[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: Caldicott on C-Span Wednesday AM
Apparently these days Caldicott is into the anti-DU game....
Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=6&u=/nm/20040
521/sc_nm/iraq_uranium_dc
Activist Urges Depleted Uranium Clean-Up in Iraq
Fri May 21, 2:36 PM ET
By Lisa Richwine
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military should clean up depleted uranium
ammunition scattered across Iraq (news - web sites) to prevent future health
problems such as cancer and birth defects, a leading anti-nuclear activist
said on Friday.
The Pentagon said it had not found any evidence the material, which is so
dense it can pierce steel tanks, causes long-term health consequences. An
ongoing study of 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) veterans has shown no ill
effects.
But Dr. Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician and president of the Nuclear Policy
Research Institute, linked depleted uranium to higher rates of cancer and
birth defects in Iraq following the Gulf War.
Depleted uranium ammunition is being used by U.S. troops in Iraq and could
seriously harm civilians living there in the decades to come, said
Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an
anti-nuclear group that shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
"We should be taking responsibility for what is happening over there," she
told reporters at the National Press Club.
The Pentagon should test buildings in Iraq for depleted uranium, destroy
ones with high levels and bury the material underground, Caldicott said.
The U.S. government also should compensate people with cancer related to the
material, she said.
Depleted uranium is a byproduct of nuclear fuel production. It strengthens
ammunition and gives weapons twice the range of ones using other heavy
metals. Tanks made with depleted uranium have proven impenetrable by enemy
weapons, the Pentagon said.
There has been controversy about it since its use during the Gulf War and
the Balkans conflict, including some claims that European soldiers may have
developed leukemia after being exposed to the material in Kosovo in 1999.
"We don't see anything from the science" indicating long-term health
problems to people exposed to depleted uranium in the environment, said Dr.
Michael Kilpatrick, the Defense Department's deputy director for deployment
health support.
An ongoing study of 70 Gulf War veterans who were hit by weapons using
depleted uranium in "friendly fire" incidents has found no major health
problems for the soldiers or their 35 children, Kilpatrick said.
Kilpatrick said research on potential long-term impacts is continuing.
"We are looking at it scientifically. We are keeping an open mind to it," he
said in an interview.
=========================================
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of maury
Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 12:01 PM
To: Radiation Safety; Mailing List for Risk Professionals; Herbert
Inhaber; Jaro; Jerry Cohen; Jim Muckerheide; John Jacobus; Michael
Stabin; RobinSiskel; Sandy Perle
Subject: Caldicott on C-Span Wednesday AM
Helen Caldicutt is scheduled on C-Span's Washington Journal on Wednesday
morning. I think her topic is to be "the new nuclear danger" or some
such. The usual format of that program accepts real time call-in
questions to the guest.
Cheers?
Maury Siskel maurysis@ev1.net
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To
unsubscribe, send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the
text "unsubscribe radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail,
with no subject line. You can view the Radsafe archives at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/