Depleted Uranium Shells
Nuclear Weapon; Defense and Destruction
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT
Use of DU munitions by the United States military may and can lead to death or mutations in newborns, children of all ages and also adults. The death toll is much higher than that from the dropping of the nuclear bombs that ended the World War II. The mutations also override the amount and severity of the mutations.
What is Depleted Uranium exactly?
DU is a waste product of uranium enrichment, containing approximately one-third the radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring uranium. Since it has such a high density, it is used in armor- or tank-piercing ammunition. It has been fired by both the U.S. and British militaries in the two Iraq wars and also in Afghanistan. It has also been used by NATO forces in Kosovo and the Israeli military in Lebanon and Palestine.
How is Depleted Uranium harmful?
If DU particles are inhaled and or ingested are highly toxic and can lead to death. Du has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority has estimated that 50 tons of DU dust from the first Gulf War could lead to 500,000 cancer deaths by the year 2000. As of today there has been a total of 2,000 tons that have been generated in the Middle East alone. In contrast, approximately 250,000 lives were claimed by the explosions and radiation released by the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Cleft face of an Iraqi child
Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive."
DU
The two U.S. wars in Iraq "have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity," said anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott.
Cancer at an all time high
Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.
Repercussions
Since the first Gulf War, the rate of birth defects and childhood cancer in Iraq has increased by seven times. More than 35 percent (251,000) of U.S. Gulf War veterans are dead or on permanent medical disability, compared with only 400 who were killed during the conflict.
Prior to her death from leukemia in Sept. 2004, Nuha Al Radi , an accomplished Iraqi artist and author of the “Baghdad Diaries” wrote:
“Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over thirty percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukemia.”
“The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.”
Doctors in southern Iraq are making comparisons to the birth defects that followed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. They have numerous photos of infants born without brains, with their internal organs outside their bodies, without sexual organs, without spines, and the list of deformities goes on an on. Such birth defects were extremely rare in Iraq prior to the large scale use of DU. Weapons. Now they are commonplace. In hospitals across Iraq, the mothers are no longer asking, “Doctor, is it a boy or girl?” but rather, “Doctor, is it normal?” The photos are horrendous, we have chosen not to show you the full extent of the disfigured people in the Middle East.
Does America know what we have done?
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
“American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion.
"I don't know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that.
In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying.”