dusty, desert landscape prone to wind and duststorms. Such events can cause a massive and rapid spread of the dust left behind by DU weaponry, causing the contamination to permeate and to settle across the entire region.

Speaking for the Pentagon, Dr. Michael Kilpatrick denied that any veterans had suffered adverse health conditions, but said "We are looking at it scientifically. We are keeping an open mind to it." Right now, the Depleted Uranium is there, on the ground, in the environment, and there is no plan yet in place to deal with the contamination. [s]