Is depleted uranium an issue in Iraq?

Question

For the soldiers that are in Iraq right now, is depleted uranium a threat to them? Or was it only an issue during the Gulf War? How likely is it that they could be exposed to it?

I sound really dumb because I am not quite sure how to word the question. Sorry in advance. :)

Cantcu, that is the answer I was afraid of. I was aware that even breathing in particles of it could cause cancer in the long run. I am almost positive a new wave of soldiers will end up with cancer in the next 10 years.

Won't it be like Gulf War Syndrome?

Answer 1

Depleted uranium is not and has never been a problem, except in the minds of people trying to make up reasons why the USA should surrender rather than fight back against terrorism.
The only danger of depleted uranium is that if a projectile made from the stuff hits you, then you are dead. Just like if the projectile was made from lead or copper. Depleted uranium is used in anti-tank bullets because of their heavier weight for the same size. They will batter a hole in a tank quicker than lead.
Did you know that the balance weights on commercial airliners flight controls are made from depleted uranium? It ain't killing anyone anywhere.

Answer 2

What a pile of horse manure of some of the post above... OK folks, as a former US Army Tanker...No, you cannot get radiation poisoning from DU rounds or the U in the tank armor.

yes, ingesting or breathing DU in are pretty much the only way to get poisoning.

NOTE: this is a Heavy Metal Poisoning.

The Radioactive poisoning issue is a Red Herring. DU is less radioactive that natural U. That is why they call it depleted.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm

It is dangerous when hits a target and vaporizes inside the target. Then again, being in a tank getting hit with a long rod penatrator, I would be way more worried more about getting sucked through the 2" back hole vaccum verses any DU poisoning issues.

Read up on the World Health Organization Kosovo report and fact sheets. The report even disprove the Anti-war DU crowds arguements.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/

http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/en/Report_WHO_depleted_uranium_Eng.pdf

As far as I can tell by the research the DU would not travel farther than a few hundred feet from the destroyed vehicle.
Even then it will not make an impact on local water supplies or food chain since dispersal isn't that big.

Basically, I've had addtional NBC class training and served as a Company NBC officer. My rule would have been that you wear your protective mask and gloves & boots if you had to go into a shot up tank or PC. and wash up afterwards. This is due to all the metals, paint and LEAD that are in the SOVIET made personnel carriers and tanks. DU is just another heavy metal.

Then again, it would be the same rule if my guys were doing touch up painting on the M1 tank. The Chemically Resistant Paint is really bad for your lungs!

Finally, as for the person who claimed US DU poisoning in Afganistan... fool... How many M1A1 tanks were deployed to A-stan? Answer "0"

Blame the Russians and all the Chemicals they dumped on the poor Afgans. Since DU is LESS Radioactive than natural DU and we didn't shoot tank DU rounds over there, the odds are that Russian Chemical weapons were in play. Mustard Based Chemical weapons have been know to cause birth defects.

Answer 3

Search the web for Depleted Uranium birth defects. In Iraq women are afraid to give birth because they will not know what will come out of their bodies. Some of the deformities you will see will stay in your mind forever. Children are born with their intestines on the outside of their body, or with no eyes, or with scale-like skin... it is an issue that needs to be addressed because the after affects of this depleted uranium last MILLIONS of years. It is NOT FAIR to the Iraqi people that such weapondry be used upon their land.

Answer 4

Well I have no idea actually.

I do not think it is, but here is a website that has reliable informtion on it - unlike those anti-war ones that are just as much of propaganda machines as the Soviet Union.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/du.htm

or type in

www.globalsecurity.org/

and on the top left corner ther is a search field. Put in "depleted uranium" and go to the third choice if you concentrate on health issues.

Answer 5

The US uses depleted uranium in a number of our munitions. For example the GAU-8 30mm gattling gun from a A-10 Warthog fires depleted uranium slugs. Also a "sabot" round from our abrams main battle tank also is made of depleted uranium. If there were worries about them I dont think we'd be firing them. Depleted uranium is heavy making it have higher kinetic energy on impact.

Answer 6

It isn't dumb at all! I think that many sitting in tanks with depleted uranium are going to be the next big cancer group the government denies their cancer had anything to do with it! Those shells give off particles that are inhaled and their is no protection!

We are still fighting Agent Orange and Agent Blue denials by the military!

Answer 7

depleted uranium is more of a serious threat to the iraqi people rather then the foreign soldiers as you mentionin your question.

foreign soldiers went to iraq, a soveriegn country, and sprayed the entire country with millions of uranium tipped bullets in order to sicken the population and destroy the country.

In my opinion, invading Iraq without any connection to 9/11 is a war crime. Our so-called leaders are puppets working for Israel and jewish interests, not american interests!

LONG LIVE IRAQ AND LONG LIVE PALESTINE!

Answer 8

Honey, the only dumb question is the one you leave unasked!

Go HERE to read about Depleted Uranium in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. Read about what it is doing to your soldiers who are exposed. Read about how they are being suppressed from speaking out. DO NOT GO HERE if you have children around or your stomach is weak.

http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/depleted_uranium_iraq_afghanistan_balkans.html

Women are losing babies, having bad pregnancies and giving birth to monstrous looking creatures. DU effects the genetic pattern and those in utero are worst effected. The waters there are ruined, it is everywhere.

