[ RadSafe ] Depleted Uranium - Latest Post to a Google Group

[roger helbig]

http://groups.google.com/group/Progressive-Media/browse_thread/thread/85a86954e8a13fd1/c43e3ddcb6fa06f8?q=Rokke&rnum=9

Yes, they fire radiation out into the very same air that
our families 
breathe. Tons of radioactive munitions, in fact. Depleted
Uranium is 
the name of one of the materials they use. And if that
material sounds 
familiar? It because it's the same stuff that they're using
on the 
"enemy" - that is, on civilians - in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

No, we do not know what in the world the civilians of Iraq
and 
Afghanistan ever did to deserve the "honor" of being
blasted to kingdom 
come with Uranium-238 - rendering their nations permanently

uninhabitable. By the same token, nor do we know what
American citizens 
have done to deserve Depleted Uranium being exploded into
our air so 
that we are gassed with it, either. 


But now the country is starting to buzz with the word of
radioactive 
open air "testing" near San Francisco. And with such a
progressive part 
of the nation that has historically fought hard for peace,
equal 
rights, racial equality, gay rights, and ecological
sustainability? As 
one could say, the Greater San Francisco Bay area is now
again boldly 
"coming out of the closet" with regard to letting the
proverbial cat 
out of the bag about this "dirty" business of Uncle Sam's. 


But this is not a story entirely about San Francisco's
troubles. Nor is 
it even all about California. As you will see, this story
affects you 
and me, no matter where we live in the country.
California's tale is 
only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The story about
your community 
and mine? Now that's the heart of this story. 


The fiery "hot" issue of Depleted Uranium explosives
"testing" has 
emerged into the spotlight in the San Francisco Bay area
recently all 
because of some people who live in a city called Tracy.
 That's how 
anything important usually starts - when just a few people
who are fed 
up enough get together and become vocal enough and publicly
put up a 
fuss. 


No wonder why they're upset. Only a few miles away from
them on a 
federally owned 7,000 acre parcel of land in the Altamont
Hills at the 
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in San Joaquin and
Alameda 
Counties, California, radioactive explosives containing
Depleted 
Uranium are being shot out into the open air at a location
called Site 
300. Yes, Depleted Uranium is being exploded across the
street from a 
motorbike recreational area. Site 300 is only a few miles
away from 
where people live. 


What started all the ruckus was that on November 13 a new
permit, 
issued by California's San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution
Control 
District, was put into effect that allows the Lawrence
Livermore 
National Laboratory to use more than triple the amount of
explosive 
materials in "test" detonations at Site 300 than in the
past. This 
means that the equivalent of 350 pounds of explosives may
now be fired 
instead of the previously permitted 100 pounds. 


There are two efforts underway to appeal the new permit for
Site 300 
that allows for much larger explosions by using greater
amounts of 
radioactive materials. Two appeals have been filed, one by
a housing 
developer and the other by a resident who lives about five
miles from 
the radioactive blast location, Site 300. 


Small business owner, Tracy resident, and long-standing
member of 
Tri-Valley Communities Against A Radioactive Environment
(CARES), Bob 
Sarvey is leading the way to protect his community of
72,400 from 
radioactivity at Livermore's Site 300 by appealing the
permit of the 
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. A health
risk 
assessment performed recently shows a higher health risk
just from 
merely inhaling toxic non-radioactive air contaminants than
the 
Livermore Lab shows in its own radiological assessment. 


 Residents realized something was not quite right about
this report. 
"Previously", according to Sarvey, "the Lawrence Livermore
Lab didn't 
need a permit from the Pollution Control District because
their 
chargers were under 100 lbs. equivalent to TNT - and under
1,000 pounds 
per year. Now, they are going to increase that to 350
pounds per 
charge, equivalent to TNT ...and they are also going to
increase the 
annual limit to 8,000 pounds. That's eight-fold of what it
was 
annually... and on a per change basis, three and a half
times per 
charge". 


In addition to allowing up to 8,000 pounds of explosives
containing 
radioactive matter annually, as reported in the Tracy Press
on December 
14 the current county air pollution control permit allows
Livermore 
Laboratory to emit up to 1,440 pounds of particulate matter
up to 10 
microns in diameter per year into the air. The public does
not even 
have to be notified of such emissions unless the
particulate matter 
exceeds a 20,000 pound limit. 


It only takes one invisible micron of Depleted Uranium to
cause organ 
damage and health failure. Can anyone possibly hazard a
guess as to how 
much potential hazard that 1,440 pounds of particulates
could cause - 
never mind the 20,000 pound particulate upper limit? Can
you imagine 
willingly causing up to 1,440 pounds of radioactive
particles to be 
blasted into the open air? If one miniscule particle so
tiny as to be 
invisible can cause a terminal illness, whose mind can even
fathom the 
devastation 1,440 pounds of this stuff could do to
countless numbers of 
people? 


But we must remember - Livermore Lab is allowed to explode
up to 20,000 
pounds into the air in a year and not even have to notify
the 
neighboring communities. And Site 300 is only one of
several such 
explosive "test" sites in the nation. 


Lawrence Livermore representatives will not reveal to Tracy
residents 
precisely how many bombs might be "tested" in a year. Tracy
Press 
reports that the only reason given by Lawrence Livermore
for the 
eight-fold annual increase in explosives testing is
"national 
security," according to air district spokeswoman Kelly
Morphy. 


On January 8, Recordnet.com  quoted Livermore Public
Affairs Director 
Susan Hougton stating that the Lab plans to conduct "only
three'" of 
the larger, 350-pound detonations in the next year and a
half. 
According to Houghton, no blasts larger than 100 pounds
have been 
conducted since 1997. 


"Only three" large radioactive explosions in a year - and
an unknown 
number of smaller ones at 100 pounds a "pop" - certainly
does not sound 
like too much to be concerned over. So what is the big deal
with 
exploding up to 8,000 pounds of explosives including
radioactive toxics 
like Depleted Uranium out into the open air, anyway? 


WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT DU? 


Depleted Uranium is an inexpensive, radioactive heavy metal
more dense 
than lead. It is basically nuclear waste made from the
uranium 
enrichment process. The supply is plentiful and the US
Military uses it 
in its guns, tanks, bombs, missiles and cannons. To get a
feel for how 
much of it there is of the stuff, The U.S. government has
produced more 
than 1.1 Billion pounds of DU in its uranium enrichment
facilities in 
Ohio and Kentucky. It's also used as military tank armor,
and aircraft, 
ship and missile counterweight ballasts as well as to
provide the 
massive casing for hydrogen bombs that enable them to
undergo fission 
and give off about fifty percent greater energy "bang for
the buck". 


Our military has found that there are many attractive
advantages to 
using Depleted Uranium (Uranium-238) over Tungsten steel,
as 
Uranium-238 is an easier substance to process. It is also
pyrophoric, 
which means it burns instantly upon impact or if ignited.
DU also has 
the advantage of being easily able to penetrate targets
from armored 
tanks to concrete bunkers. 


