We are regaled every night by the growing destruction of Iraq and it’s people, our brave journalists bringing the horror of war into our very living rooms. But I am becoming increasingly uneasy that a vital message is failing to get through. How many times have we heard a journalist report, “Behind me the air is thick with smoke and dust from tanks, armoured vehicles and buildings that have been hit.” Few may realise that, like Kosova and the Gulf veterans before them, they are breathing that deadly dust into their lungs. 320 tonnes of depleted uranium (DU) was left in the region after the Gulf war and 200 000 soldiers are said to be suffering Gulf war syndrome. The danger of biological weapons (that Hans Blix assured us Saddam has not got1) may prove less lethal in the long run than the Uranium shells with their “cocktail of nuclear waste.” It requires far more soul-searching to admit the indiscriminate adverse health effects of these weapons.

Physicists the world over have come as near to shouting as they can to warn the US senate and arms manufacturers not to use depleted uranium (DU) warheads. Books and videos have been produced, but to no avail.2 Ammunition, tipped with this toxic dense metal, penetrates virtually all armour plate like a knife through butter and is seen as the avant-garde of modern weaponry. The heat produced vaporises the metal and contaminates the air, not only with uranium, but small amounts of impurities such as plutonium and other highly toxic nuclear by-products. Until now, the Pentagon has maintained that DU ammunition is safe because they contain only mildly radioactive uranium. This is not true. Depleted is a misnomer. American army and government documents suggest that the military in Kosovo and Iraq used DU ammunition containing traces of elements that indicate the probable presence of plutonium and other highly toxic products.

The increasing use of this vile material is frightening. Out of 3,700 Iraqi tanks destroyed, more than 1,400 were hit by DU rounds. The military depend on DU as a preferred weapon of war, and use it to destroy everything from tanks to light-armoured vehicles. Of the 2,058 US tanks used in combat operations during Operation Desert Storm, 654 had DU heavy armour. The problem of DU is more urgent than possible exposure to chemical weapons, for two reasons. While no treatment is available for delayed neurotoxicity,3 most cancers can be cured when detected early. Cancer is the expected long-term consequence of both the radiological and toxic effects of DU exposure. There has been a 700% increase in cancer in Iraq between 1991 and 1994.4 The second reason is post-battlefield contamination. While most organic compounds produced for use in chemical warfare, such as nerve gas, decay within weeks after their release, DU does not. On the contrary, its radioactivity remains for years.5 Unless some cleanup is organized soon, the contamination will plague not only journalists but the population of the war affected areas for centuries to come. The continued contamination of our planet by the US military is becoming outrageous.


1. Transcript of Blix's remarks Monday, January 27, 2003 Posted: 4:38 PM EST (2138 GMT)  http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/27/sprj.irq.transcript.blix/
2. “Hazards of Uranium weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq” Williams D., ISBN 0-9532083-8-9, Politicos bookshop, London.
3. Hon. D. Burton: Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses: VA, DoD Continue to Resist Strong Evidence Linking Toxic Causes to Chronic Health Effects, House Report 105-388; Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, (November 1997).
4. “The shape of the World War IV by number” Menon V., Toronto Star.
5. In fact it is slowly increasing due to the secular equilibrium build-up of the uranium decay series