If the environment of space ship earth is ill humanity becomes ill. Our health depends upon its health. The environment is the world around us, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil in which we grow our foods. There are invisible pollutions that are becoming harder and harder to escape.
It is imperative that we take the legislators and the men behind them, the corrupt financiers, and insist on even wider actions of war.

Iran, the very idea is beyond an abomination to go to war there, although this is what your current administration is forging towards. War is obscene and many object, but the ruling elite do not listen. They are too busy lining their already over full pockets with the profits from the evils they disperse every hour into our environment. I refer to depleted uranium, the ultimate tool for genocide. This is not a pollution we see. This is a pollution that kills from within.

The worst pollution on the planet is invisible. Depleted uranium is the everlasting aftermath of war. Only those who have seen are aware. The images and the very idea are kept from the populace fore fear of upsetting them. What they don’t know won’t hurt them seems to be the attitude. This is not information readily available in the “free” propaganda press of the West. As a result few people are aware of this problem. This menace will be affecting our lives forever and ever and is irreversible. I

In April of 2003, the World Health Organization said they expect global cancer rates to increase 50 percent by the year 2020. Infant mortality is going up at appalling rates all over the world, an indicator of the level of radioactive pollution. It is like smoking radioactive crack. It goes straight into the blood stream and is carried all throughout the body into the bones, the bone marrow, and the brain. It goes into the fetus and corrupts its development. It’s a systemic and a radiological poison.

When the U.S. and Russia signed the partial test ban treaty in 1963, infant mortality rate started dropping again, which is normal. Now they are going up again. This is global pollution with this radiation. It was Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters that actually destroyed the Soviet Union because the former Soviet Union is very, very sick from all the radiation that was released. The costs incurred by the medical system broke the nation.

The DU in the sands of these areas is spread by winds all around the globe. And then there is war, the aftermath of the testing in these three key areas. This lethal material is spread around the globe.

The main centers of these dust storms are the Gobi Desert in China, which is where the Chinese did atmospheric testing, so that’s all contaminated with radiation, and it gets transported right over Japan, and it comes straight across the Pacific and dumps all its sand and dust on the U.S., North America.

It’s loaded with radioactive isotopes, soot, pesticides, chemicals, pollution — everything is in it — fungi, bacteria, viruses.

The Sahara Desert is another huge dust center, and it goes up all over Europe and straight across the Atlantic, to the Caribbean, and up the East Coast. Of course, you get it in Texas with those hurricanes. They all originate in the Sahara Desert.

The third region is the Western United States, which is where the Nevada test site is located.

There are two purposes for the military use of weapons.

One is to destroy the enemy soldiers, and the other, which is just as important, is to destroy the enemy civilian population. By causing illnesses and disease, long lingering illnesses really impact the productivity and the economy of a country. It affects all living things. That’s why they call it "omnicide," which means it kills all living things — the plants, the animals, the bacteria.

This pollution will go on because it is part of a callous form of genocide, the best way to remove a culture. AIN’T SCIENCE GRAND IN THE HANDS OF THE TRULY EVIL?

Soldiers who served in Afghanistan, the Gulf and now Iraq have brought it home. Most of those who served in the Gulf are now paying this price as are their wives and children. Their voices have been hushed by the government. Even the official military site denies its effects despite overwhelming evidence.

Concentration of the depleted uranium particles in the atmosphere all around the globe is increasing. There are indications that the U.S. will go in June and bomb the heck out of Iran. U.S. Army ammunition factories owned by the ruling elite have very large orders for those huge bunker buster bombs that have 5,000 tons of DU in the warhead.

These things can easily to kill off the world’s population. It already is, and it doesn’t just affect people. It affects all living systems, plants, animals, the bacteria. The things that we eat for instance, if they have DU in them, will put it in our systems, and pollute ourselves. This problem of will affect every one of us eventually. Just the medical costs alone could empty the Federal Reserve, should the Rockefellers decide to allow opening it. After all, they own it! However, they stand to profit and will never take a financial hit over such a small thing as the lives of other human beings.

If this makes you feel helpless, start getting active in protesting the wars that are being waged. Demand action from your local and federal representatives. Make them accountable or vote them out. We cannot undo what has been done. This stuff lasts in the environment for 4.5 billion years, longer than the life of our beloved globe.

We will have no environment if these immoral actions are allowed to continue. Either that or we will end up like Brave New World, a planet of two worlds, that of the obscenely wealthy with artificial nature, and that of the poor and undesirable, a nuclear landscape. Either way, both will be being poisoned from within.

Answer 9

DU is found in armor piercing ammunition and tank armor, both are handled very carefully. What exposure a soldier does get is negligable. You would pretty much have to eat it.

Answer 10

Deoes our MSM media ever report on the use of Depleted Uranium? Talk about "dirty bombs".

http://wwwyoutube.com/watch?v=pg2NHfoC2pc&eurl=