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Army Downplays Depleted Uranium Risk on Hawaiian Island
Radiation levels safe at Pohakuloa, Army says
The Army said yesterday that the results of a depleted uranium study at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island show radiological doses "well within limits" considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Army studied the potential health risk posed by residual DU in Pohakuloa areas where past and current weapons firing has taken place.
Depleted uranium, a weak radioactive heavy metal, was used in aiming rounds for the Davy Crockett, a 1960s nuclear device intended as a last-ditch weapon against masses of Soviet soldiers in the event of war.
Jim Albertini with the Malu Aina Center for Nonviolent Education & Action said yesterday that the Army was "stonewalling community involvement in seeking the truth about DU radiation contamination at Pohakuloa."
Albertini said the Army has made unreliable safety claims based on questionable assumptions and scientific methodology and no peer-reviewed studies.
"The bottom line is this," Albertini said. "The Army does not want to risk having to shut down Pohakuloa if it is determined that the presence of DU and other military toxins pose a threat to the health and safety of the troops who train there and residents and visitors of Hawaii island."
The Pohakuloa study is the second determination by the Army that DU poses no health threat.
The Army discovered DU spotting rounds at a Schofield Barracks firing range in 2005. Even though the Army said in 2008 that there was no danger, officials said yesterday that the DU at Schofield is being removed because Stryker armored vehicles and soldiers will be training at the Schofield site.
The DU at Pohakuloa will remain in place at the impact site because "one, we're not finding a lot, and two, there are too many hazards" to its removal, including jagged lava and unexploded ordnance, said Greg Komp, an Army radiation safety officer from the Pentagon.
A shipping list showed that at least 714 of the spotting rounds, containing about 298 pounds of depleted uranium, were sent to Hawaii by 1962, but it is "highly probable" that more rounds were fired here, the Army said.
Cory Harden, who lives near Hilo, said training requirements called for 2,000 or more of the spotting rounds to be fired at Pohakuloa, but the Army said the number used at Schofield and on the Big Island is unclear.
Fifteen light M28 Davy Crocketts and seven heavy M29 versions were allocated to the Army in Hawaii.
The M101 spotting rounds were about 8 inches long and contained about 6.7 ounces of DU alloy. The firing device was attached to a recoilless rifle that could launch a 76-pound nuclear warhead. Only dummy warheads were used in training in Hawaii.
The warhead could be fired more than a mile but likely would have irradiated the soldiers using it.
The spotting rounds are believed to have been fired mainly at Schofield and Pohakuloa, but the Army said they also may have been used at Makua Military Reservation.
DU was found within the boundary of the Pohakuloa impact area in October 2006.
Albertini, who lives on the Big Island, is concerned that DU particles can be ingested from the soil or inhaled as airborne dust and cause adverse health effects.
According to the World Health Organization, "very large amounts of dust" would have to be inhaled for there to be an additional risk of lung cancer.
Harden complained that a news conference at Pohakuloa yesterday was not open to the public. The Army has been invited to attend a public forum to answer questions about DU, and "they just keep putting us off," she said.
Russell Takata, program manager for the state Health Department's Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Branch, downplayed the danger of DU at the Big Island military training range.
"It's a very minimal risk," he said.
The health study will be available at the website www.garrison.hawaii.army.mil/du, the Army said.
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11 Comments so far
Show AllAccording to the World Health Organization, "very large amounts of dust" would have to be inhaled for there to be an additional risk of lung cancer.
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however, the world uranium conference in germany 2003 came to different conclusions.
this is an excellent paper on the background of DU ordance.
http://www.uraniumweaponsconference.de/background.htm
The issue with depleted uranium is not the radiation. It's the chemical toxicity. The stuff is marginally worse than lead.
Look at the depleted uranium that has been used in Iraq and Afganistan. The birth defect rates for children has sky rocketed. The effects on the soldiers have yet to be determined.
The WHO said:
Small children could receive greater exposure to DU when playing in or near DU impact sites. Their typical hand-to-mouth activity could lead to high DU ingestion from contaminated soil. Necessary preventative measures should be taken.