Always happy to rid itself of nuclear waste, Depleted
Uranium has been 
cheerfully given away by the government to weapons
manufacturers, who 
then in turn make a profit by selling the weapons to the US
Military 
for use in combat as well as for running "tests" out into
the air. 
Sometimes in the past fifty years it has been burned in
open pits and 
other times DU is exploded in an estimated twenty-three
locations all 
across the nation, including Hawaii and Puerto Rico. 


Experts who have studied the properties of Depleted Uranium
and its 
deleterious effects upon human health have a great deal to
tell us. 
Recently in a letter to Tracy Press, Marion Fulk, local
resident and 
nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear
Weapons Lab 
formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, tells us a
bit about the 
uranium that is being exploded at Livermore and its effects
upon human 
health: "Uranium-238, sometimes called 'depleted uranium',
poses a 
serious health threat, especially if inhaled in finely
divided 
particles like those created by open-air explosives
testing. Because of 
its properties, uranium-238 is a triple threat to human
health. Its 
properties as a heavy metal create health damage once
inside the body. 
Its properties as a hazardous chemical catalyst cause
additional health 
risks. And its properties as a radioactive material offer a
third route 
to cellular and DNA damage, illness and premature death in
humans and 
animals." 


Despite the fact that Uranium-238 is commonly called
"Depleted", this 
was a label invented to get the public to think that it is
a weakly 
radioactive material. Nothing could be further from the
truth. This 
poison dust packs a powerful punch to the human body, as
Dr. Rosalie 
Bertell, biometrician and environmental epidemiologist,
international 
radiation expert, and Founder of The International
Institute of Concern 
for Public Health explains, "Depleted uranium concentrate
is almost 100 
percent uranium. More than 99 percent of both natural and
depleted 
uranium consists of the isotope U-238." In addition, the
U.S. 


Department of Energy and the 1995 U.S. Army Environmental
Policy 
Institute admits that a small amount of additional toxic
heavy metals 
and radioactive isotopes are also present in Depleted
Uranium, such as 
plutonium, neptunium, americium, Uranium-236 as well as
Uranium-234 and 
Uranium-235. 


The Uranium-238 which is used in our weapons and is
"tested" at test 
sites throughout the United States is some mighty powerful
stuff. We 
should not, therefore, allow the name of this type of
radioactive 
munition, "Depleted Uranium", fool us. 


As a matter of fact, in order to bring greater clarity to
the issue, 
scientists from the Low Level Radiation Campaign are no
longer calling 
uranium weapons "Depleted Uranium" or "DU" but have
switched to the 
term "WDU", which stands for Weapons-Derived Uranium when
referring to 
exposures from use of weapons containing any class of
Uranium. 
Hopefully the term WDU will eventually catch on, because
just like the 
words that the US Military uses to describe DU such as
claiming it is 
"mildly" or "weakly" radioactive, the fact of the matter
is, no 
radiation is harmless radiation. 


Uranium weapons destroy health and irreparably damage all
living 
things. In his book Radiation-Induced Cancer From Low-Dose
Exposure, 
John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D. makes his point about radiation
crystal 
clear: "By contrast, we think human evidence and logic
combine to make 
a case which is already conclusive -- by any reasonable
standard of 
proof -- against the existence of any safe dose or
dose-rate of 
ionizing radiation, with respect to cancer-induction." 


For the case of simplicity for now, we will stick to the
misnomer 
"Depleted Uranium". A pyrophoric munition, DU explodes
spontaneously 
upon being fired. Up to 80% of it is then oxidized, and an
aerosol is 
formed of minute radioactive particles between the range of
below 1 
micrometer to 5 micrometers. 


Immediately after the Uranium-238 is fired, these particles
are so tiny 
that they are actually an invisible gas which can be either
inhaled 
easily into the lungs, ingested in food, or can enter the
body inside a 
break in the skin, such as through a small cut on a finger.
In combat, 
Depleted Uranium can also enter the body via shrapnel that
enters the 
skin. 


At the May, 1999 Hague Peace Conference, Dr. Rosalie
Bertell stated 
that Depleted Uranium is "converted at high temperature
into an 
aerosol, that is, minute insoluble particles of uranium
oxide, UO2 or 
UO3 , in a mist or fog...Uranium oxide and its aerosol form
are 
insoluble in water. The aerosol resists gravity, and is
able to travel 
... in air. Once on the ground, it can be resuspended when
the sand is 
disturbed by motion or wind. Once breathed in, the very
small particles 
of uranium oxide, those which are 2.5 microns [ one micron
= one 
millionth of a meter ] or less in diameter, could reside in
the lungs 
for years". Once in the lungs, the uranium slowly passes
through the 
lung tissue into the blood. Uranium oxide dust has a
biological half 
life in the lungs of about a year. Eventually, the uranium
passes 
through the lung tissue and then into the blood stream,
which may then 
be broken down in body fluids. 


Eventually the uranium may be stored in bone, lymph, liver,
kidney or 
other tissues. When found in urine seven or eight years
after exposure, 
it is an indication of its long term internal uranium
contamination 
through storage in the body's tissues. 


Marion Fulk gives us an energetic picture of how DU creates
havoc once 
inside the body. "It is an alpha emitter, which means that
it is 
particularly damaging if lodged inside the body.
Uranium-238 decays 
with an energy of 4 million electron volts per alpha
particle. The 
energy emitted tears up surrounding cells and may initiate
a whole 
bunch of negative health outcomes, including, but not
limited to, 
cancers." 


Dr. Doug Rokke states how fast DU works once inside the
body, "Alpha 
particle emission measurements show that the dose or
exposure rate is 
in excess of 10000 counts per minute." DU, he says, "is a
serious 
internal hazard". 


Explaining this nasty cell-busting process, Janette D.
Sherman, M.D., 
specialist in internal medicine and toxicology, member of
The Radiation 
and Public Health Project, and author of Life's Delicate
Balance: 
Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Chemical
Exposure and 
Disease states that when we are exposed to Depleted
Uranium, it is a 
serious hazard as a chemically toxic heavy metal, plus it
is also 
radioactive. Because the uranium is so concentrated, the
alpha activity 
is increased, and a decay process occurs. Both alpha and
beta radiation 
are emitted into the cell tissue that surrounds the
miniature DU 
particle, affecting other cells and disrupting cell
membranes, DNA, and 
the cell development process. 


Quoting from Dr. Sherman's book, "Aside from the
radioactivity of 
uranium, it is a heavy metal poison and foreign body
irritant with the 
potential to remain in the body for decades." Uranium
poisoning also 
involves general health impairment to the kidneys, liver,
lungs, and 
cardiovascular, nervous and cell production systems, and
cause 
disorders of proteins and carbohydrate metabolism . 


