[ RadSafe ] Project Censured conclusions are refuted
Holloway3 at aol.com
Holloway3 at aol.com
Sat Jul 23 16:59:27 CDT 2005
Fellow activists,
Part of the conclusions used in the Project Censured awards now appear to be
erroneous. A year or so ago, Dr. Durakovic, of the UMRC, offered the
opinion that the somewhat elevated uranium found in 8 civilians from Afghanistan
were from the use of weapons made of natural (not depleted) uranium. I wrote
him a private letter about a year ago suggesting that the most likely source
of this elevated uranium was naturally occurring uranium in drinking water.
He did not reply to my letter. However, this spring, in April of 2005, he
published a more complete paper on his results in Military Medicine.
Interestingly, in this paper he reported drastically elevated uranium in drinking water
from the same area.
The crucial bit of evidence is that he found extremely high levels of
uranium in drinking water. The levels in drinking water AVERAGED above 23,000
nanograms per liter. The level in urine in Afghan civilians, which he previously
thought was so high, averaged 275 nanograms per liter. Any idiot can see that
the most likely source of the uranium in urine is the drinking water. It is
about 80 times higher than the concentration in urine.
These drinking water results are the smoking gun that solves the minor
mystery of the elevated amounts of uranium in the 8 Afghan civilians. Durakovic
really should have discussed the elevated drinking water levels in the abstract
but perhaps he found it uncomfortable to do so. He does discuss them to some
extent in the paper itself but fails to draw the obvious conclusion, that
drinking water is the source of the elevated uranium in his eight human
subjects. He undoubtedly must recognize that, although he is loath to admit it. His
paper is available on the internet and the link can be found in a recent DU-
Watch posting but I have a hard time finding that link again, so I cannot
post the link here.
The abstract gives a fairly accurate account of his work with the
astonishing exception of the omission of the drinking water results. Apparently Dr.
Durakovic still likes his original fanciful interpretation even though it is
starkly contradicted by his own drinking water results.
The following is the abstract of the paper written by Dr. Durakovic. He
omits any mention of the crucial drinking water results, although these results
are included in the full paper.
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to determine the concentrations and precise
isotopic compositions of four uranium isotopes (234U, 235U, 236U, and 238U) in
urine specimens from the civilian population of Afghanistan after Allied
Forces Operation Enduring Freedom. Eight male civilians from Nangarhar-Jalalabad
region who presented with symptoms of fatigue, fever, musculoskeletal and
neurological alterations, headaches, and respiratory impairment after inhalation
of dust during the bombing raids in June 2002 had urine samples collected
under controlled conditions and analyzed in duplicate for 234U, 235U, 236U, and
238U, with multicollector, inductively coupled, plasma ionization mass
spectrometry. Control samples with an internal urine standard were analyzed with
the same method. The mean concentration of uranium in eight samples was found
to be considerably greater (275.04 ng/L; SD, 137.80 ng/L; SE, 48.72 ng/L)
than what is regarded as a reference range (1–20 ng/L). The 238U/235U ratio was
137.87 ± 0.20, which is consistent with that of natural uranium. The
234U/238U ratio for the Afghan samples was 0.000055 ± 0.000001, also consistent with
natural uranium. 236U, which usually forms a component of depleted uranium,
was not detected (measured 236U/238U ratio, <10-7). Our results demonstrate
that contamination in Afghanistan with a source consistent with natural uranium
has resulted in total uranium concentrations up to 100 times higher than the
normal range for various geographic and environmental areas throughout the
world. The cause of our findings is currently being evaluated as a part of our
ongoing research.
..............................................................................
.............................................
The following is how Project Censured described the research in its early
stages, with conclusions which now appear to be obsolete based on the latest
results published by Dr. Durakovic. Goes to show that when you hear hoof beats
on the deck above, one should not think of Zebras.
>> > > INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE, March 2004
>> > > Title: "International Criminal Tribune For
>> > Afghanistan At Tokyo, The
>> > > People vs. George Bush"
>> > > Author: Professor Ms Niloufer Bhagwat J.
>> > >
>> > > Evaluator: Jennifer Lillig, Ph.D.
>> > > Student Researcher: Kenny Crosbie
>> > >
>> > > Civilian populations in Afghanistan and Iraq and
>> > occupying troops
>> > > have been contaminated with astounding levels of
>> > radioactive depleted
>> > > and non-depleted uranium as a result of
>> post-9/11
>> > United States' use
>> > > of tons of uranium munitions. Researchers say
>> > surrounding countries
>> > > are bound to feel the effects as well.
>> > > In 2003 scientists from the Uranium Medical
>> > Research Center (UMRC)
>> > > studied urine samples of Afghan civilians and
>> > found that 100% of the
>> > > samples taken had levels of non-depleted uranium
>> > (NDU) 400% to 2000%
>> > > higher than normal levels. The UMRC research
>> team
>> > studied six sites,
>> > > two in Kabul and others in the Jalalabad area.
>> The
>> > civilians were
>> > > tested four months after the attacks in
>> > Afghanistan by the United
>> > > States and its allies.
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