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Depleted Uranium May Stop Kidneys "In Days"
James writes: "The New Scientist, Reuters, and the San Jose Mercury News, are all carrying stories on a U.K. Royal Society report which confirms that depleted uranium shells, used widely in the Gulf War and the Balkan conflicts, are in fact deadly to bystanders. Moreover, it seems that U.S. servicepeople have been most at risk, and civilians remain at risk years after the use of such shells. The Royal Society report is being described as portraying the situation in the most favorable light, and critics say the truth is far worse."
We need to remember that using U-238 shells gives our marines a +2 bonus on their weapons range. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Correct me if I'm wrong, aren't they rather hazardous to the "intended" recipients?
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
I thought that depleted uranium ( u235 )was what was left over after you took out all the radioactive kind ( u238 ) , and what you get after you put the u238 in a reactor is plutonium among other things.
I wish that solders would stop and think about the environment when there is a tank coming after them. Depleted Uranium makes it hard for the daisies to grow. I know because Oprah told me so.
Not the worst Slashdot writeup ever, but a pretty skewed one.
What I don't get is this -- is this supposed to explain elevated cancer rates in Gulf War and Balkans veterans? How many friendly fire DU hits were there?
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
What are the advantages of u238 shells and rounds over lead ammunition or ammunition made out of some other material?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
If you're in a tank that just got hit with a DU round, lung cancer is FAR from the top of your list of problems.
I can see it now...
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: This sabot round contains depleted uranium. Occupants of a vehicle struck by this shell may suffer health problems.
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
So our soldiers are in danger of being killed!?!? By weapons?! That is horrifying, absolutly terrible! We can't stand around and let innocent soldiers die can we?
The other things depleted uranium has going for it is it is pyrophoric and self-sharpening. So as it pushes through the armor of its target the tip doesn't blunt. As it penetrates, instead, the material sort of peels back always leaving a sharp point. And when it is through the armor, the high temperature, and high preassure cause hot chips of the penetrator to fly off killing everyone unlucky enough to be in the opposing tank. Or what have you. From what I understand it would not be totally unlike throwing iron filings through a flame.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
So how much DU do I have to eat before my kidneys are shot?
I would rather see open research into why Gulf War vets are getting sick in huge numbers over the general population, than any sweeping-under-the-carpet.
Maybe in your world, questioning DU weaponry is anti-nuclear hysterical ignorance and technophobia, but here in reality, it is sorely needed.
Has anyone built a custom case using DU?
I talked to a friend that was over there during the gulf war about the DU slugs that were being used. Unclassified speed of 1 mile per second (hint: Classified is faster :P) and able to penetrate a sand dune as if it wasn't there.
:P
Apparently the enemy enjoyed the ostritch approach- hide the tanks behind a dune. A DU slug fired would penetrate the dune like a hot knife thru butter. If you punch in 1600meters/sec into a mass/energy equation, you can see a loosely packed sand dune is not going to offer sufficient resistance to even slow these things down.
Now when these things are fired they rest in a plastic, two piece mount. It comes apart (the mount) immediately after exiting the barrel. The mount is fatal to troops on either side (if the round leaves at 1mile/sec+, that mount is flying off at a 90 degree angle at pretty much the same speed - the nose is cone shaped so the air deflects it away from the round
This plastic piece could concievably abrade the DU slug (it IS hard plastic to withstand the acceleration).
This dust is then airborne, and could be breathed by practically anyone. Hence the problems and the health risks.
It wasn't as if anyone was LICKING the rounds
A lot of people say "Oh, so DU ammo is dangerous, 'snicker'".
When I was a kid here in Denmark, it was a fairly common event, that some 40 year old WWII "horned" mine was seen drifting into a harbour. I remember that a couple of kids that died, because that rusty old tincan they kicked, in fact was a german stick granade. (those "potatomasher" granades are higly unstable).
Even today it is very common, that fishermen gets a stack of corroded gas granades, usually mustard gas, in their nets, since incredible amounts of WWII gas ammmo, was dumped into the baltic sea after the war.