Fallujah is a dead city. The residents there are starting to understand this. The rest of the world inside the mainstream media has no clue, of course.
Uranium is a heavy metal. They got that part right. Think lead. Think mercury. Tiny amounts of uranium get stuck inside the body and cause endocrine system disruptions.
Uranium is worse, in that it spontaneously burns like phosphorous into tiny uranium oxide smoke particles in the presence of air. Then one smoke particle goes down into your lungs. Then a uranium atom fissions 1 day later or 50 years later, it's all the same for a radioactive element with a half-life of 5 billion years. Then you get a persistent cough one day.
The WHO has signed an agreement (many years ago) not to publish research on ionizing radiation effects on human health without consulting the IAEA first ...
the effects of inhaling DU-particles are so devastating because as nanoparticles they can circumvent all biological defense mechanisms and barriers (i.e.if inhaled through the nose they can travel directly to the brain (normally prevented by the blood-brain barrier) or get stuck in the lung tissue, or reach the kidneys, or end up in the germ cells ...Uranium has a great affinity for the phosphate in the DNA ... hence the explosion in birth defects ...
Even if the "dose" (absorbed energy per mass unit) to the body is small, just one stuck particle will "hit" the cells next to it over and over again, and this ionisation is going to overwhelm the genetic repair mechanisms sooner or later ...
Uranium weapons (forget the "depleted" scam) are perhaps the greatest crime against humanity ever perpetrated:
http://www.newweapons.org/files/ECRRuraniumd.pdf
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/content/depleted-uranium-iraqs-deadly-legacy
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5146778547681767408#
http://www.umrc.net/uranium_and_weapons.aspx
In light of the Ground Zero controversy, much has been said about respecting the sensitivity of the local population.
At the expense of being labelled a terrorist sympathizer, may I ask just where is the sensitivity of the American military to the people in places like Hawaii and Okinawa where locals have had to endure the repercussions of living under the US military's shadow ?
Sensitivity cannot be a one way street.
Radioactive elements: their use, their disposal, their storage, and the contamination that results is one of the great unspoken secrets of the modern era. Many radioactive elements accumulate in certain plants, and animals, certain organ systems, etc. They remain dangerous (in human terms) forever. Spend some time studying the information that you will find from organizations not linked to the US gov't and you will find some of the most unambiguous evidence of the evil of Capitalism that you are likely to find outside of the Military Industrial Complex.
Fordi- you an expert? Yes, of course you are. We all are. Good one.
Dr. Helen Caldicott, and her show, "If You Love this Planet" or her speeches on Youtube are some great sources of information.
And as for the US Army downplaying the dangers of DU:
If the Army ever admitted that this stuff was dangerous, they'd be liable for damages in thousands of cases of US military personnel who have developed health problems as a result of exposure and for the birth defects that many of their children have suffered. So don't wait for the US Army to stand up and do the right thing, those fuckers aren't even owning up to the reality of traumatic brain injuries.
DOD contracted for a life cycle human health risk assessment for kinetic penetrators made out of tungsten vs. DU in the late 1980s. It is possible that it was updated since then.
I believe Serbia filed a chemical warfare complaint against the U.S. under the Geneva Conventions at the Hague for using DU kinetic penetrators against Serbia. I do not know what health effects the Serbs are claiming were caused by DU exposure.
The spontaneous combustion of DU as a dust or thin ribbon in air is well known. The spalling of the DU as it penetrates armor is also associated with spontaneous combustion. The formation of DU nanoparticles via this combustion process is new to me, but I have no reason to doubt that that is possible. I infer that these nanoparticles would also either react as antigens or be immunotoxic.
DU is the byproduct of nuclear weapons production and has been depleted of the most radioactive U isotope, so it is less of a radioactive threat than refined U ore. However, DU may be contaminated with other metals that are more toxic than DU. I have heard anecdotally that one of those metals is plutonium, but I have no independent knowledge that that is the case.
I think 60 Minutes did a piece on DU not too long ago. That tape might be available from its archives.
This makes total sense. Need someone to investigate whether or not the Army is destroying yet another country? Just hire the Army to do it...
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
The moment something is denied, you know it is true.