[ RadSafe ] What Became of this 2001 WHO Investigation?

[Roger Helbig]

Actually I asked about the report by WHO in Iraq which I now understand has been discredited .. Mr Salsman seems to have neglected this part of the WHO web page that you referenced .. a mere oversight I am sure.

Roger Helbig

A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report giving field measurements taken around selected impact sites in Kosovo (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) indicates that contamination by DU in the environment was localized to a few tens of metres around impact sites. Contamination by DU dusts of local vegetation and water supplies was found to be extremely low. Thus, the probability of significant exposure to local populations was considered to be very low. 

A UN expert team reported in November 2002 that they found traces of DU in three locations among 14 sites investigated in Bosnia following NATO airstrikes in 1995. A full report is expected to be published by UNEP in March 2003. 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Salsman" <james at bovik.org>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>; <rhelbig at california.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 12:12 PM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] What Became of this 2001 WHO Investigation?


Roger Helbig asks about this report:

"Depleted Uranium:  Sources, Exposure and Health Effects,
World Health Organization," Ionizing Radiation Unit, 2001.
   http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/du/en/index.html

Chapter 8, "The Chemical Toxicity of Uranium," --
http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/pub_meet/en/Depluranium4.pdf
-- is of particular interest.  Apparently well-funded United
States national laboratories are incapable of research
matching even a fraction of the quality of that of the United
Nation's poorly-funded WHO.  Page 103:  "Until more
information on the chemical form of uranium and DU in the
environment is obtained, it would be prudent to assume that
it is in a soluble form (ICRP Type F)."

Of course, given that Mary Ann Parkhurst was at the top of the
distribution list of Sandia's report this past Thursday, I can
see why there is quite an interest in suppressing the obvious
and irrefutable fact that essentially all exposed UO2 weathers
to uranyl oxide, and that plenty of uranyl oxide in gas vapor
form is produced when UO2 cools from the 3000+ deg.C at which
it is formed from uranium combustion weapons.

Sincerely,
James Salsman

> This link is still being given by anti-DU activist Gary Kohls of Minneapolist and probably others .. there is no indication what this team found out or if they were allowed to do their own research or had to accept canned information from the Saddam regime.
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1506151.stm
> Thursday, 23 August, 2001, 16:56 GMT 17:56 UK 
> WHO studies depleted uranium in Iraq