Some years ago, I visited a woodclearing where german small arms and AA ammo was tried destroyed. It wasn't a well done job; the entire clearing was littered with shells. The holes where the detonations had taken place, was still, after 55 years, without a trace of a single leave of vegetation. Probably caused by the phosphor from the tracer rounds.
The danish coastline was part of the Atlantik Wall, and therefore heavely mined (more than 1.4 million mines). Roughly 1 mineclearer died, for evey ten miles of coastlines, and there are still areas not cleared to this day.
The rest of Europe and the former USSR is littered with WWI and WWII ammo.
The "war most be fought with all means" proponents, really lives in the "here and now", and forget the decades, and centuries that comes afterward, and the huge amount of civilians who has to live on or near the former battlegrounds.
They don't really go into it, but the real issue is what happens after the battle. The pellets are covered in heavy-metal dust from the initial impact which washes into the local water supply and the pellets themselves are often consumed by birds. (Many types of birds eat small pebbles to aid in digestion). Birds large enough to eat spen rounds are also large enough for people to eat. When the local population sits down for their Sunday brunch they are unknowingly consuming huge doses of heavy metal at the same time.
Firstly, uranium (any isotope) is a heavy metal and for that reason tends to be toxic to the kidneys beyond certain dosages.
/. posters that some newspapers are "respectable." Newspapers cannot be relied upon for unbiased reviews of any hard science topic.
Secondly, kidney toxicity, from any cause, is radically reduced when the owner of the kidney(s) injests antioxidants that operate in the kidneys. There are many, such as alpha lipoic acid. (ALA reduces damage from metals all over the body, BTW, not just in the kidneys.)
Thirdly, people might want to get their medical science news from the source: peer-reviewed medical journals. You can search for and read medical journal abstracts at Pubmed:
http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
All newspapers are sensationalist, contrary to the claims from some
Here are the latest Pubmed/Medline abstracts regarding DU and kidney health ("Renal functioning" in some of the below abstracts means "kidney functioning"):
Environ Res 2000 Feb;82(2):168-80
Health effects of depleted uranium on exposed Gulf War veterans.
McDiarmid MA, Keogh JP, Hooper FJ, McPhaul K, Squibb K, Kane R, DiPino R, Kabat M, Kaup B, Anderson L, Hoover D, Brown L, Hamilton M, Jacobson-Kram D, Burrows B, Walsh M.
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. mmcdiarm@medicine.umaryland.edu
A small group of Gulf War veterans possess retained fragments of depleted uranium (DU) shrapnel, the long-term health consequences of which are undetermined. We evaluated the clinical health effects of DU exposure in Gulf War veterans compared with nonexposed Gulf War veterans. History and follow-up medical examination were performed on 29 exposed veterans and 38 nonexposed veterans. Outcome measures employed were urinary uranium determinations, clinical laboratory values, and psychiatric and neurocognitive assessment. DU-exposed Gulf War veterans with retained metal shrapnel fragments are excreting elevated levels of urinary uranium 7 years after first exposure (range 0.01-30.7 microg/g creatinine vs 0.01- 0.05 microg/g creatinine in the nonexposed). The persistence of the elevated urine uranium suggests on-going mobilization from a storage depot which results in a chronic systemic exposure. Adverse effects in the kidney, a presumed target organ, are not present at this time, though other effects are observed. Neurocognitive examinations demonstrated a statistical relationship between urine uranium levels and lowered performance on computerized tests assessing performance efficiency. Elevated urinary uranium was statistically related to a high prolactin level (>1.6 ng/ml; P=0.04). More than 7 years after first exposure, DU-exposed Gulf War veterans with retained metal fragments continue to excrete elevated concentrations of urinary uranium. Effects related to this are subtle perturbations in the reproductive and central nervous systems. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.
PMID: 10662531
Sci Total Environ 2001 Jul 2;274(1-3):115-8
Biological effects of embedded depleted uranium (DU): summary of armed forces radiobiology research institute research.
McClain DE, Benson KA, Dalton TK, Ejnik J, Emond CA, Hodge SJ, Kalinich JF, Landauer MA, Miller AC, Pellmar TC, Stewart MD, Villa V, Xu J.
