Posted by Kevin Bates
on February 16, 2003, 7:24 pm
Dr Helen Caldicott reports on the legacy of the war in Iraq in 1991. The story is devastating.
> Today we are at a point of important crossroad and must stop it for
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> even the "winners" of a war we will be the losers for all time.
>
> We can make a difference. If you are for peace, the UN is gathering
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> signatures in an effort to avoid a tragic world event. PLEASE COPY
>
> (rather than Forward) this e-mail into a new message, sign at the end
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> of the list, and send it to all the people whom you know.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Helen Caldicott, October 6, 2002
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>
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> (Editorial published in the Baltimore Sun) NEW YORK
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> As the Bush administration prepares to make war on the Iraqi people
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> for it is the civilian population of that country and not Saddam
>
> Hussein who will bear the brunt of the hostilities -- it is important
that
> we recall the medical consequences of the last Persian Gulf war.
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> It was, in effect, a nuclear war.
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>
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> By the end of that 1991 conflict, the United States
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> left between 300 and 800 tons of depleted uranium 238 in anti-tank
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> shells
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> and other explosives on the battlefields of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi
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> Arabia.
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> The term "depleted" refers to the removal of the fissionable element
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> uranium 235 through a process that ironically is called "enrichment."
What
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> remains, uranium 238, is 1.7 times more dense than lead. When
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> incorporated into an anti-tank shell and fired, it achieves great
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> momentum, cutting through
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> tank armor like a hot knife through butter.
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>
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> What other properties does uranium 238 possess? First, it is
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> pyrophoric.
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> When it hits a tank at high speed, it bursts into flames, producing
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> aerosolized particles less than 5 microns in diameter, making them easy
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> to inhale into the terminal air passages of the lung. Second, it is a
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> potent radioactive carcinogen,emitting a relatively heavy alpha particle
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> composed of two protons and two neutrons. Once insde the body -- either in
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> the lung if it has been inhaled, in a wound if it penetrates flesh, or
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> ingested since it concentrates in the food chain and
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> contaminates water-- it can produce cancer in the lungs, bones, blood or
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> kidneys. Third, it has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, meaning the
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> areas in which this ammunition was used in Iraq and Kuwait will remain
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> effectively radioactive for the rest of time. Children are 10 to 20
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> times more
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> sensitive to then effects of radiation than adults.
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> My fellow pediatricians in the Iraqi city of Basra, for example,
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> report
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> an increase of six to 12 times in the incidence of childhood leukemia
and
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> cancer. Yet because of the sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United
>
> States and the United Nations, they have no access to antibiotics,
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> chemotherapeutic drugs or effective radiation machines to treat their
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> patients. The incidence of congenital
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> malformations has doubled in the exposed populations in Iraq where these
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> weapons were used. Among them are babies being born with only one eye and
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> with an
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> encephaly -- the absence of a brain.
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>
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> However, the medical consequences of the use of uranium 238 almost
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> certainly did not affect only Iraqis. Some American veterans exposed
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> to it are reported, by at least one medical researcher, to be excreting
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> uranium in their urine a decade later. Other reports indicate it is
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> being excreted in their semen. That nearly
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> one-third of the American tanks used in Desert Storm were made of
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> uranium 238 is
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> another story, for their crews were exposed to whole body gamma
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> radiation.
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> What might be the long-term consequences of such exposure has not,
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> apparently, been studied.
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> Would these effects have surprised U.S. authorities? No, for
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> Incredible as it may seem, the American military's own studies prior to
> Desert
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> torm warned that aerosol uranium exposure under battlefield conditions
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> could lead to cancers of the lung and bone, kidney damage, non-malignant
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> lung disease, neurocognitive disorders, chromosomal> damage and birth
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> defects.
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>
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> Do President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy Defense
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> Secretary
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> Paul Wolfowitz, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense
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> Secretary Donald Rumsfeld understand the medical consequences of the 1991
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> war and the likely health effects of the next one they are planning? If
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> they don't, their ignorance is
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> breathtaking.
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>
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> Even more incredible, though, and much more likely, is that they do
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> understand but don't care.
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>
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> Helen Caldicott, MD, founder and president of the
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> Nuclear Policy Research Institute, has devoted 25 years to an
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> international campaign to educate the public about the medical
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> hazards of the nuclear age.
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