[ RadSafe ] Fwd: [Know_Nukes] Tungten Armor-Piercing Cure May Be Worse Than the Depleted Uranium Disease?

[bobcherry at cox.net]

I certainly hope that all of our potential adversaries use tungsten-based antiarmor munitions. They won't work against our DU-aided armor, so I have read.

Bob C
> 
> From: John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com>
> Date: 2005/04/04 Mon AM 10:23:58 EDT
> To: radsafe <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Fwd: [Know_Nukes] Tungten Armor-Piercing Cure May Be
> 	Worse Than the Depleted Uranium Disease?
> 
> >From another list server
> 
> --- gumsh0e <gumsh0e at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > To: 
> > From: 
> > Date: Sun, 03 Apr 2005 01:03:06 -0000
> > Subject: [Know_Nukes] Tungten Armor-Piercing Cure
> > May Be Worse Than the Depleted Uranium Disease?
> > 
> > 
> > http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2005/7791/7791.pdf
> > 
> > ABSTRACT
> > Continuing concern regarding the potential health
> > and environmental
> > effects of depleted uranium and lead has resulted in
> > many countries
> > adding tungsten alloy-based munitions to their
> > battlefield arsenals as
> > replacements for these metals. Because the alloys
> > used in many
> > munitions are relatively recent additions to the
> > list of militarily
> > relevant metals, very little is known about the
> > health effects of
> > these metals after internalization as embedded
> > shrapnel. Previous work
> > in this laboratory developed a rodent model system
> > that mimicked
> > shrapnel loads seen in wounded personnel from the
> > 1991 Persian Gulf
> > War. In this study, we used that system and male
> > F344 rats, implanted
> > intramuscularly with pellets (1 mm x 2 mm cylinders)
> > of weapons-grade
> > tungsten alloy, to simulate shrapnel wounds. Rats
> > were implanted with
> > 4 (low dose) or 20 pellets (high dose) of tungsten
> > alloy. Tantalum (20
> > pellets) and nickel (20 pellets) served as negative
> > and positive
> > controls, respectively. The high-dose tungsten
> > alloy-implanted rats
> > (n=46) developed extremely aggressive tumors
> > surrounding the pellets
> > within 4-5 months after implantation. The low-dose
> > tungsten
> > alloy-implanted rats (n=46) and nickel-implanted
> > rats (n=36) also
> > developed tumors surrounding the pellets, but did so
> > at a slower rate.
> > Rats implanted with tantalum (n=46), an inert
> > control metal, did not
> > develop tumors. Tumor yield was 100% in both the
> > low- and
> > high-dose tungsten alloy groups. The tumors,
> > characterized as
> > high-grade pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcomas by
> > histopathology and
> > immunohistochemical examination, rapidly
> > metastasized to the lung and
> > necessitated euthanasia of the animal. Significant
> > hematological
> > changes, indicative of polycythemia, were also
> > observed in the
> > high-dose tungsten alloyimplanted rats. These
> > changes were apparent as
> > early as 1 month post-implantation in the highdose
> > tungsten alloy
> > rats, well before any overt signs of tumor
> > development. These results
> > point out the need for further studies investigating
> > the health
> > effects of tungsten and tungsten-based alloys.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++
> "Embarrassed, obscure and feeble sentences are generally, if not always, the result of embarrassed, obscure and feeble thought."
> Hugh Blair, 1783
> 
> -- John
> John Jacobus, MS
> Certified Health Physicist
> e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com
> 
> 
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