[ RadSafe ] Comments being posted at New West

[Roger Helbig]

I would appreciate knowledgeable comments either to this post, to the list or to me personally based on the following raised by Marjorie Kidman, who claims to have been made ill by the "dumping" of the Camp Doha Kuwait Sands 140 miles away from her.  Thanks.

Roger Helbig
rhelbig at california.com

Army Shipping Contaminated Kuwait Sand to Idaho Landfill

You can see the comment at the following URL:
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/army_shipping_contaminated_kuwait_sand_to_idaho_landfill1/#comments

Continuation....

"According to a June 2002 National Radiological Protection Board report,"
 
"All uranium, whether natural, depleted or enriched, is a toxic
radiological element. Each differs from the other in atomic structure by
less than one percent. DU emits three types of ionizing radiation: alpha and
beta particles and photons. Alpha particles are blocked by objects as light
as a sheet of paper and humans exposed to them are naturally protected by
their skin. Beta particles (high speed electrons) can penetrate human skin
to a depth of one centimeter, while photons (x-rays and gamma rays) are more
penetrating and can pass completely through a human body. Although blocked
by the skin, alpha radiation can be inhaled, ingested, and absorbed into the
blood stream through scratches and wounds. It is highly dangerous
internally. In addition to being physically radioactive, it is also
chemically toxic. This explains the "double whammy" effect. Soldiers (and
the populous) who are exposed can become immediately ill from the toxicity,
recover, and then suffer severe additional symptoms from the radioactivity
years or decades later.

A study in the April 2003 New Scientist magazine suggested that DU toxicity
comtines synergistically with its radioactivity to produce more serious
effects.

Dr. Keith Baverstock, a senior radiation adviser to the world Health
Organization, is quoted as saying, "The radiation and the chemical toxicity
of DU could also act together to create a cocktail effect that further
increases the risk of cancer."

Hence Gulf War vets were served a cocktail inside a cocktail.

More troubling still is another study of the materials inside the DU
weapons used in Iraq and Afghanistan. That report found that in addition to
U-238, today's munitions contain plutonium, neptunium, and the highly
radioactive uranium isotope U-236. An isotope is one of several slightly
different atomic structures within the same element, in this case uranium.
According to a 1991 study by the UK Atomic Energy Authority, these elements
are 100,000 times more dangerous that the U-238 in so-called depleted
uranium.