Can someone explain this to me in fireman talk

[LNMolino@AOL.COM]

Can someone explain to me how DU exposure ='s RAD sickness?



Am I missing something or just uneducated?



Clear Day

Army to test N.Y. Guard unit 



Monday, April 5th, 2004 



Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are rushing to 

test all returning members of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New 

York Army National Guard for depleted uranium contamination. 

Army brass acted after learning that four of nine soldiers from the company 

tested by the Daily News showed signs of radiation exposure. 



The soldiers, who returned from Iraq late last year, say they and other 

members of their company have been suffering from unexplained illnesses since last 

summer, when they were stationed in the Iraqi town of Samawah. 



Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former Army doctor and nuclear medicine expert who 

examined and tested the nine men at The News' request, concluded four of them 

"almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded depleted uranium shells 

fired by U.S. troops. 



Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), after learning of The News' investigation, 

blasted Pentagon officials yesterday for not properly screening soldiers 

returning from Iraq. 



"We can't have people coming back with undiagnosed illnesses," Clinton said. 

"We have to have a before-and-after testing program for our soldiers." 



Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she will write 

to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanding answers and soon will 

introduce legislation to require health screenings for all returning troops. 



During meetings with Pentagon officials last year, Clinton said "one of the 

issues we raised was exposure to the depleted uranium that was in the weapons, 

and how they were going to handle it." 



She was assured then that troops would be properly screened. 



But the soldiers from the 442nd contacted The News after becoming frustrated 

with how the Army was handling their illnesses. 



Six of them say they repeatedly sought testing for depleted uranium from Army 

doctors but were denied. 



Three who were tested in early November for DU said they had been waiting 

months for the results. Two of those finally got their results last week - both 

negative. 



Testing for uranium isotopes in 24 hours' worth of urine samples can cost as 

much as $1,000 each. 



But late last week, after learning of The News' results, the Army reversed 

course and ordered immediate testing for more than a dozen members of the 442nd 

who are back in the U.S. 



The rest of the company, comprising mostly New York City cops, firefighters 

and correction officers, is not due to return from Iraq until later this month. 



"They ordered all of us who are here at Fort Dix to provide 24-hour urine 

samples by 1 p.m. today," one soldier from the company said Friday. 



Late Friday, Pentagon spokesman Austin Camacho said he could not confirm or 

deny that new tests had been ordered for the soldiers of the 442nd. 



"It's hard to imagine, theoretically, that these men could have harmful 

exposures," Camacho said, because none of them had been inside tanks during direct 

combat. 



Army studies of depleted uranium have concluded that only soldiers who suffer 

shrapnel wounds from DU shells or who were inside tanks hit by DU shells and 

immediately breathe radioactive dust are at risk. 



Even then, Camacho said, studies of about 70 such cases from the first Gulf 

War have shown no long-term health problems. 



But medical experts critical of the use of DU weapons, as well as some of the 

Army's own early studies of depleted uranium, say exposure to it can cause 

kidney damage. Some studies have shown that it causes cancer and chromosome 

damage in mice, according to the experts. 



Depleted uranium, a waste product of the uranium enrichment process, has been 

used by the U.S. and British militaries for more than 15 years in some 

artillery shells and as armor-plating for tanks. It is valued for its extreme 

density - it is twice as heavy as lead. 



Amid growing controversy in Europe and Japan, the European Parliament called 

last year for a moratorium on its use. 





'Every time I ran I felt my throat

burning and my chest tightening.'



Sgt. Agustin Matos, a member of the 442nd Military Police of the New York 

National Guard and a city correction officer in civilian life, has all-too-vivid 

memories of his stay in Samawah, Iraq. 



"The place was filthy; most of the windows were broken; dirt, grease and bird 

droppings were everywhere," he said. "I wouldn't house a city prisoner in 

that place." 



He recalled a mandated morning run of about 3 miles on a sandy track near a 

train depot. 



"Every time I ran I felt my throat burning and my chest tightening," he said. 



Now, Matos, 37, believes his symptoms may be the result of radioactive dust 

he inhaled from spent American shells made from depleted uranium. 



The Long Island man is one of four Iraq war veterans who tested positive for 

DU contamination, according to a Daily News investigation. 



The soldiers and other members of the 442nd say they are suffering from 

physical ailments that began last summer while they were stationed in Samawah. 



Matos, who was assigned to the 4th platoon's 2nd squad, arrived in Samawah 

last June, two weeks ahead of the rest of the company. 



His advance team had orders from Capt. Sean O'Donnell, their commander, to 

ready a huge depot in a train repair yard on the outskirts of downtown Samawah 

as a barracks for the unit. 



Once the entire company arrived, each platoon was assigned its own space 

inside the depot, which was bigger than a football field. 



A locomotive that straddled a repair pit and an empty train car sat in the 

middle of the sleeping area, with two platoons assigned to bed down along one 

side of the train and two others along the other side. 



Just outside the depot, two Iraqi tanks, one of them shot up, had been hauled 

onto flatbed railroad cars. 



The company was so short-handed, according to the soldiers, that the 

commander would evacuate a G.I. only if he could no longer physically function. 



Matos was sent home last year for surgery for a shoulder injury suffered in a 

jeep accident. 



Since his return, he has had constant headaches, fatigue, shortness of 

breath, nausea, dizziness, joint pain and excessive urination. After he recently 

discovered blood in his urine, doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gave 

him a CAT scan and discovered a small lesion on his liver. 



A 1990 Army study linked DU to "chemical toxicity causing kidney damage." 



"Before I left for Iraq, they tested my eyes and I was fine," Matos said. 

"Now my eyesight's gotten bad, on top of everything else." 



Another member of the company who tested positive for DU is 2nd platoon Sgt. 

Hector Vega, 48, a retired postal worker from the Bronx who has been in the 

National Guard for 27 years. 



Since being evacuated to Fort Dix for treatment for foot surgery, Vega said 

he has endured insomnia and constant headaches. And like many of the sick 

soldiers, Vega said, "I have uncontrollable urine, every half hour." 



One day, during a trip a few hours south of Samawah, he and another soldier 

stopped on the side of the road to photograph and check out two shot-up Iraqi 

tanks. 



"We didn't think anything of walking right up to those tanks and touching 

them," he said. "I didn't know anything about depleted uranium." 



As for the railroad depot where they slept, Vega recalls it as "disgusting. 

Oil, dirt and bird droppings everywhere, insects crawling all around us." 



And then there were the frequent dust storms. 



"They would blow all that dust inside the depot all over us when we were 

sleeping or eating. It was so thick, you could see it." 



Louis N. Molino, Sr., CET

FF/NREMT-B/FSI/EMSI

LNMolino@aol.com

979-690-3607 (Home Office)



"A Texan with a Jersey Attitude"



The comments contained in this E-mail are the opinions of the author and the 

author alone. I in no way ever intend to speak for any person or organization 

that I am in any way whatsoever involved or associated with unless I 

specifically state that I am doing so. Further this E-mail is intended only for its 

stated recipient and may contain private and or confidential materials 

retransmission is strictly prohibited unless placed in the public domain by the original 

author.