Re: more on DU

[denison.8@osu.edu]

Ernesto Faillace wrote:
>
>Could it be that the increased cancer rates (if this is a true increase)
>are due to the poor nutrition and poor medical care of a people in an
>embargoed nation?
>
I think it's just as likely that the increase in the diagnosis of cancer is
due to an increase in surveillance.  Call me cynical (or uninformed), but
the impression I have is that medical care for the masses in Iraq has never
been good, so most of the common people may never have been screened
before.  Now, Saddam's government is looking for ways to condemn the West,
and they suddenly start finding more cancer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of sanctions.  I think they're a damn poor,
heavy-handed tactic, especially against a country where, with or without
sanctions, the ruling elite get whatever they want while 95% of the
population lives in fear and scrapes to survive.  I just don't trust
so-called scientific/medical data coming from Bagdhad any more than I trust
radiation hazard data from Caldicott and the Baldwins.

As for the GWS connection, I'd suggest checking out "The Gulf War Within,"
by Peter Radetsky, in the August, 1997 issue of Discover Magazine.  It's
adapted from his book, "Allergic to the Twentieth Century."  Written for
the somewhat-educated lay reader, and certainly not a venerable journal,
but good info nonetheless.  Seems there's a lot of data indicating that no
single agent is responsible for the range of symptoms, but that GWS is most
likely the result of a mixture of physical stress and exposures to a number
of chemicals, including various insecticides, pesticides, solvents, and
anti-nerve-gas drugs (DU is hardly mentioned).

Apparently the body can handle small doses of one or two things, but when
you pile three or more of them on at once, it's too much.  My undergrad
degree is in biochemistry, and it makes a lot of sense from that
standpoint.  Heck, we can't use regular flea-control shampoo on our dog,
because  the pesticide ingredients screw up the way his body processses the
phenobarbital we administer to control his epilepsy.  The biochemistry of
most mammals is similar enough that there's little reason to believe that
humans are that much better at dealing with multiple simultaneous toxic
exposures.


Eric Denison
1729 Penworth Drive
Columbus OH 43229-5216
denison.8@osu.edu
(614) 433-0387


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