Re: NATO admits it used depleted uranium in Kosovo

[Steven Dapra <sjd@swcp.com>]

March 23

	The "big fuss" about DU in weapons is that DU is the purported villain in
so-called Gulf War Syndrome.  However I whole-heartedly agree with Ruth
Weiner (March 22) that people who are under fire from DU are probably not
too worried about radiation damage or heavy metal poisoning.  (They are
probably more worried about being incinerated.)

	Gulf War Syndrome does not appear to be limited to the Gulf War.
According to a review paper in the "Annals of Internal Medicine" (9-1-96;
Vol. 125, pp. 398-405), this post-war syndrome has been observed in
soldiers since the Civil War.  (The authors [Hyams, Wignall, and Roswell]
do not address the Spanish-American War.)

	This review paper does not attempt to explain the source of the post-war
syndrome, it merely reports on its many occurrences and briefly discusses
some of the methodological problems in ascertaining its cause.  

Steven Dapra
sjd@swcp.com



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