An expert report warning that the long-term health of Iraq's civilian population would be endangered by British and US depleted uranium (DU) weapons has been kept secret. The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO.
Check it out.
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/6/3696
2007-05-10 07:38:37 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
DU is no more radioactive than your smoke detector. It is a heavy metal and as such, if ingested, will give you heavy metal poisoning, just like ingesting lead. It's not used in bombs, it's used in the 20mm and 30mm ammunition for the cannons on attack aircraft and gunships. It is extremely effective because of of the density of the DU and its ability to penetrate armor or structure.
Your "expert" report is nothing but dreck from another rabid anti-American source who would like nothing better than to see America fail at every turn. The reason it was "suppressed" was because it is full of misstatements, lies, and fabrications.
2007-05-10 07:47:31 · answer #1 · answered by thegubmint 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Sorry, but your source is mistaken -- hideously, ludicrously wrong. And what few truths that might be in the article, you have horribly misinterpreted for your ridiculous screed.
DU is NOT used in bombs. There is no point to doing so. There are no properties of DU that make it useful in bombs in any fashion. It would be a complete waste of mass to put DU in them.
Depleted Uranium IS used in anti-armor kinetic energy penetrators, fired from tank main guns, such as the M1 Abrams tank, and the 25mm Bushmaster chain gun on the M2/M3 Bradley. It is also used in the GAU-8A anti-tank gun on the A-10 "Warthog".
But none of those weapons are currently being used in Iraq -- since we're not fighting the Iraqi army and their Russian-designed tanks and APCs, we don't have to use kinetic energy penetrators -- normal copper-jacketed rounds do just fine. No A-10s flying over Iraq, no DU penetrators from the M1s or M2/M3s. So no DU.
Any DU that is in Iraq today is left over from the war more than a decade ago. This is **NOT** a secret, despite what the scandalously flawed article in "truthout" might claim. The World Health Organization, which is NOT run by the U.S., would have no reason to squelch something that would be so potentially damaging to the U.S. Perhaps that should be your first clue as to how skewed and wrong the article is.
2007-05-10 08:09:25 · answer #2 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Uh, no, there are no bombs with DU in them.
DU is used in armor-piercing weapons - such as the 30mm Gatling cannon rounds used by the A-10 or in saboted tank rounds - because it is a dense and heavy material that can pierce armor plate.
It is NOT radioactive, nor is it any more toxic than any other heavy metal.
I don't mind people who disagree with the US and our actions, but it would be nice if they could criticize us using facts.
Truthout is not a good source of information, unless you're into Weekly World News -type "facts".
2007-05-10 07:52:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
no longer the bombs; yet some varieties of armor-piercing tank shells use depleted uranium. it could have little use in something smaller, or in basically explosive munitions. The meant destructive outcomes on our very own troops - or absolutely everyone else - have not been conventional. relatively there is no documentation to help many of the wild claims that have been made; yet that would not propose there is no longer something to be got here across, the two.
2016-11-27 00:40:59 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually DU is used in armor piercing munitions. The problem is not so much that of radiation, but the fact that as a heavy metal, uranium is extremely toxic.
2007-05-10 07:49:01 · answer #5 · answered by Niklaus Pfirsig 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Did you know that it's not in bombs? In fact we are not dropping bombs. The depleted Uranium you are talking about is found on high end munitions before the 1990's. The report was "repressed" Because neither the US or Britain use depleted uranium charges anymore.
2007-05-10 07:47:55 · answer #6 · answered by Rek T 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
depleted uranium is used for armor piercing rounds, ammunition reffered as "bombs" uses different principles of destruction than simple weight/volume ratio backed by high kinetic momentum.
bombs are divided into incendiary, high explosive, fragmenting, and combined. moreover illuminating etc. there are not many pure armor piercing bombs, if u exclude bunker busters whose principle again is different from AP rounds used against armored vehicles.
there are much cheaper and more effective ways how to spoil the land.. dirty bombs etc.
2007-05-10 08:39:50 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I knew it was used in armor piercing ammunition/shells in the M1 Abrams during the 1st Gulf War and in some 20mm cannon rounds but that is the extent of my knowledge.
2007-05-10 10:07:05 · answer #8 · answered by Steve S 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The A-10 Warthog's rounds are made of DU and are devasting to tanks! And, no one cares about the Iraqi long term health!
2007-05-10 07:44:51 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
That is not a viable source of any information. Get the facts.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan
2007-05-10 07:41:54 · answer #10 · answered by patrsup 4 · 5⤊ 0⤋