Hmmm...Uranium can stay in the body for decades, you say?
Well then, 
how do we know that any of us is not walking around right
now with an 
invisible particle of Uranium-238 lodged inside one of our
lungs, 
hanging out and waiting to give us cancer twelve years down
the road? 
The point of the matter is, we don't. 


In an effort to de-mystify what is called by the US
Military "Gulf War 
Syndrome" in veterans of wars in the Middle East, Dr.
Sherman explains 
what many have come to call Depleted Uranium Poisoning. In
"Life's 
Delicate Balance", Dr. Sherman details precisely how we get
sick from 
breathing in Uranium-238. "When DU burns, it releases fine
particles of 
radioactive material, much of it as small as nano particles
which when 
inhaled go deep into the lungs and from there are
transported to the 
liver, kidneys, bone marrow, brain, skeleton, seminal
fluid, and other 
parts of the body. DU that is swallowed from airborne
particles is 
transported to the intestinal tract and absorbed and
transported to 
other parts of the body, including the liver and kidneys." 


As evidenced by increases in incidences of cancer in
veterans returning 
from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in civilians
in these 
countries, Depleted Uranium clearly plays a role in cancer
development, 
in auto-immune system disorders, and in the alteration of
gene 
expression patterns. By now we've all seen the horrific
pictures of 
children from Iraq and Afghanistan with cancers and those
born without 
limbs and unrecognizable facial features. 


In effect, scientific evidence suggests that Uranium-238
does appear to 
have an adverse impact on reproduction and the destruction
and mutation 
of genetic material, which is passed down to future
descendents which 
can lead to birth defects in the exposed individual's
offspring. 


Studies have also shown that DU has a toxic effect on the
kidneys as 
they are the organ that eliminates toxins in the blood and
thus are 
particularly vulnerable to both radiological and heavy
metal toxicity 
and are the first organs to be damaged by uranium.
Uranium-238 also 
causes neurologically related behavioral effects. Recently
scientists 
have observed that there appears to be a correlation
between Depleted 
Uranium and increases in diabetes. 


Alan Cantwell, M.D. covers the latest scientific thinking
on this 
connection in his article, "Depleted Uranium, Diabetes,
Cancer and 
You". In it Dr. Cantwell writes that "The CDC predicts that
Type 2 
diabetes will increase 165% by 2050. People with Type 2
diabetes are 
also twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer." Basic
common sense 
tells us that such dramatic increases in the diabetes
epidemic is quite 
unlikely to be due merely to genetics and "lifestyle
choices" alone. 


Recent data from The International Diabetes Federation
(IDF) indicates 
the enormity of the diabetes epidemic indicating that the
disease now 
affects 246 million people worldwide. They predict that the
total 
number of people living with diabetes worldwide will reach
380 million 
within twenty years. 


According to IDF President Pierre Lefèbvre, "Just twenty
years ago, 
the best information available suggested that 30 million
people had 
diabetes. A bleaker picture has now emerged. Diabetes is
fast becoming 
the epidemic of the 21st century." 


Never before has a quote been so fitting as that from
Leuren Moret, 
geo-scientist and international radiation specialist who
wrote, "If 
it's an epidemic, it's not genetic." 


Scientists like Moret and Dr. Ernest Sternglass are now
observing that 
increasing atmospheric radiation seems to play a vital role
in the 
expanding worldwide increase in cases of diabetes. 


ABOUT RADIOACTIVE BLASTS 


With such known devastating health effects of this
life-devastating 
toxin that stays in the body and basically rips it apart,
one can't 
help but wonder just what type of super-top secret,
"national security" 
projects would necessitate exploding radioactive toxic
uranium gas into 
densely populated areas where millions of Americans inhale
these toxics 
right where they live and work? 


I contacted the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Public
Affairs office to 
try to better understand the rationale for detonating even
greater 
amounts of radioactive explosives within a highly populated
area. Could 
it be, I wondered, that they do not realize that their 11.7
square 
miles of nuclear waste materials "testing" Site 300 is less
than 50 
miles from San Francisco? Maybe someone needed to tell
Livermore Lab 
(i.e., Uncle Sam) that more than seven million people live
in the 
densely populated San Francisco Bay Area and have been
breathing in 
this "gene busting" chemical toxic and radiological poison
for about 
fifty years? 


Certainly, I reasoned, no sane individuals would be
exploding radiation 
into the air for fifty years - on purpose - if they
realized how many 
families - men, women, children, and infants are breathing
in that air? 


The Public Affairs Director, Susan Houghton, seemed pleased
to share 
that Livermore had been "very successful for 50 years"
before Tracy 
Press started reporting on this issue, but she declined to
elaborate 
further. One can't help but wonder how the Lab has been
"successful" 
... I wanted to ask her, "successful" at doing... exactly
what? Perhaps 
Livermore Lab is proud they've been "successful" at keeping
the 
community in general - and California as a whole - quiet
and totally in 
the dark with regard to the hazards to their health? 


Apparently the US government has determined that the public
does not 
have a right to know what is in the air they breathe. As
reported by 
Tracy Press on December 14, Livermore Lab spokesperson
Linda Seaver 
stated, "We are not bound to do a public notice for every
permit we 
request. We worked directly with the local air quality
board and our 
various regulators". 


How do you think the American public would feel if it
realized that 
nuclear bomb simulators purposely and routinely fire off
100 pound 
toxic and radioactive air blasts that affect the air,
water, soil, and 
food supplies in our communities? Site 300, after all, is
only one of 
at several DU "testing" grounds in the nation. For example,
Los Alamos 
and Sandia National Laboratories both fire Depleted Uranium
into the 
open air, as does the Nevada Test Site and Yuma Proving
Grounds in 
Arizona. 


When asked in a phone conversation about radioactivity in
the outdoor 
explosions, Public Affairs Director Houghton said she would
not answer 
questions, but stated that tritium would not be used in the
350 lb 
tests. On this subject, another laboratory spokesperson,
Linda Seaver, 
informed SF Gate that the Laboratory last used tritium in
test 
explosions in 2001. 


Tritium, radioactive hydrogen, is present in nature in tiny
amounts. 
Significant quantities, however, are generated by nuclear
power plants 
and the manufacture of nuclear weapons and atomic bomb
testing. 


Tritium, like Uranium-238, is another destroyer of human
cells and DNA. 
According to the Nuclear Information Resource Service
website: "Tritium 
emits radioactive beta particles. Once tritium is inhaled
or swallowed, 
its beta particles can bombard cells. If a particle zaps a
DNA molecule 
in a cell, it can cause a mutation. If it mutates a gene
important to 
cell function, a serious disease may result... Research
indicates that 
tritium can remain in the human body for more than ten
years". 


