reply to Hamrick (was Re: uranium munitions burning in air...)

[James Salsman <james@bovik.org>]

Barbara Hamrick wrote:



> You have evidence that three people have published allegedly deceitful 

> reports?  Three?  I'm sorry, but there's really no significance to that. 



Perhaps you missed my numerous criticisms of the Health Physics

Society's print and web publications in my earlier message.  I

challenge you to find a single publication on www.hps.org which

directly states that uranium is toxic to any organ other than

the kidneys.  I have appended several ironically conflicting

excerpts below to help get you started.



> Yet, I still find your wild accusations about the level of 

> harm from DU are not scientifically sound.



How so?  Do you intend to attempt to refute them or any of the

several cited and linked articles from the peer-reviewed medical

literature, and the U.K. adjudication on which they are based?

Or, are you, like many if not most Health Physics Society members,

engaged only in assertion from wishful thinking?



Please keep in mind, the number of children born with severe

defects, such as missing eyes or external intestines, to veteran

parents continues to increase.  The veterans are far more angry

about these attempts to discredit the clearly-established direct

causality than I am.



Sincerely,

James Salsman

+1.650.793.0162



"before the discovery and availability of insulin, uranium was used

therapeutically for the treatment of diabetes; relatively high doses

were administered by mouth to patients, but there were no reports of

kidney toxicity."

  -- http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q1906.html



Contrast that to:  "uranium is a weak chemical poison that can seriously 

damage the kidneys at high blood concentrations. Virtually all of the 

observed or expected effects are from nephrotoxicity associated with 

deposition in the kidney tubules and glomeruli damage at high blood 

concentrations of uranium."

  -- http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q754.html



"Animal studies have shown that sufficiently high doses of uranium 

ingested into the body will produce damage to the kidneys, and at still 

greater doses may cause death. However, there are few human data 

available and those that are available seem to suggest that ingested 

uranium may not be very toxic to humans."

  -- http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q450.html



"the chemical toxicity of uranium is known to produce minor effects on 

the kidney, which in humans who have suffered large acute exposures have 

been transitory and wholly reversible."

  -- http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q746.html



"any such effects from ingestion or inhalation of uranium would likely 

manifest themselves first in the form of minor effects associated with 

the kidneys"

  -- http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q611.html



"the chemical toxicity of uranium is known to produce minor effects on 

the kidney"

  -- http://hps.org/newsandevents/newsarchive/oldnews172.html





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