Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2003
COMMENTARY
Uranium Warheads May Leave Both Sides a Legacy of Death for Decades
By Susanna Hecht
Susanna Hecht is a professor in the School of Public Policy and Social
Research at UCLA. She is head of the environmental analysis and policy
program.
Although the potential human cost of the war with
many people are aware of a hidden risk that may haunt us for years.
Of the 504,047 eligible veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, about
29% are now considered disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs,
the highest rate of disability for any modern war. And
most are not
disabled because of wounds.
These guys were rough, tough, buff 20-year-olds a
decade ago. The vast
majority are ill because of a complex of debilities known as the Gulf
War syndrome.
These vets were exposed to toxic material from both
sides, including
numerous chemicals, fumes and weird experimental vaccines. But
the
largest number of the more than half a million troops eligible for VA
benefits -- 436,000 -- lived for months in areas of the Middle Eastern
desert that had been contaminated with depleted uranium.
Depleted uranium, or DU, is a highly toxic heavy metal that continues
to emit low levels of alpha radiation. It is a byproduct of nuclear
power plants and various military activities.
The
around, and for the Gulf War it developed a new use for the stuff:
load it into warheads.
Though not technically "nuclear," because the material is not really
fissionable, uranium is a heavy metal ideal for lethally effective
"warhead penetrators" that can pierce through armored tanks and
fortified positions. When the munitions explode, the area is
bathed in
a fine dust of DU that can be easily inhaled. These aerosols also
taint soil and water and pollute ground water.
If the penetrators do not explode, their casings gradually oxidize,
releasing DU into the environment.
DU warheads are essentially dirty bombs -- not very radioactive, but
poisonous, and this is why there is an increasing global outcry
against using DU in combat as tips for armor-piercing rounds as well
as in artillery shells and Tomahawk missiles, among others.
Such warheads were used very successfully by the
when more than 350 tons of depleted uranium were dropped on
later in Kosovo when about 13 tons of DU were exploded in the conflict
there.
The "Balkan syndrome" that emerged among the military and civilians
after the
syndrome.
Though the findings are controversial, many scientists now see these
afflictions as the result of heavy metal poisoning and possibly
exposure to very low levels radiation.
DU is implicated in respiratory and kidney problems, rashes and,
longer-term, bone cancer, as well as damaged reproductive and
neurological systems.
Iraqi civilians -- many more than the 100,000 who died in the conflict
or as a result of the war -- also suffer from a range
of similar
health problems.
Families of soldiers should be very worried.
A huge amount of ordnance has already been unleashed in Iraq, and
there is no way of knowing how many thousands of tons of depleted
uranium will find "permanent storage" in the rubble of Iraq, its soil
and the bodies of its people and U.S. occupying forces.
It is certain, however, that the legacy of contamination will add
billions to the cost of reconstruction -- and our lack of generosity
in
this area. The stingy benefit package the Gulf vets got, even during
boom times, is yet another cautionary tale.
The rosy fantasies of a democratized Arab world might make for good
sound bites. But the reality of widespread DU use
brings to mind the
epitaph for the Punic Wars: "They made a desolation and called it
Peace."
For a July 1999 Physicians for Social Responsibility issue brief on
depleted uranium, read
http://www.ngwrc.org/Research/MonAug161000001999_psrbrief.htm