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Depleted Uranium and Leukemia
To Radsafe.
IS
DU REALLY THE CAUSE?
There have been several recent postings on the subject of possible excess
of cancers including leukaemia in military personnel who have served in
the Gulf war or most recently in peace keeping operations in the Balkans.
The public media has jumped on to the depleted uranium story (DU) as THE
CAUSE. The Rand report which received much favourable comment on
this list would indicate that DU is unlikely to have a role in the
aetiology of cancer or even to be a significant cause of human ill
health.
Since about 1988 Professor L Kinlen and his group in the UK have
published numerous epidemiological studies suggesting that when large
groups of people are assembled from different areas to work say in a
major construction site there is an exchange of microbiological material
including cancer inducing viruses.
Published examples given for this a hypothesis are many:-
· Evidence
for an infective cause. Lancet
10th December 1988; Page
1323-1326.
· Population
Mixing in New Towns. Lancet 1990; 336: 577-82.
· Nuclear
establishments in West Berkshire. Brit J Cancer 1991;64:549-554.
· North
sea oil industry in Scotland. Brit Med J 1993; 306 : 743- 748.
· Wartime
evacuation of children in England and Wales. Brit Med J
1994;309:1197-1202.
· Guest
Editorial. Brit J Cancer 1995; 71:1-5.
· Sellafield
nuclear site. Brit Med J 1995; 310: 763-768
· Editorial:
Cancer causes and Control
1998; 9: 237-239.
· Dickinson
HO and Parker L. Brit J Cancer 1999; 81: 144-151
· Doll
R. Brit J Cancer 199; 81 : 3-5
As far as I am aware the causative agent or agents are unknown. Doll has
pointed that identifying the causative agent may prove to be
exceptionally difficult.
I would suggest that the assembly of large international armies and
mixing with local population is an analogous situation and could be
consistent with the Kinlen hypothesis.
Ivor Surveyor [isurveyor@vianet.net.au]
Emeritus Consultant Physician
Nuclear Medicine
Royal Perth Hospital