From: Dave Ball (vought@msn.com)
Date: Mon Aug 26 2002 - 12:30:34 PDT
All....
I have read quite alot about gulf war syndrome and have quite a few friends
who were there and have strange after effects. There were four major factors
that were in play lots of dust, lots of carbons and soot from oil fires,
lots of Depleted Uranium and a few chemicals no one is talking about except
the Soldiers.
After all the studies the four elements put together cause "gulf syndrome"
Below is a study given at the Haque peace conference May 99 by Rosalie
Bertell, PH.D.
By the way we all have uranium in our bodies it is in our food, air and soil
more or less for some....
If reality scares you stop here (there is such a thing as too much info) and
delete.... These are not my opinons I have known people with a PH.D I would
not trust to peel an apple. just passing on info.
Dave
Uranium metal is autopyrophoric and can burn spontaneously at room
temperature in the presence of air, oxygen and water. At temperatures of
200-400 degrees Centigrade, uranium powder may self-ignite in atmospheres of
carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Oxidation of uranium under certain conditions
may generate sufficient energy to cause an explosion (Gindler 1973).
Friction caused by bullet or missile entry into a tank or armored car, for
example, can cause the uranium to ignite, forming a concentrated ceramic
aerosol capable of killing most personnel in the vehicle. Depleted uranium
was used extensively in place of tungsten for ordnance by the US and UK in
the Gulf War.
There is no dispute of the fact that at least 320 tons of depleted uranium
(DU) was "lost" in the Gulf war, and that much of that was converted at high
temperature into an aerosol, that is, minute insoluble particles of uranium
oxide, UO2 or UO3 , in a mist or fog. It would have been impossible for
ground troops to identify this exposure if or when it occurred in war, as
this would require specialized detection equipment. However, veterans can
identify situations in which they were likely to have been exposed to DU.
Civilians working at military bases where live ammunition exercises are
conducted may also have been exposed.
Uranium oxide and its aerosol form are insoluble in water. The aerosol
resists gravity, and is able to travel tens of kilometres in air. Once on
the ground, it can be resuspended when the sand is disturbed by motion or
wind. Once breathed in, the very small particles of uranium oxide, those
which are 2.5 microns [ one micron = one millionth of a meter ] or less
in diameter, could reside in the lungs for years, slowly passing through the
lung tissue into the blood. Uranium oxide dust has a biological half life in
the lungs of about a year. According to British NRPB [ National Radiation
Protection Board ] experiments with rats, the ceramic or aerosol form of
uranium oxide takes "twice as long" or about a two year biological half life
in the lungs, before passing into the blood stream. [Stradling et al 1988]
Because of coughing and other involuntary mechanisms by which the body keeps
large particles out of the lungs, the larger particles are excreted through
the gastro-intestinal tract in feces. The uranium compounds which enter the
body either through the wall of the gastro-intestinal tract or the lungs,
can be broken down in the body fluids, and tetravalent uranium is likely to
oxidize to the hexavalent form, followed by the formation of uranyl ions.
Uranium generally forms complexes with citrate, bicarbonates or protein in
plasma, and it can be stored in bone, lymph, liver, kidney or other tissues.
Eventually this uranium which is taken internally is excreted through urine.
Presence of depleted uranium in urine seven or eight years after exposure is
sufficient evidence to substantiate long term internal contamination and
tissue storage of this radioactive substance.
Uranium is both a chemical toxic and radioactive hazard: Soluble uranium is
regulated because of its chemical toxicity, measured by damage to the kidney
and tubules. Uranium is a heavy metal, known to cause uranium nephritis.
Insoluble uranium, such as was released in the Gulf War, is regulated by its
radiological properties, and not its chemical properties. Because of its
slow absorption through the lungs and long retention in body tissues, its
primary damage will be due to its radiological damage to internal organs
rather than chemical damage to the renal system. Obviously, both types of
damage occur simultaneously, therefore it is a matter of judgment which
severe damage, radiological or chemical, occurs at the lowest dose level.
However, with the lengthening of the time during which the contaminant
resides in the body and the low overall dose, the risk of cancer death
becomes greater than the risk of significant damage to the renal system.
Uranium decays into other radioactive chemicals with statistical regularity.
Therefore, in its natural and undisturbed state, it always occurs together
with a variety of other radioactive chemicals, some of the best known being
thorium, radium, polonium and lead.
Natural uranium in soil is about 1 to 3 parts per million, whereas in
uranium ore it is about 1,000 times more concentrated, reaching about 0.05
to 0.2 percent of the total weight. Depleted uranium concentrate is almost
100 percent uranium. More than 99 percent of both natural and depleted
uranium consists of the isotope U-238. One gram of pure U-238 has a specific
activity of 12.4 kBq, which means there are 12,400 atomic transformations
every second, each of which releases an energetic alpha particle. Uranium
238 has a half life of 4.51 E+9 (or 4.51 times 10 to the 9thpower,
equivalent to 4,510,000,000 years).
Each atomic transformation produces another radioactive chemical: first,
uranium 238 produces thorium 234, (which has a half life of 24.1 days), then
the thorium 234 decays to protactinium 234 (which has a half life of 6.75
hours), and then protactinium decays to uranium 234 (which has a half life
of 2.47E+5 or 247,000 years). The first two decay radioisotopes together
with the U 238 count for almost all of the radioactivity in the depleted
uranium. Even after an industrial process which separates out the uranium
238 has taken place, it will continue to produce these other radionuclides.
Within 3 to 6 months they will all be present in equilibrium balance.
Therefore one must consider the array of radionuclides, not just uranium
238, when trying to understand what happened when veterans inhaled depleted
uranium in the Gulf War.