At a Tracy City Council meeting on January 2, Tracy Press
reported 
Larry Sedlacek, Deputy Associate Director of Operations in
the Lawrence 
Livermore Laboratory's Defense and Nuclear Technologies
Group, as 
saying that tritium could be used in tests that would be
"aerosolized" 
after test blasts. He also stated that he "would not rule
out using 
tritium in the blasts... saying details of the blasts are
classified." 
Sedlacek also admitted, "We have used tritium at Site 300
in the 
past...It is contained in our environmental impact
statement that we 
could potentially use small quantities in the future, but
we don't have 
any scheduled." 


Whether the tritium and DU blasts are scheduled on the
calendar or they 
occur at the whim of the detonator button-pusher on duty at
Livermore 
that day, there appears to be some big project going on in
the hills 
near San Francisco. Livermore representatives won't name a
project 
linked to the planned explosions, but word has it that
there's 
something new in the works. 


One is left to ponder what would tritium be used for in the
smaller, 
radioactive tritium tests? Local war correspondent Bob
Nichols offered, 
"It is pretty clear from the tritium that Livermore, like
Los Alamos 
Nuclear Weapons Lab, is busily modeling the explosion of
global 
thermonuclear weapons". 


APPEALING BIG EXPLOSIONS 


With such a long history of radioactive explosions at Site
300, one is 
left to sit and ponder the impacts of these explosions upon
the health 
of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. A health risk
assessment for air 
pollution was done by the San Joaquin Pollution Control
District, yet 
their health analysis does not require them to report
radiological 
impacts. Their function is only to report non-radiological
toxic air 
contaminants. Tracy resident Bob Sarvey stated in an
interview, 
"Radiological impacts are not regulated by the Air
Pollution Control 
District. In fact, their health risk assessment is
inadequate" because 
it will contain neither the Depleted Uranium nor tritium
used at the 
site. 


How curious it is that the county which is required to
report levels of 
air pollution toxics is not required to measure nor report
on toxics 
caused by radioactive explosions being conducted within its
county? 
Livermore Lab's been "testing" there for 50 years, so it's
not like the 
Air Pollution Control Board hasn't heard of what they've
been up to all 
those years. San Joaquin's non-reporting of radiation in a
county where 
Depleted Uranium is fired out into the open air is
certainly curious 
indeed. 


Residents like Bob Sarvey are understandably concerned that
radioactive 
material such as Depleted Uranium and tritium will continue
to be blown 
into Tracy. Living approximately five miles from the
explosive "test" 
site, Sarvey felt compelled to personally cover a $750 fee
to file an 
appeal against the larger explosives permit. Since the San
Joaquin 
Valley Air Pollution Control District is not required to
regulate 
radioactive material, Sarvey believes this issue should
have referred 
that question to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. 


The second petition being filed on February 7 is by a
developer, Tracy 
Hills LLC, AKT Development. Out of Sacramento, AKT is
calling for the 
San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to review
the 
accuracy of emissions estimates, and environmental and
noise impacts of 
the larger blasts, according to appeal documents. Part of
the Tracy 
Hills property adjoins Site 300, although the 5,500 housing
community 
would be not much more than a mile from Site 300. I phoned
them to ask 
if the developer still plans on building those homes so
close to a 
Depleted Uranium explosives "test" site even if their
appeal is denied, 
but my call was not returned. 


OK IT'S HARMFUL - BUT IS THIS STUFF LEGAL? 


Far, far away, the US Military's premiere weapon of choice,
Depleted 
Uranium, has been used in combat overseas at least as far
back as 1991. 
It was also used in the former Yugoslavia and surrounding
Balkans 
region [Europe] in the 1990s, in Kosovo in 1999-2000, in
Afghanistan 
beginning in 2001, and in Iraq starting in 1991. While many
people 
believe that DU use started in 1991 and then resumed in
2003 with the 
second Gulf War, Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi, Associate
Professor in 
Environmental Geological Engineering of Mamoun University
for Science & 
Technology, and Member of the reminds us, however, that the
use of DU 
in Iraq never actually stopped. 


As the expert on uranium weapons-related environmental
impact and 
diseases told us in August, 2006, at the 3rd ICBUW
International 
Conference Hiroshima, "The USA and UK continuously used
Depleted 
Uranium weapons against the population and environment in
Iraq from 
1991 until today." 


What makes it hard to comprehend is that these weapons have
been used 
for 15 years in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the
Middle East 
despite the fact that the United Nations has prohibited its
use. As 
stating in its 1996 resolution,  it "Urges all States to be
guided in 
their national policies by the need to curb the production
and the 
spread of weapons of mass destruction or with
indiscriminate effect, in 
particular nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, fuel-air
bombs, napalm, 
cluster bombs, biological weaponry and weaponry containing
depleted 
uranium". 


Doug Rokke, Ph.D., health physicist, former Director, U.S.
Army 
Depleted Uranium Project, and one of the authors of the
Pentagon's 
program for environmental remediation summarizes the
international 
violations associated with use of DU: "According to an
August 2002 UN 
report, the use of DU munitions breaches the Universal
Declaration of 
Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Genocide Convention, the
Convention 
Against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the
Conventional 
Weapons Convention of 1980, and the Hague Conventions of
1899 and 
1907." 


Before the second war in Iraq even started, Karen Parker,
J.D., 
President and Co-founder of the Association of Humanitarian
Lawyers, 
further elaborated on the illegality of DU weapons, in
August 1999 when 
she testified "...these radioactive weapons have already
been used in 
Kuwait, Iraq, Kosovo and Serbia even though they are
illegal under 
existing humanitarian law. There are four main tests which
determine 
whether or not the use of weapons is illegal: 


(1) whether or not they stay within the territorial range
of the 
conflict; 


(2) whether or not they damage the environment; 


(3) whether or not the effects of the weapons end when the
conflict 
ends (or the temporal range of the weapons); and 


(4) whether or not they are inhumane, that is, continue to
cause 
physical harm beyond the point used for military purposes.
As the 
Sub-Commission is aware, Depleted Uranium Munitions fail
all four 
tests." 


So apparently, international law be damned and world
leaders dare not 
oppose this behemoth of a military beast. The US military's
continued 
violation of international law by its use of DU in nations
overseas in 
which it declares an "enemy" is certainly no secret to the
rest of the 
world. At the very least, what the United Nations, the
Middle East, 
eastern Europe and Okinawa (Islands of Japan) and Puerto
Rico (both 
locations where DU was exploded) all realize too well about
the 
horrific ramifications of the use of US uranium weapons
inside our 
country seems to be a well-kept secret here at home. 


How many Americans do you think realize that radioactive
Depleted 
Uranium explosions are being detonated in several federal
"test" sites 
right here in the United States, where American families
live, work, 
play - and try to breathe? How many people even living in
the Livermore 
Lab's backyard, inside the greater San Francisco Bay area
realize that 
the radioactive particulate matter of Uranium-238 stays in
our 
atmosphere for 4,510,000,000 years? 


