That American forces use depleted uranium in our weapons isn't news, but these statistic are a little spooky. According to Bob Nichols at the
Dissident Voice, we've unleased 4,000,000 pounds of DU in Iraq. That's the radioactive equivalent of
250,000 Nagasaki bombs (pdf) says Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, former chief of Naval Staff in India. And since it's dust...it travels with the wind, which means Europe will see some fallout.
It also turns out that most of the soldiers
didn't know they were using DU, didn't know what DU was, and are now suffering reactions to it.
posted by dejah420
on Apr 6, 2004 -
32 comments
"The depleted uranium being used in the Middle East is a repeat of the deception of Navajos, the abuse of the innocent. 'The United States government knew all along the uranium mining would kill Navajos....' said Badoni, among Navajos organizing opposition to further uranium mining on the Navajo Nation....declassified documents in the United States reveal that both the buyer, the United States government, and Ottawa, then the world's largest supplier, withheld information from Native miners that could have saved their health and their lives."
The ongoing, deadly fallout in a certain nation where development (and use) of weapons of mass destruction has
never been in doubt.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Aug 18, 2003 -
10 comments
It's not just for bullets anymore! previously discussed on MeFi
here, I would like to reconsider "Depleted Uranium" (DU) in terms of its non-military uses. As ballast in the
Columbia, the pieces of which were scattered across our country, for instance? Also in the ballast of many
commercial airplanes, helicopters and ships.
Should we really be using this stuff so
lightly? I mean, just because it's
twice as heavy as lead does that
counterbalance the incredibly damaging long-term (half-life = how many billion years?) effects of DU burning and becoming a wind-borne inhalant? (Gulf Syndrome)
To paraphrase Seinfeld, what's the deal with DU?
posted by zekinskia
on Feb 12, 2003 -
27 comments
NATO Ducks Uranium Ban Amid Clamor for Research. NATO partners split on dangers of depleted uranium weapons.
"U.S. attack jets fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition during NATO's 1999 campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. About 10,000 rounds were also fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-95."Of course, this doesn't count rounds used during the Gulf War.
posted by Mr. skullhead
on Jan 9, 2001 -
1 comment
left-over gun shells poisoning the environment US and NATO forces left enough low-level depleted uranium shells lying around in bosnia/kosovo to cause an environmental hazard. I wrote whitehouse.gov and the d.o.d. about how important i think it is that we clean up this mess, pronto. i love using the word, pronto. this is important, and could really affect us if we don't fix it now.
posted by bliss322
on Jan 7, 2001 -
26 comments