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA. mcclain@mx.afrri.usuhs.mil
The Persian Gulf War resulted in injuries of US Coalition personnel by fragments of depleted uranium (DU). Fragments not immediately threatening the health of the individuals were allowed to remain in place, based on long-standing treatment protocols designed for other kinds of metal shrapnel injuries. However, questions were soon raised as to whether this approach is appropriate for a metal with the unique radiological and toxicological properties of DU. The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) is investigating health effects of embedded fragments of DU to determine whether current surgical fragment removal policies remain appropriate for this metal. These studies employ rodents implanted with DU pellets as well as cultured human cells exposed to DU compounds. Results indicate uranium from implanted DU fragments distributed to tissues far-removed from implantation sites, including bone, kidney, muscle, and liver. Despite levels of uranium in the kidney that were nephrotoxic after acute exposure, no histological or functional kidney toxicity was observed. However, results suggest the need for further studies of long-term health impact, since DU was found to be mutagenic, and it transformed human osteoblast cells to a tumorigenic phenotype. It also altered neurophysiological parameters in rat hippocampus, crossed the placental barrier, and entered fetal tissue. This report summarizes AFRRI's depleted uranium research to date.
PMID: 11453287
J Occup Environ Med 2001 Dec;43(12):991-1000
Surveillance of depleted uranium exposed Gulf War veterans: health effects observed in an enlarged "friendly fire" cohort.
McDiarmid MA, Squibb K, Engelhardt S, Oliver M, Gucer P, Wilson PD, Kane R, Kabat M, Kaup B, Anderson L, Hoover D, Brown L, Jacobson-Kram D; Depleted Uranium Follow-Up Program.
Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 405 W. Redwood Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. mmcdiarm@medicine.umaryland.edu
To determine clinical health effects in a small group of US Gulf War veterans (n = 50) who were victims of depleted uranium (DU) "friendly fire," we performed periodic medical surveillance examinations. We obtained urine uranium determinations, clinical laboratory values, reproductive health measures, neurocognitive assessments, and genotoxicity measures. DU-exposed Gulf War veterans with retained metal shrapnel fragments were excreting elevated levels of urine uranium 8 years after their first exposure (range, 0.018 to 39.1 micrograms/g creatinine for DU-exposed Gulf War veterans with retained fragments vs 0.002 to 0.231 microgram/g creatinine in DU exposed but without fragments). The persistence of the elevated urine uranium suggests ongoing mobilization from the DU fragments and results in chronic systemic exposure. Clinical laboratory outcomes, including renal functioning, were essentially normal. Neurocognitive measures showing subtle differences between high and low uranium exposure groups, seen previously, have since diminished. Sister chromatid exchange frequency, a measure of mutation in peripheral lymphocytes, was related to urine uranium level (6.35 sister chromatid exchanges/cell in the high uranium exposure group vs 5.52 sister chromatid exchanges/cell in the low uranium exposure group; P = 0.03). Observed health effects were related to subtle but biologically plausible perturbations in central nervous system function and a general measure of mutagen exposure. The findings related to uranium's chemical rather than radiologic toxicity. Observations in this group of veterans prompt speculation about the health effects of DU in other exposure scenarios.
PMID: 11765683
Mil Med 2002 Feb;167(2 Suppl):117-9
Health effects of embedded depleted uranium.
McClain DE, Benson KA, Dalton TK, Ejnik J, Emond CA, Hodge SJ, Kalinich JF, Landauer MR, Livengood DR, Miller AC, Pellmar TC, Stewart MD, Villa V, Xu J.
Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA.