We're not talking about a poison that will go away in a few

generations. This radiation will, in fact, be around longer
than the 
earth itself has been around. In the scheme of things, we
are 
radioactively poisoning earth forever. 


We have created a legacy of a toxic radioactive environment
for our 
children and future descendents forevermore. We who are
Baby Boomers 
have slept through this nuclear and nuclear waste
radioactive "testing" 
while we went to school, built our careers, and have been
immersed in 
raising our families and trying to make a living. So, too,
have our 
parents' and grandparents' generations, and now today's
younger adults 
are just starting to make their way in this world. 


While we were busy doing other things, far too busy to
worry about what 
was taking place on military "testing" ranges, proving
grounds, and 
national "laboratories", sixty years of radioactivity
"testing" has 
taken place right here, our own soil, into our air. There
appears to be 
no end to it in sight. 


Through "testing" of bombs, tanks, and guns containing
Uranium-238, 
tritium and other toxic substances at military ordnances,
national 
laboratories, and other federal lands throughout the United
States 
including Hawaii and off the coast of Alaska, we have
permitted the 
creation of radiation-filled toxic earth, air, and water
for our 
offspring. Knowingly or not, we have allowed irreparable
harm to be 
done to our earth, land, water, and human genetics and
cellular 
physiology - for the prematurely aborted future of
humankind. 


What we are doing with these uranium munitions is, as
Leuren Moret 
states, "illegal under international human rights and
humanitarian 
law". She informs us that the US "has used this inhumane
weapon on the 
battlefield, exposing its own soldiers, its allies,
civilian 
populations, and future generations. DU testing in the
Nevada trained 
on nearby bombing and gunnery ranges for the Gulf War. Now,
the "don't 
look, don't find policy" of the military is concealing the
cause of a 
recent leukemia cluster among children in Fallon." 


Jim Howenstein, M.D. agrees and posits that the use of
thousands of 
tons of Depleted Uranium used for decades at Fallon, Nevada
"is no 
doubt responsible for the fastest growing leukemia cluster
in the U.S. 
The military has denied that DU has anything to do with
this cluster. " 
Dr. Howenstein goes even further by stating that his own
"medical 
profession has been involved in the cover-up-just as they
were hiding 
the adverse effects that low level radiation from
atmospheric testing 
and nuclear power plants were producing." 


MAKING THE CONNECTION 


What would happen, do you think, if the connection was made
in the 
minds of 300 million Americans between widespread cancers,
diabetes, 
asthma and other respiratory diseases, auto-immune system
diseases and 
birth defects as a result of Americans breathing in
low-level, ionizing 
radiation? To say the least, this mind-blowing revelation
would not 
exactly "sell" on-going American wars. One can understand
precisely why 
a government - and the mainstream media it controls - would
try 
extremely hard to keep the radioactive explosions,
irreparably damaging 
to the air and environment, all very hush-hush. 


One can't help but ponder the concept of a government - any
nation's 
government - willfully, knowingly, releasing vast amounts
of 
radioactive substances into the air, water, and food supply
of its very 
own people. Upon contemplation, the average brain can not
begin to 
comprehend the sober seriousness contained within such a
concept. 
Aghast with the horrific implications, one is forced to ask
if this 
poison dust - which is being inhaled in our air and
ingested within our 
food and water - is not purposely intended to have an
adverse health 
impact upon those living within our own country, too? 


What seems to be too horrific a concept must at least be
considered. 


In a working paper submitted by Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen at
the United 
Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights on September 25th,
2003, Yuen 
concluded "that these weapons are intended to be used on
enemy soil, 
thus making their devastation less of an issue for their
users and 
their own nationals than for the 'enemy' victims." 


Arguably, Yuen's reasoning certainly does appear logical.
If a weapon 
of devastating consequences is used which has consequences
upon "the 
enemy", yet possesses no adverse effects upon the aggressor
population 
using it, the chances of that weapon being discontinued due
to the 
insistence of the aggressor's population would be slim. 


It will therefore be interesting to observe if Americans
will react 
differently (that is, react with appropriate and fitting
moral outrage) 
against uranium weapons use upon civilians in the Middle
East when we 
realize that our government has been using upon us - right
here in the 
United States - the exact same types of munitions they have
been using 
on our so-called "enemies" overseas. 


As Charles W. Chestnutt said, "Sins, like chickens, come
home to 
roost." Or, in other words, "What goes around comes
around". Use of 
uranium in weapons upon some unknown foreign "enemy" who
are we told 
"hates our freedom" is apparently not too big of a concern
for most 
Americans - at least not yet. 


BUT WHY HERE? WHY US? 


Radioactive weapons use inside the US is certainly nothing
new. The US 
Military has been conducting explosive radioactive "tests"
inside 
America for the past sixty years. At this point, after
umpteen years of 
"testing" the same materials, one can't help but wonder if
it's 
actually the explosive material they are continually
"testing"... or 
rather, what happens to citizen populations when
radioactive materials 
are continually fired into the open air in communities
where people 
live? 


Former Livermore Laboratory whistleblower, Leuren Moret,
gives us a 
clue as to why a nation might want to "test" Depleted
Uranium within 
its own country: "International scientists, Drs. Andre
Gsponer, J.-P. 
Hurni, and B. Vitali, watch-dogging nuclear weapons
developments 
globally, pointed out that DU weaponry is being used to
study the 
radiobiological effects of the new nuclear weapons now
under 
development." 


Moret also informs us: 


"The use of weapons in war are most effective when the
weapons do not 
kill, but create long-term health and environmental
consequences such 
as lingering illnesses which slowly destroy the health of
the 
environment and productivity of a nation and the
economy.... DU is a 
permanent terrain contaminant with a half-life of 4.5
billion years, 
forms immense volumes of nano-sized particles (smaller than
bacteria or 
viruses) which are lofted permanently as components of
atmospheric dust 
traveling around the world until they are rained or snowed
out of the 
air...Even worse, uranium targets the DNA... and slowly
destroys the 
genetic future of exposed populations." 


Site 300, where these radioactive explosions occur, is only
about 40 
miles from San Francisco. More than seven million people
live in the 
highly populated Greater San Francisco Bay area. America
has been 
breathing in this toxic, "gene busting" invisible poison
since 1945 
when Uranium-238, as well as other radioactive materials,
were used 
inside the hydrogen bomb that the US exploded in the New
Mexico de 


Dr. Janette Sherman, after hearing about the DU explosions
at site 300 
at Livermore admitted, "I can not think of a single reason
why 
munitions have to be tested in that area. It's not like
munitions have 
not been tested before. I believe it must be stopped." 


