Watchdog urges depleted uranium cleanup in Iraq
Date: 02-Jun-03
Country: UNITED NATIONS
Author: Irwin Arieff
"I was in the army and they trained us to protect civilians," said Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of the Washington-based nonprofit Nuclear Policy Research Institute.
"The United States and Britain must take the necessary steps now to protect the Iraqi people from the detrimental effects of depleted uranium," Sheehan-Miles, who served as a U.S. tank crewman in the first Gulf War in 1991, told a news conference at U.N. headquarters.
Depleted uranium is used to harden the tips of armor-piercing shells. It is 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium but nonetheless toxic, and studies have suggested the substance may cause cancer if inhaled or attack the kidneys if ingested via soil or the water supply.
Depleted uranium is particularly effective as a weapon as it bursts into flame and vaporizes upon impact, burning through armor. But that releases fine particles into the air, which can settle on the damaged tank or on the ground and later be inhaled by anyone in the area.
While health studies to date have been inconclusive, Iraqi scientists say the numbers of Iraqi children suffering from childhood cancers soared within a few years of the first Gulf War, and the World Health Organization and the U.N. Environment Program have called for further research.
The U.N. environmental agency said about 290 tonnes of depleted uranium was fired in the 1991 war, but the amount used in the second Gulf War, which began in mid-March, is unknown.
The Pentagon has dismissed any health dangers and says it has no plans for a clean-up, Sheehan-Miles said.
But Britain's Defense Ministry agreed in late April to a request from leading scientists to release information about where depleted uranium was used by its forces so a clean-up and monitoring program for soldiers and civilians could be launched.
