[ RadSafe ] uranium birth defect causation details

[James Salsman]

Fred Dawson wrote:

> I would be interested to see the particular peer reviewed and published 
> papers that support your claim the that the entire population of male 
> GWI veterans, many hundreds of thousands of people are, already experiencing
> more than a 50% increase in birth defects

That is the fifth time someone here has asked for this:

"Overall, the risk of any malformation among pregnancies reported
by men was 50% higher in Gulf War Veterans (GWV) compared with
Non-GWVs" -- http://ije.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/33/1/74
(that data from prior to November 1997)

"Infants conceived postwar to male GWVs had significantly higher
prevalence of tricuspid valve insufficicieny (relative risk [RR],
2.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-6.6; p = 0.039) and aortic
valve stenosis (RR, 6.0; 95% CI, 1.2-31.0; p = 0.026) compared to
infants conceived postwar to nondeployed veteran males. Among infants
of male GWVs, aortic valve stenosis (RR, 163; 95% CI, 0.09-294; p
= 0.011) and renal agenesis or hypoplasia (RR, 16.3; 95% CI, 0.09-294;
p = 0.011) were significantly higher among infants conceived postwar
than prewar."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12854660&dopt=Abstract

>... increasing with time 

This is a graph of the birth defect incidence rate in Basrah:
   http://www.bovik.org/du/basrah.gif

>... and in particular ...  the proof of a causative link to
> uranium exposure.

"DU exposure ... is both neoplastically transforming and genotoxic....
DU can generate oxidative DNA damage....  Experiments were conducted
under conditions in which chemical generation of hydroxyl radicals was
calculated to exceed the radiolytic generation by one million-fold.
The data showed that markers of oxidative DNA base damage, thymine
glycol and 8-deoxyguanosine could be induced from DU-catalyzed
reactions of hydrogen peroxide and ascorbate.... DU can induce
carcinogenic lesions, e.g. oxidative DNA lesions...." -- A.C. Miller,
et al., U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12121782

"In rats, there is strong evidence of DU accumulation in tissues
including testes, bone, kidneys, and brain." Pellmar, T.C., Fuciarelli,
A.F., Ejnik, J.W., Hamilton, M., Hogan, J., Strocko, S., Edmond,
C., Mottaz, H.M. and Landauer, M.R. "Distribution of uranium in
rats implanted with depleted uranium pellets," Toxicol Sci, vol.
49, pp. 29-39 (1999.)

There is much more at the end of my NRC petition:
   http://www.bovik.org/du/du-petition.html

Sincerely,
James Salsman