It would certainly appear that those in power are cooking
up some "hot" 
treat for the liberal Greater San Francisco Bay area. In
fact, San 
Francisco has been a long-established place to experiment
upon the 
population. An advanced Google search using the exact
phrases "human 
experiment" and "San Francisco" yielded 14,300 Google
"hits". 


As was noted by a recent report, "Lack of transparency is
cause for 
concern if only because of the history of secret Central
Intelligence 
Agency (CIA) and Pentagon experiments in germ warfare that
used the 
American people as guinea pigs. 


In his book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
Superpower, Common 
Courage Press reporter William Blum noted that both
agencies 'conducted 
tests [over two decades] in the open air in the United
States, exposing 
millions of Americans to large clouds of possibly dangerous
bacteria 
and chemical particles.' 



>From 1949-69, the US Army tested the spread of dangerous
chemical and 


bacterial organisms at over 239 US populated areas
including San 
Francisco, New York, and Chicago with no warnings to the
public or 
regard for the health consequences, Blum wrote. The
Pentagon even 
sprayed navy warships to test the impact of germ warfare on
US 
sailors." 

AND WHAT ABOUT TRITIUM ? 


The United States government fully admits that it has done
radiation 
experiments on Americans before. And with the long history
of such 
chemical, biological, and radiological exposures upon the
people of the 
San Francisco area, one is forced to realize that its
nation's 
government certainly did not, as the song goes, leave its
heart there. 
Since such exposures have been going on since the Cold War
started, one 
can not help but wonder what type of a "national security"
project 
would involve dispersing radioactive uranium gas and
tritium into such 
a densely populated area where millions of American lungs
are breathing 
in the toxic air and drinking the water (of which tritium
is not 
removed) all around them? 


Livermore knows exactly what it is doing to the health of
America's 
citizens with these DU blasts out into the California air.
At a Tracy 
City Council meeting on January 2, Tracy Press reported
that Larry 
Sedlacek, Deputy Associate Director of Operations in the
Lawrence 
Livermore Laboratory's Defense and Nuclear Technologies
Group, as 
saying that tritium could be used in "tests" that would be 
"aerosolized" (turned into gas) after "test" blasts and
that he "would 
not rule out" using tritium in the blasts when interviewed
Wednesday, 
saying details of the blasts are classified." Sedlacek was
quoted as 
saying, "We have used tritium at Site 300 in the past...It
is contained 
in our environmental impact statement that we could
potentially use 
small quantities in the future, but we don't have any
scheduled." 


One can't help but wonder if anyone gets rewarded for
keeping things so 
quiet for so long? Take for example, how happy you would be
if you were 
the head of a major nuclear weapons lab and your staff was
able to keep 
explosions of radioactive materials so damaging to human
health and the 
environment a really big secret from the nation for fifty
year 


Undoubtedly, the ability to keep such a major deal under
wraps from the 
7 million people living and working in the San Francisco
Bay area must 
make for some mighty swollen incentive bonuses for public
relations 
staff who know how to keep Uncle Sam's "hottest" and
"dirtiest " of 
secrets! 


STARTING AT TRACY - AND WAY, WAY BEYOND... 


So going back to the people in the Tracy/Livermore area,
any way you 
look at it, they've been dealt a really bum deal. According
to Steve 
Sarvey, "It's like a triple whammy. There's three things
going on." 
First, there's the issue of radioactive outdoor explosive
"testing". It 
is not known exactly how much radiation has been released
out into the 
atmosphere at Livermore, but outdoor explosives "tests" at
Site 300 
have averaged about 60 per year at 100 pounds each since
1997, 
according to Susan Houghton. 


Want to make your head spin? Just do the math. If Livermore
explodes 
60,000 pounds of explosives in ten years? Since the high
explosives 
"tests" began at Site 300 in 1955, that makes 60,000 pounds
every ten 
years, which amounts to 300,000 pounds or 150 tons of
radioactive 
blasts. And that's at only one of the federal "test" sites
- of which 
there are several. 


Site 300 is a contaminated Toxic site on the Superfund
National 
Priorities List due to contamination of groundwater and
tonnage of 
materials deposited there, such as Depleted Uranium,
beryllium, and 
tritium. Some of these radioactive substances sit in
unlined pits. 
There are extensive plumes of various substances with
fifty-seven 
separate contaminant release areas that exist including
soil and water 
both above and below the ground. 


According to Bob Sarvey, the Tracy City Council voted in
April to have 
Livermore Laboratory remove the piles of highly enriched
uranium as 
well as plutonium and tritium that are sitting in unlined
pits, but 
Livermore Lab has failed to do so. And to add insult to
injury? 
Livermore Lab, which is run and staffed by the University
of 
California, also applied to increase the amount of toxic
waste it can 
store at Site 300 from 3,300 gallons to 5,500 gallons,
according to 
Department of Toxic Substances Control permit project
manager Andrew 
Berna-Hicks. 


Last but certainly not least, Site 300 is one of the sites
that the 
Department of Homeland Security is considering to run a
Bio-Safety 
Level 4, anti-biological laboratory. Level 4 labs test and
store 
incurable fatal diseases such as the Ebola virus and mad
cow disease. 


Again, the question must be asked, why in the world would
anyone want 
to even consider doing work on fatal and incurable diseases
so close to 
seven million people? 


As far as health affects caused by DU radiation "testing"
goes, 
anecdotal reports from Tracy citizens suggest an
inordinately high 
number of cancers in their area including cancerous brain
tumors and 
mysterious illnesses. Journalist Chris Bollyn interviewed
Marion Fulk, 
former Livermore Laboratory scientist and skin cancer
survivor, who 
told him that as a result of tritium pollution from the
National Lab, 
children born in Livermore are 6 times more likely to have
skin cancer 
than other children. 


Not surprisingly, looking at the health of the overall San
Francisco 
Greater Bay area, one notes that the incidences of cancer
are higher 
when compared to the state average. From the years 1988 to
2002, the 
Greater San Francisco Bay area experienced an annual rate
of 468.9 
cancers per 100,000 peopleCalifornia's 2003 cancer
incidence rate of 
425.1 per 100,000 residents. 


Here in the US, cancer is the leading cause of
disease-related deaths 
in children. The fetus and infant are particularly
sensitive to 
radioactive toxins. Every year, about 12,400 children and
teens under 
the age of 20 are diagnosed with cancer each year, and
approximately 
2,300 of those children will die. Will our children be
next? Only time 
will tell as many medical reports document a 5-10 year lag
between 
radiation exposure and the onset of childhood cancer. 


Another disorder linked to Depleted Uranium poisoning in
soldiers from 
both Gulf Wars is asthma. A chronic lung disease
characterized by 
persistent cough and wheeze, incidences of asthma have been
steadily 
increasing. The most common serious chronic disease of
America's 
children, more than 5 percent of the U.S. population or
nearly five 
million children younger than 18 years - are affected by
this disorder. 
Asthma is the cause of nearly three million doctor's visits
and 200,000 
hospitalizations each year. In children ages 5-14 years,
the rate of 
death from asthma almost doubled between 1980 and 1993. 


