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Radioactive Uranium Nano-Particles
Pinpointed As Major Issue in Gulf War Syndrome
By Christopher Bollyn - American Free Press
Depleted uranium weapons and the untold misery they wreak on mankind are taboo
subjects in the mainstream media. There are indications, however, that the
media embargo is about to be breached.
Despite being a grossly under-reported subject in the mainstream media,
there is intense public interest in depleted uranium (DU) and the damage it
inflicts on humankind and the environment.
While American Free Press is actively investigating DU weapons and how they
contribute to Gulf War Syndrome, the corporate-controlled press virtually
ignores the illegal use of DU and its long-lasting effects on the health of
veterans and the public.
In August 2004 American Free Press published a ground-breaking four-part
series on DU weapons and the long-term health risks they pose to soldiers and
civilians alike. Information provided to AFP by experts and scientists, some of
it published for the first time in this paper, has increased public awareness
of how exposure to small particles of DU can severely affect human health.
Leuren Moret, a Berkeley-based geo-scientist with expertise in atmospheric
dust, corresponds with AFP on DU issues. Recently Moret provided a copy of her
correspondence to a British radiation biologist, Dr. Chris Busby, about how
nanometer size particles of DU-less than one-tenth of a micron and smaller-once
inhaled or absorbed into the body, can cause long-term damage to one's health.
Busby is one of the founders of Green Audit, a British organization that
monitors companies "whose activities might threaten the environment and
health of citizens."
Moret's letter was meant to assist Busby in a legal case being heard in the
High Court in London where a former defense worker,
Richard David, 49, is suing Normal Air Garrett, Ltd., an aircraft parts company
now owned by Honeywell Aerospace, claiming exposure to depleted uranium on the
job has made his life a "living hell."
David worked as a component fitter on fighter planes and bombers but had to
quit due to health problems. He says he developed a cough within weeks of
starting work.
Today, David suffers from a variety of symptoms like those known as Gulf War
Syndrome, including respiratory and kidney problems, bowel conditions and
painful joints. Medical tests reveal mutations to his DNA and damage to his
chromosomes, which, he says, could only have been caused by ionizing radiation.
He has also been diagnosed with a terminal lung condition.
Honeywell denies depleted uranium was ever used at the plant in Yeovil, Somerset, where David worked for 10 years
until 1995. David claims that DU's existence at the plant was denied because it
is an official secret.
David has asked the High Court for more time to gather evidence. The hearing
is due to resume in April. "I don't have any legal representation,"
David said, "so I am representing myself. It is a real David versus
Goliath case.
"I am confident I will win. I hope to set a precedent for other cases
of people who have suffered from the effects of depleted uranium."
Moret's letter on the particle effect of DU is based on research done by
Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist and former scientist with the Manhattan
Project and the National Laboratory at Livermore, California. Fulk, who has developed a
"particle theory" about how DU nano-particles affect human DNA,
donates his time and expertise to help bring information about DU to the
public.
Asked about Fulk's particle theory, Busby said it is "quite
sound." "DU is much more dangerous than they say," Busby added.
"I've always said that it contributes significantly to Gulf War
Syndrome."
When Moret's correspondence to Dr. Busby was posted on the Internet over the
New Year's holiday under the title "How Depleted Uranium Weapons Are
Killing Our Troops," some 6,000 people read the letter in the first two
days. The following Monday, a producer from the BBC's Panorama program
contacted Moret to arrange an interview.
If the BBC follows up with an investigation on the health effects of DU, it
may be hard for the US media to remain silent. More than
500,000 "Gulf War Era" vets currently receive disability
compensation, many of them for a variety of symptoms generally referred to as
Gulf War Syndrome. Experts blame DU for many of these symptoms.
"The numbers are overwhelming, but the potential horrors only get
worse," Robert C. Koehler of the Chicago-based Tribune Media Services
wrote in an article about DU weapons entitled "Silent Genocide."
"DU dust does more than wreak havoc on the immune systems of those who
breathe it or touch it; the substance also alters one's genetic code,"
Koehler wrote. "The Pentagon's response to such charges is denial, denial,
denial. And the American media is its moral co-conspirator."
The US government has known for at least
twenty years that DU weapons produce clouds of poison gas on impact. These
clouds of aerosolized DU are laden with billions of toxic sub-micron sized
particles. A 1984 Dept. of Energy conference on Nuclear Airborne Waste reported
that tests of DU anti-tank missiles showed that at least 31 percent of the mass
of a DU penetrator is converted to nano-particles on impact. In larger bombs
the percentage of aerosolized DU increases to nearly 100 percent, Fulk told
AFP.
Depleted uranium is harmful in three ways, according to Fulk: "Chemical
toxicity, radiological toxicity, and particle toxicity." Particles in the nano-meter
(one billionth of a meter) range are a "new breed of cat," Moret
wrote. Because the size of the nano-particles allows them to pass freely
throughout the organism and into the nucleus of its cells, exposure to nano-particles
causes different symptoms than exposure to larger particles of the same substance.
Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as "a non-specific
catalyst" in both "nuclear and non-nuclear" ways. This means
that the uranium particle can affect human DNA and RNA because of both its
chemical and radiological properties. This is why internalized DU particles
cause "many, many diseases," Fulk said.
Asked if this is how DU causes severe birth defects, Fulk said,
"Yes."
The military is aware of DU's harmful effects on the human genetic code. A
2001 study of DU's effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed
Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, indicates that DU's chemical
instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected
from its radiation effect alone, Moret wrote.
Dr. Miller requested that questions be sent in writing and copied to a
military spokesman, but did tell AFP that it should be noted that her studies
showing that DU is "neoplastically transforming and genotoxic" are
based on in vitro cellular research.
Studies have shown that inhaled nano-particles are far more toxic than
micro-sized particles of the same basic chemical composition. British toxicopathologist
Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is
due to its size.
For example, when mice were exposed to virus-size particles of Teflon (0.13
microns) in a Univ. of Rochester study, there were no ill effects. But when mice were
exposed to nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes, nearly all the mice died
within 4 hours.
"Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by
inhalation, and ingestion," Moret wrote. "Nano-particles have high
mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of
depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass
through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.
"When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory
bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they
migrate all through the brain," she wrote. "Many Gulf Era soldiers
exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain
damage, and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the
mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of
the nerve signal across synapses in the brain.
"Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and
nerves, can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's
Disease, and Hodgkin's disease."
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www.americanfreepress.net/html/explaining_how.html
Also see: http://www.llrc.org/du/duframes.htm