"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine." - - - William Blum

December 17, 2007

The New Pentagon Lie: "No Soldier Illnesses from Depleted Uranium"

Somebody should tell this so-called "expert in the field of Depleted Uranium" and Pentagon staffer, that he is not coming off very convincing in the recent article from Stars and Stripes.

The U.S. military has yet to discover a case of an American servicemember becoming ill due to its use of depleted uranium over the past few decades, a Pentagon official says.

Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of force health protection and readiness for the Pentagon’s department of health affairs, doesn’t rule out the possibility of that happening.

Is he paid to say this or to just cover everyone's ass? Later in the article he plainly states:

But Kilpatrick said the DOD has been monitoring 70 servicemembers who were heavily exposed to depleted uranium in the Gulf War — some still carrying small fragments of the substance in their bodies — and they haven’t developed illnesses linked to the substance.

He said more than 2,000 U.S. servicemembers have been tested in recent years and only 10 were found to have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies. Most of those were exposed during the first days of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when U.S. forces were battling enemies in tanks.

Let me reiterate: "10 were found to have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies." Did these troops ask for treatment for a sickness? Were they volunteers? What about servicemembers who have complained of different maladies but were told by the VA that it had nothing to do with DU?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Pentagon can temporarily try and cover their asses (and the bu$h administration) but like Agent Orange, in the coming years, Depleted Uranium will prove to be more costly in dollars but more importantly, human lives.

Here is some 2001 research that has surfaced from the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute.

The Persian Gulf War resulted in injuries of US Coalition personnel by fragments of depleted uranium (DU). Fragments not immediately threatening the health of the individuals were allowed to remain in place, based on long-standing treatment protocols designed for other kinds of metal shrapnel injuries. However, questions were soon raised as to whether this approach is appropriate for a metal with the unique radiological and toxicological properties of DU. The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) is investigating health effects of embedded fragments of DU to determine whether current surgical fragment removal policies remain appropriate for this metal. These studies employ rodents implanted with DU pellets as well as cultured human cells exposed to DU compounds. Results indicate uranium from implanted DU fragments distributed to tissues far-removed from implantation sites, including bone, kidney, muscle, and liver. Despite levels of uranium in the kidney that were nephrotoxic after acute exposure, no histological or functional kidney toxicity was observed. However, results suggest the need for further studies of long-term health impact, since DU was found to be mutagenic, and it transformed human osteoblast cells to a tumorigenic phenotype. It also altered neurophysiological parameters in rat hippocampus, crossed the placental barrier, and entered fetal tissue. This report summarizes AFRRI's depleted uranium research to date.

If we have only scratched the surface of studying the effects of DU on these soldiers, one thing is certain: these Doctors aren't walking the same footsteps the troops have taken.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you checked the information section at GlobalResearch.ca ? BooMan Tribune had an article : I couldn't surf to it later but have it nailed down on a link in my BlogRoll.
My collection can be found under "Intel: Depleted Uranium - Updated May 20 07"