If you are not living in California and don't love anyone
who is, by 
now you may be thinking, Well that really is too bad (and
thank God I 
don't live anywhere near there)! Even for those of us who
don't live on 
the west coast, however, it's still a good idea to think
twice before 
we take our next breath. This past year there was news out
of the UK 
that suggest that the radioactivity from Site 300 and the
poison dust 
of other radioactive" test" sites throughout the US is far
closer to 
home than we may realize. 


According to research released in February, 2006 out of
England, nine 
days after the March, 2003 "Shock and Awe" bombing of
Baghdad in which 
bombs containing Depleted Uranium were exploded,
radioactivity was 
found in air filters within the United Kingdom, up to 2,500
miles away. 


This was proof positive that this radioactive poison
travels great 
distances. In other words, the explosive fire of tanks,
guns, missiles 
launched and bombs dropped does not stay in a contained
little cloud 
over the so-called "enemy" target borders. According to
Moret, "After 
forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium
oxide 
particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air
and travel 
around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric
dust, 
contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing,
maiming and 
causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and
moisture 
remove it from the atmosphere." 


Who would have ever thought that radioactive weaponry that
we believed 
was intended for use on the battlefield upon America's
"enemies" would 
ever be used in our own country, for so many years? How
many Americans 
realize that their very next breath - or that of their
children's - may 
very well contain invisible, microscopic-sized toxic
radioactive 
particles so minute as to be considered a gas? Sadly,
people do not 
know this when they inhale or ingest these invisible
particles - as the 
effects of one tiny Uranium-238 particle can take years to
manifest 
symptoms inside our bodies. 


In testimony provided to the UN, International Humanitarian
Lawyer 
Karen Parker, J.D., stated, "there is evidence that the
ceramic form of 
uranium dioxide, made during weapons explosions or fires,
could stay in 
the body as long as 20 years. Depleted uranium was detected
eight years 
after the end of the war in the urine of US, UK and
Canadian Gulf War 
veterans and in that of Iraqi civilians." 


Proof abounds, however, dating back all the way back from
1943 that 
shows our military leaders knew about the "advantages" -
and their 
capability - of conducting radioactive gas warfare upon
citizens. 


In a memo declassified in 1974 written to James B. Conant
and Brigadier 
General L. R. Groves from: Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey,
War 
Department United States Engineer Office Manhattan
District, Oak Ridge 
Tennessee on October 30, 1943, that proves that they knew
that uranium 
could be used "As a gas warfare instrument". The material
would be 
ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and
smoke and 
distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or
aerial 
bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The
amount 
necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material
is extremely 
small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram
accumulating 
in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known
methods of 
treatment for such a casualty." 


The report states that two factors appear to increase the
effectiveness 
of radioactive dust or smoke as a weapon. These are: (1) It
cannot be 
detected by the senses; (2) It can be distributed in a dust
or smoke 
form so finely powdered that it will permeate a standard
gas mask 
filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging.



The 1943 memo also stated that it could be used as
radioactive warfare 
to make evacuated areas uninhabitable, to contaminate small
critical 
areas, and as a radioactive poison gas to create casualties
among 
troops, and to create casualties among civilian
populations. It also 
mentions that "These materials may also be so disposed as
to be taken 
into the body by ingestion instead of inhalation.
Reservoirs or wells 
would be contaminated or food poisoned with an effect
similar to that 
resulting from inhalation of dust or smoke, " and in the
respiratory 
tract, "articles smaller than 1µ [micron] are more likely
to be 
deposited in the alveoli where they will either remain
indefinitely or 
be absorbed into the lymphatics or blood... It would seem
that chemical 
gases could accomplish more and do it more quickly so far
as the skin 
surfaces and lungs are concerned." 


In other words, the US Military has known since 1943
precisely what it 
was doing with regard to the life-destroying use of
aerosolized 
uranium. 


In the words of award-winning Robert C. Koehler in his
piece on 
Depleted Uranium, "Silent Genocide": "Before the damage we
inflict 
grows greater, before history's judgment gets worse, before
we 
contaminate the whole world -- even before we vote in the
next election 
-- we must stop what we're doing. We must stop now. " 


If Americans don't like the idea of breathing in, eating,
and drinking 
this weaponized nuclear waste product gas, how do we follow
Koehler's 
advice and stop what we're doing now? It is imperative that
we start 
somewhere - and halting the large radioactive "tests" now
permitted in 
California is certainly a great place to begin. 


This affects us all. What is going on in the backyard of
the vastly 
populated San Francisco Bay area is not just another "not
in my 
backyard issue". The explosion of these vast amounts of
Depleted 
Uranium radioactive microscopic particles affect Americans
all over the 
country. We've all watched the Weather Channel and observed
how in a 
matter of just a few hours, wind currents carrying
invisible particles 
start at one part of the country and sweep across the map,
reaching 
into entirely different sections of the country in a matter
of hours. 


So this issue is in fact not at all a problem merely for
the city of 
Tracy's 72,400 thousand residents, nor even just a
nightmare for the 
Greater San Francisco Bay Area's 7 million. The
radioactivity being 
dispersed at Site 300 and other" test" sites still in
operation within 
the US affects people all over the United States - as DU
radiation from 
bombs exploded in Iraq was detected 2,500 miles away in the
United 
Kingdom. 



>From a February, 2006 report by Busby and Morgan,
measurements were 


examined on air sampler filters deployed by the Atomic
Weapons 
Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, in Berkshire, UK.
Examination of 
the air filters showed a statistically significant increase
in uranium 
in all the filters beginning at the start of the United
States bombing 
of Iraq in March 2003 and ending when the US "Shock and
Awe" bombing 
campaign ended. Levels of increased uranium in the filters
were found 
in England, up to 2,500 miles away from Baghdad. 

In the conclusion of the report Despite much evidence that
uranium 
aerosols are long lived in the environment and are able to
travel 
considerable distances, this is the first evidence as far
as we know, 
that they are able to travel thousands of miles. The
distance traveled 
from Baghdad to Reading [England] following the wind
patterns implicit 
in the pressure systems at the time is about 2500 miles.
Although this 
transport may be hard to believe at first, the regular
desert sand 
events which occur in the UK should teach us that the
planet is not 
such a large place, and that with regard to certain long
lived 
atmospheric pollutants, no man is an island. " 


We never know when you or I or someone we love may be
breathing in an 
invisible particle of radiation in the air from Site 300 or
from 
another of the US "test" sites. As we saw from the distance
that 
radiation traveled away from Baghdad all the way into
England, it is 
not necessary to live near any of these "test" sites to be
an unwitting 
participant in the purposeful poisoning of America. 


