Two DU articles with a different slant

[NECNP <necnp@necnp.org>]

I usually just lurk on this list, but I thought that the following articles 
from the UK might give you all some food for thought.  Dave Pyles

  The Sunday Herald (Scotland)

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/newsi.hts?section=News&story_id=13815

21 January 2001

Revealed: how just one single atom of DU can trigger cancer

By Rob Edwards Environment Editor
Publication Date: Jan 21 2001

The furious international row over the risks of depleted uranium weapons is 
set to flare up again with the revelation that a single atom of uranium 
inside  the body is enough to trigger cancer. Scientists from a 
government-funded medical research laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire 
have produced the first direct proof that a single alpha particle emitted 
by uranium can damage human cells. The damage, they say, is a crucial step 
in the development of tumours.

Arguments over the health hazards of depleted uranium (DU) have been raging 
since the UN Environment Programme announced earlier this month that eight 
out of 11 sites in Kosovo were contam inated with radioactivity. Nearly one 
million rounds of ammunition containing 300 tonnes of DU have been fired in 
the Balkans and Gulf wars over the last 10 years, mostly by US forces.

The new evidence will reinforce the growing chorus of demands for a ban on 
the use of DU in weapons, at least until the health risks for soldiers and 
civilians have been fully investigated. Last week the European Parliament 
voted 626 to 394 in favour of a moratorium while an independent study into 
the potential health risks was carried out. Although Nato and the British 
Ministry of Defence continue to insist that there is no evidence that any 
ill health has been caused by DU munitions,  politicians, war veterans and 
scientists maintain there is a problem, particularly with excess cancers 
and leukaemias. Tomorrow the World Health Organisation is sending a team of 
experts to Kosovo to examine whether there are any links between civilians 
exposed to DU and cancers.

The new British study was conducted by the Radiation and Genome Stability 
Unit at Harwell in association with Mount Vernon Hospital in London. Groups 
of human blood cells were exposed to a single alpha particle in the 
laboratory and left to divide a dozen times or more.

Researchers found that 25% of the daughter cells had distinctive patterns 
of broken and bent chromosomes. This effect, christened "radiation-induced 
genomic instability", is thought to be part of the complex chain of 
biological events that can end up as cancer. "This work shows directly for 
the first time that even a single alpha particle can induce genomic 
instability in a cell. That may be important in assessing risks of cancer 
from alpha-emitting radionuclides in the body," said the Harwell unit's 
director, Professor Dudley Goodhead.

"It suggests that even the smallest amount carries some, very small, risk. 
However, for materials such as low-activity uranium it may well be that the 
radiation is less harmful than chemical effects of the metal in the cell."

Although alpha particles are not a very penetrating form of radiation, when 
inside the body they can do significant harm to any living cells they 
happen to pass through. They are emitted by plutonium and other 
radionuclides as well as uranium. Last week, the Ministry of Def ence 
admitted that traces of plutonium could also be present in DU weapons, left 
over from processing by the nuclear power industry. That, experts pointed 
out, inevitably increased the risk because plutonium emitted more alpha 
particles than DU.

Mike Thorne, a uranium specialist with AEA Technology, a spin-off company 
from the UK Atomic Energy Authority, also in Harwell, thought that the new 
study strengthened the need to find out how much DU had found its way 
inside people during the conflicts in the Gulf and the Balkans. But he 
agreed with Goodhead that the chemical effects of DU could be even more 
dangerous than its radiological impact.

"It is a toxic heavy metal," he said. "It would be reasonable to put a 
moratorium on its use as a munition until we have investigated the amounts 
to which people have been exposed."

Most radiobiologists have dismissed the much highlighted suggestion that 
soldiers exposed to DU in Kosovo in 1999 could already have developed 
leukaemia as a result. It was much too soon after the exposure for the 
disease to be diagnosed, they said. But Sue Roff, a radiation researcher 
from the Centre for Medical Education at the University of Dundee, has dug 
up evidence that suggests the radiation-induced leukaemias can develop 
surprisingly quickly. The first cases were discovered in Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki in 1947 and 1948, just two or three years after the US destroyed 
the cities with atomic bombs.

"In studies of patients who have received radiation therapy, the period of 
greatest risk for developing leukaemia has been reported as two to five 
years after exposure. "I am aware of at least six men, most in their 20s, 
who were diagnosed with leukaemia within five years of their participation 
in the UK nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s," Roff told the 
Sunday Herald. "In Japan, leukaemia was the first malignancy that appeared 
among the survivors and this fact triggered a major research study which is 
still in operation today.

"I would have thought that the appearance of leukaemia among soldiers 
selected for their fitness for active duty would trigger similar studies as 
part of the government's duty of care."

==============

  The Independent (UK)

Plutonium clue to 'Balkan syndrome'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2001-01/plutonium230101.shtml

By Stephen Castle in Brussels

23 January 2001

The detection of tiny traces of plutonium in DU munitions may be the latest 
clue in the hunt for the cause of the so-called Balkan syndrome.

The discovery, which has strained relations between Germany and the United 
States, was due to be discussed by European Union foreign ministers 
yesterday amid continuing fears by governments over safety.

Last week a US Defense Department spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, said some 
"stray elements" were detected in DU a year ago, and a nuclear plant was 
shut for 90 days.

DU, which is is manufactured out of reprocessed nuclear material and is 
less radioactive than natural uranium, was used in tank-busting shells in 
the Balkans.

However, Mr Bacon said that some extraneous elements discovered in DU 
"consisted of plutonium, neptunium and americium. He said: "These are very, 
very small amounts and as soon as they were discovered as indicating a flaw 
in the production process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission suspended the 
operation at this plant, which is in Paducah, Kentucky."

The revelation caught Portugal and Spain unawares, as well as provoking a 
sharp reaction in Berlin where Rudolf Scharping, Germany's Defence 
Minister, described it as the "duty of a friendly nation to inform their 
partner". Scientists say that inhaling one millionth of an ounce of 
plutonium can cause a fatal cancer

Finnish officials said yesterday their government backs a moratorium on the 
use of DU munitions pending further tests. Nato insists that there is no 
evidence of a link between DU and the cases of leukaemia reported by 
peace-keepers.


New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
P. O. Box 545
Brattleboro VT 05302-0545
(802) 257-0336
necnp@necnp.org
www.necnp.org
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