The health effects of embedded fragments of depleted uranium (DU) are being investigated to determine whether current surgical fragment-removal policies are appropriate for this metal. The authors studied rodents implanted with DU pellets as well as cultured human cells exposed to DU compounds. Results indicate that uranium from implanted DU fragments distributes to tissues distant from implantation sites, including bone, kidney, muscle, and liver. Despite levels of uranium in kidney that would be nephrotoxic after acute exposure, no histological or functional kidney toxicity was observed with embedded DU, indicating that the kidney adapts when exposed chronically. Nonetheless, further studies of the long-term health impact are needed. DU is mutagenic and transforms human osteoblastic cells into a tumorigenic phenotype. It alters neurophysiological parameters in rat hippocampus, crosses the placental barrier, and enters fetal tissue. Preliminary data also indicate decreased rodent litter size when animals are bred 6 months or longer after DU implantation.
PMID: 11873491
Mil Med 2002 Feb;167(2 Suppl):123-4
Health effects and biological monitoring results of Gulf War veterans exposed to depleted uranium.
McDiarmid MA, Hooper FJ, Squibb K, McPhaul K, Engelhardt SM, Kane R, DiPino R, Kabat M.
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 10 North Greene Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
A small group of Gulf War veterans have retained fragments of depleted uranium (DU) shrapnel, the long-term health consequences of which are undetermined. We evaluated the clinical health effects of DU exposure in Gulf War veterans compared with nonexposed Gulf War veterans. History and follow-up medical examinations were performed on 29 exposed veterans and 38 nonexposed veterans. Outcome measures used were urinary uranium determinations, clinical laboratory values, and psychiatric and neurocognitive assessment. Gulf War veterans with retained DU metal shrapnel fragments were found to be still excreting elevated levels of urinary uranium 7 years after first exposure to DU (range for exposed individuals is 0.01-30.7 micrograms/g creatinine vs. 0.01-0.05 microgram/g creatinine in the nonexposed). The persistence of the elevated urine uranium suggests ongoing mobilization of uranium from a storage depot, resulting in chronic systemic exposure. Adverse effects in the kidney, a presumed target organ, were not seen at the time of the study; however, other subtle effects were observed in the reproductive and central nervous systems of the DU-exposed veterans.
PMID: 11873493
-Nukebuddy
Oh well, at least its American soldiers that get their turn to suffer, I guess there is justice after all.
How much does the U.S. military spend on supporting apartheid in Israel and the killing of Palestinians again?
I think America is in for a shock once the sympathy wears off, and people start to look at the world through other than American media channels.
Fucken moron.
"[K]idney failure is likely to occur within a few days at concentrations above 50 micrograms of uranium per gram of kidney"
That's a 10,000x increase in the amount of depleted uranium that appears, on average, in the system of an individual exposed to DU-heavy battlefield environments.
I think we're safe.
Gee, if you are in an enemy tank, which you worry about more...the white hot fireball of an exploding DU shell bursting through your armor? Or, OMG, insideous kidney failure?! If you are lucky enough to survive being struck by a DU round...since most of your skin would be burned off I think there might be other concerns than 4 micrograms of depleted uranium.
And if you are an American serviceman and are worried about this, what are you doing...licking the shells? And even if that is the case, the DoD could solve that problem by putting a nice thin layer of enamel on the shell.
The people that should worry about this are the people that work in the manufacturing of DU munitions. And even then, this is no where as dangerous as some of the chemicals that are/have been used in producing munitions.
This is just yet more radioactive hysterics.
More medical news...
We've all heard the stories concerning Nazi's and their use of medical experiments in the death camps. One of the major beneficiaries to this was the Bayer Company, a German owned, medicinal guru. Being a student of Nietzsche I understand that there is nothing stronger than the tenacity of the German people, but its been over 50 years and this story provides proof that they are still as bitter as their medicine about getting a can of whup-arse opened up on them.
Patche says, "You will attract more flies with honey than vinegar... but who wants flies?
The report also warned that DU particles in the ground near attack sites could contaminate the soil and pose a risk if some of the soil is swallowed by children.
Hey kids, see that burning hulk of a tank carcass over there in that crater! Let's go eat the soil around it.
Someone you trust is one of us.
When the DU shell point hits something, instead of melting away as most metals do, the metal abalates directly to gas. Theis basically makes the tip sharper as it penetrates, rather than blunter. It is also damn dense, so that also helps. From what I remember, they will penetrate something like 7 YARDS of earth.
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