[ RadSafe ] Another Letter to the Editor about DU

[James Salsman]

>... it is extremely important that the professional community is responding....

Here are four ways that the U.S. government community could respond:

1.  The CDC/ATSDR should cite the reproductive chemical toxicity
of uranium in their toxicology publications.  The teratogenicity
of uranium has been known for more than half a century, and is
well-documented, along with uranium's developmental toxicity, in
several peer-reviewed medical and scientific publications, but
no mention of it can be found in ATSDR publications.  Is it even
possible to perform professional risk analysis when some of the
biggest risks remain undocumented for so long?

2.  The Army and other pyrophoric uranium munitions NRC licensees
should determine the quantity of UO3(g) vapor produced by such
weapons.  Perhaps this is happening now that the Army has (rather
indirectly) admitted that at least some is produced, by way of
comments to the NRC pertaining to the need to determine whether
UO3(g) vapor acts as a dispersive gas or as a cloud with
colligative behavior.  (Very good question, by the way.)

3.  The Navy's DoD Birth and Infant Health Registry should, in
their epidemiological studies, measure the congenital
malformation incidence rate of exposed 1991 Operation Desert
Storm veterans, instead of avoiding any study of them as a class
in their recent draft Annual Reports, e.g.:
   http://www.bovik.org/du/mscusn/BIHR_annual_report_1998.pdf
   http://www.bovik.org/du/mscusn/BIHR_annual_report_1999.pdf
   http://www.bovik.org/du/mscusn/BIHR_annual_report_2000.pdf

This is especially important because published studies of that
same epidemiological category upon which DoD BIHR scientists
have publicly commented indicate that the class has
significant and substantial increases in their birth defect
incidence rate, which is apparently increasing over time:
http://www.bovik.org/du/mscusn/BD_Infants_GWV_AR_AZ_CA_GA_HI_IA_1989-1993.pdf

4.  The Army should admit that if UO3 forms from U oxides UO2
through U3O8 by weathering, then the uranyl ions are likely to
mobilize and wash away into the water table simultaneously, and
so they should begin testing the water table in sites such as
Jefferson Proving Ground, Indiana, Vieques, Puerto Rico, and
Basrah, Iraq to see if they can find out what happened to the
missing UO3 which their chemists have been expecting.

Sincerely,
James Salsman