It should be noted that uranium 235, the more fissionable fraction which was
partially removed in enrichment, makes up only 0.2 to 0.3 percent of the
depleted uranium, whereas it was 0.7 percent of natural uranium. It is this
deficit which enables one to use analytical methods to identify the uranium
found in veteran's urine as depleted and not natural uranium. The U 235 was
extracted for use in nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor fuel. Depleted
uranium is considered nuclear waste, a by-product of uranium enrichment.
The difference in radioactivity between natural and depleted uranium is that
given equal quantities, depleted uranium has about half the radioactivity of
the natural mixture of uranium isotopes. However, because of the
concentration of the uranium in the depleted uranium waste, depleted uranium
is much more radioactive than uranium in its natural state.
Uranium and all of its decay products, with the exception of radon which is
a gas, are heavy metals. Unlike some other heavy metals which are needed in
trace quantities by the human body, there is no known benefit to having
uranium in the body. It is always a contaminant. Ingesting and inhaling some
uranium, usually from food, is inescapable however, in the normal Earth
environment, and we humans basically take in, on average, 5 Bq per year of
uranium 238 in equilibrium with its decay products. This gives an effective
radiation dose equivalent to the whole body of 0.005 mSv. Using a
quantitative measure, we normally ingest about 0.000436 g a year.[UNSCEAR
1988, 58-59] This is a mixture of soluble and insoluble compounds, absorbed
mostly through the gut.
Regulatory limits recommended by the International Commission on
Radiological Protection [ICRP] assume that the maximum permissible dose for
members of the public will be the one which gives the individual 1 mSv dose
per year. This is in addition to the natural exposure dose from uranium in
the food web. Assuming that this dose comes entirely from an insoluble
inhaled uranium oxide, and using the ICRP dose conversion factor for uranium
238 in equilibrium with its decay products, one can obtain a factor of 0.84
mSv per mg, or a limit of intake of 1.2 mg (0.0012 g) per year for the
general public. This would give an added radiation dose of 1.0 mSv from
uranium, and an increase of almost 2.75 times the natural uranium intake
level. Nuclear workers would be allowed by the ICRP maximum permissible
level, to reach an annual dose of 20 mSv, comparable to an intake of 24 mg
of uranium, 55 times the normal yearly intake.
The US has not yet conformed to the 1990 international recommendations which
were used for this calculation, and it is still permitting the general
public to receive five times the above general public amount, and the worker
to receive 2.5 times the above occupational amount. The US may have used its
domestic "nuclear worker" limits during the Gulf War, if it used any
protective regulations at all. The military manual discusses the hazards of
depleted uranium as less than other hazardous conditions on an active battle
field!
The maximum dose per year from anthropogenic sources can be converted to the
maximum concentration permissible in air using the fact that the adult male
breathes in about 23 cubic metres of air in a day [ICRP 1977]. The maximum
permissible concentration in air for the general public would be: 0.14
microgram per cu metre, and for workers: 2.9 micrograms per cu m assuming
the Gulf War situation of continuous occupancy rather than a 40 hour work
week, and an 8 hour day. It is common in the US and Canada to refer to 2000
pounds as a "ton", whereas the British "ton" is 2240 pounds. Both are
roughly 1000 kg. Just in order to understand the scale of the ceramic
uranium released in Desert Storm, at least 300 million grams were "lost",
and breathing in only 0.023 g would be equivalent to the maximum permissible
inhalation dose for a nuclear worker to receive in a year under the 1990
recommendations of ICRP.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Gill" <rmgill@mindspring.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 9:43 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] 'Electric armour' vaporizes anti-tank grenades and shells
At 12:16 PM -0400 8/26/02, Muttguru@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 26/08/02 15:18:11 GMT Daylight Time,
rmgill@mindspring.com
>writes:
>
>Well, I believe everything that the experts tell us.
Well, I wouldn't go painting with such a broad brush. Afterall,
you've got a vehicle that everyone knows rolls over at the drop of a
hat.
The magnetic exposure issue was debated ad-infinitum due to CRT
exposure. For a while people were amazingly paranoid about high
frequency exposure to the EM field of Computer Monitors and CRTs. So
the Euros started coming out with all sorts of shielding standards
and such. The general rule of thumb was don't aim the back of it at
your crotch.
By the same token, cops shouldn't lay the radar gun in their lap.
>After all, didn''t our British veterinary experts tell us (for years) that
>BSE was not transmissible to humans?
This was due to the stupid practice of mixing infected meat in with
the cattle feed. Something that US farms don't do. Additionally the
extremely long incubation period makes it harder to detect. I
remember hearing about BSE years ago from my mother. We were
discussing various pathogens. This was long before the BSE issue. At
that time the only way to get this disease was by eating the brains
of an infected cow.
>And that DU (depleted uranium) shells caused no after-effects? (tell that
to
>the gulf-war-syndrome sufferers).
>One thing that can be guaranteed about experts.... they disappear like
smoke
>once their assurances no longer hold up. (:
The DU issue I've heard more than a few versions of. One interesting
point someone made on sci.military.moderated a year or two ago was
that the Italian troops that were all suddenly suffering from
increases in cancer were symptomatic with a pretty particular form of
cancer. Specifically one that was related to benzine exposure. What
did those troops use to clean their weapons? We'll gasoline. Whats in
some gasoline, but not always? Benzine.
Gulf War syndrome is likely multiple ailments that are caused by
multiple types of exposures to multiple chemicals and isotopes. DU
exposure should, from my understanding, cause lung cancer from the
beta particle irradiating the lungs. Beta particles are pretty low
energy, but if you inhale the DU dust, there you go.
Rule of thumb, don't play around burned out tanks. Don't eat cow
brains. When someone changes things, it may change the rules.
--
Ryan Gill rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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