[ RadSafe ] Maynard's 1953 uranium studies

[Steven Dapra]

June 14

	During the recent battle here over the purported dangers of depleted 
uranium (DU), James Salsman (JS) repeatedly invoked some work done by 
Elliott Maynard in 1953, and claimed that Maynard's findings supported JS's 
claims about the dangers of DU in particular, and of uranium in 
general.  During the battle I may have said that Maynard's work was not 
available in the local university library, however I have discovered that 
it is available, and I have made a cursory examination of the work of 
Maynard and his co-workers.

	Their studies were done on rats, and used uranyl nitrate hexahydrate.  JS 
frequently invoked JL Domingo's work on DU to support his 
claims.  Domingo's work was done on mice, and used uranyl acetate 
dihydrate.  (I am not a uranium chemist, and hence I can't comment on any 
possible differences in the health effects of these two types of uranium.)

	One of James Salsman's chief claims was that DU is teratogenic, and it 
appears that this is the case --- at least in laboratory rats and 
mice.  Maynard's work did not address teratogenicity.  It was concerned 
with growth rates of exposed animals, their weights, and the weights of 
their various organs; all with respect to the levels of exposure to uranyl 
nitrate hexahydrate.  In light of this, I would say that Maynard's work has 
no application to the question of teratogenicity.  This is not to denigrate 
Maynard's work.  It merely is not applicable to teratogenicity.

Steven Dapra

Note:

Maynard's work will be found in Pharmacology and Toxicology of Uranium 
Compounds, Carl Voegtlin and Harold Hodge editors; McGraw-Hill, 1953; first 
edition.   It is in Part 3 of this edition, Chapter 20, which begins on p. 
1221.