Roughly speaking, using approximate distances from
Livermore's Site 
300, Seattle is 800 miles away, Chicago is 1,700 miles
away, New 
Orleans is 2,000 miles away, and Washington, DC, Orlando,
and 
Philadelphia are all about 2,400 miles away. It is easy to
look at a 
map of the US and calculate if you or someone you care
about lives 
within 2,500 miles - and are thus within the range of
inhaling the 
radiation from Site 300 within a matter of days. 


One can't help but wonder if by virtue of having
radioactive materials 
in the form of both hydrogen bombs and Uranium-238
munitions exploded 
around us within the US for the past 60 years if Americans
are now 
facing the same health issues as those experienced by those
in Iraq and 
Afghanistan? Both countries have been pounded relentlessly
by thousands 
of tons of uranium munitions. 


In an interview with Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki, author of
the compelling 
book, "Afghanistan After Democracy" which chronicles the
health effects 
suffered by the people in Afghanistan as a result of DU
weaponry, I 
asked Dr Miraki to tell me about the health effects of DU
upon the 
people in Afghanistan and Iraq compared to the citizens of
the US with 
regard to open air Uranium-238 "testing". 


Dr. Miraki replied, "I can use Iraq, Afghanistan and the
former 
Yugoslovia as a benchmark upon which I can base my
judgment. There they 
have used these weapons and they have resulted in a variety
of health 
issues ranging from leukemia to cancers of various types,
seeing the 
unborn as well as congenital deformities as well as
pulmonary problems, 
edema, other issues as well as bizarre conditions - some
call it Gulf 
War Syndrome, some call it other names that's associated -
fatigue and 
neurological problems, other issues are associated with
it." 


As this is documented by many scientists as being true with
regard to 
the devastating health effects of the victims of uranium
poisoning in 
the Middle East, can one assume that these same uranium
munitions are 
having a similar effect on our own citizens here in the
United States? 
Dr. Miraki explained, "It is bound to effect people in the
vicinity. 
After all, the dust of DU is susceptible to wind. Wind will
carry it, 
water flow in any direction is bound to take that, and
vegetation will 
be affected, birds could take particles and move it - so
it's the 
ecological aspect as well as the long term effects. So I
assume it 
would be evident already wherever the regions close by to
where the 
detonations are done... 


Miraki continued, "For example, I heard in Indiana,
Jefferson Testing 
Grounds, there people have certain health problems that are

unexplained, cancer rates and so forth that are up, so on a
large 
scale, what they have done overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan
and Kosovo 
and Yugoslavia, and, using that as a benchmark? Logic
dictates that it 
will result in similar conditions here as well... a high
upsurge in 
diabetes in various areas among young people - as well as
older - could 
very well be one effect of DU dust. Then you know we are
talking about 
DU dust, we are talking about intercellular radiation. So
it could 
affect anything. It could create any kind of problem, from
the 
conventional as well as bizarre and unexplained,
unconventional 
problems." 


Radiation from US Military weapons is not something that
happens 
overseas "somewhere". It is a personal affair that affects
Americans 
right here at home. As Michael Ignatieff said, "We can't
achieve the 
humanitarian goals we set out to because achieving
humanitarian goals 
means getting up close and personal." 


The clock is ticking. With each new detonation of yet
another 
radioactive "test", increased amounts of radiation remain
here with us 
inside the United States for all eternity. The issue of
radioactive 
explosive "tests" inside the United States affects each and
every one 
of us and those we love. It affects all future generations
of 
Americans. It is a critical matter for the ecosystem. Our
environment 
and wildlife are suffering due to the increasingly
destructive and 
cumulative effects of radioactivity in our air, water,
soil, and 
vegetation. 


Bob Sarvey, one of the leading voices against the continued
testing of 
radioactive substances at Site 300, summed up what appears
to be the 
sentiment of many residents in the Livermore area by
saying, "If you 
want to just explode regular ordinance, I'm okay with you
doing it on 
the hill. But if you are going to put U-238, tritium, other
radioactive 
elements in it? Please go... somewhere else. Somewhere
where you're not 
wiping out people". 


Unfortunately, no matter where that "somewhere else" is?
Depleted 
Uranium and other radioactive substances are "tested", it
will wipe out 
people. So the solution actually is not to move the weapons
"testing" 
to a less populated area, but rather, to stop the use of
radioactive 
materials, period. As long as radioactive weapons are used,
those who 
manufacture and use them will continue to maintain that
they must be 
"tested" - somewhere. And with such a tremendously far
atmospheric 
"reach"? These invisible aerosol particles will be carried
through the 
wind and precipitation thousands of miles away - somewhere
- wherever 
people live. 


All points within 2,500 miles of Site 300 at Livermore, CA
are a good 
place to begin to stop the poison gassing of Americans. The
appeals 
against large radioactive explosions on Site 300 at
Livermore, 
California begin on February 7 in Modesto.  Your help is
needed with 
the appeal process. A campaign is being mounted to put an
end to these 
radioactive explosions that affect the health of our loved
ones. 


The question we must now ponder in our heart of hearts is
this one: 
What have the use of these radioactive and nuclear weapons
truly cost 
us in collective terms of Americans' lost moments of
healthy, happy, 
productive living? What do we say to future children who
are born with 
genetic mutations and birth defect deformities who want to
know why 
they are missing a limb or an ear? 


What will the use of these weapons mean to us in terms of
green spaces 
and fields, native wildflowers and forests lost? How will
this 
permanent radiation in our atmosphere and environment play
out for our 
children's grandchildren's future in terms of being subject
to a nation 
with permanently contaminated brooks and streams, lakes,
ponds, rivers 
and oceans? How can we ever even begin to calculate what
our great 
grandchildren will miss in terms of healthy fish swimming
in our 
streams and frogs, chipmunks, and endangered birds? 


In the words of Dr. Keith Baverstock, formerly of the World
Health 
Organization, "Politics has poisoned the well from which
democracy must 
drink." 


It is incumbent upon American citizens to take personal
responsibility 
now, once and for all. We must work together at once to put
an end to 
this poisoning forever of our nation - and our world. 


Like never before, we need to rise to the occasion and step
up to the 
plate. Together we must work to stop these purposeful
explosions of 
radioactive poison dust right here in our country, inside
America. 


Can there be any doubt that Americans need to put a stop to
this insane 
Uranium Madness being exploded into our air - once and for
all? The 
answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. And the question
is, what 
are you willing to do about it? 


Learn how you can participate in the growing effort to halt
radioactive 
weapons "testing". To take action or to receive more
information, 
please visit: http://haltdutesting.blogspot.com . 


Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, antiwar activist, and a
certified 
personal coach. Living in the shadow of the national
District of Crime, 
Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from
the nation's 
capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week. Cathy
can be 
contacted at savorsuccessla... at yahoo.com . 


http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_23826.shtml