[ RadSafe ] Re: James Salsman on the Letter

[Richard D. Urban Jr.]

James Salsman wrote...

>"The chemical toxicity resulting from depleted uranium inhalation exposure"...
bla, bla, bla... Is much higher than the radiological consequences. This has never been disputed by anyone, least of all the US Army.  What has been disputed is, is it a.) worse than U nat, or indeed any other heavy metal poisoning, and b.) what are the mitigating (other chemical or biological exposures) and latency issues prior to those DU consequences surfacing, if indeed they ever do? I certainly would prefer DU to certain other things, such as say instantaneous LEAD poisoning from a bullet (Sadam's way of handling dissent). Compare it to chemo-radiation therapy side effects vs. certain death from breast cancer.  The former is not pretty (ask my wife), but its sure a hell of a lot better than the latter.

As for the original article, I have seen the Army training, and it is as sufficient and comprehensive as any other worker training regarding various workplace hazards, such as lead and asbestos... "This is what it is, this is what it can do to you, monitor for it, don't handle it, clean yourself up after being exposed to it, if you suspect it or have been exposed report it to the proper authorities."  
This is the same type of thing industrial workers get for any hazardous substance (OSHA HAZWOPPR). Why should it be different here?  We don't let pipefitters go in to decontaminate a reactor cavity in a powerplant, rail engineers to clean up a derailed chlorine tanker, the same holds true for the Army. Specific training, protective wear and preparations are made for responses by "specialist's".

As for "Dr. Cherry... was "merely" a Radiation Safety Officer and Health Physicist"... 
I can't possibly imagine how you would want to insult probably 75% plus of this community... MERELY an RSO and HP, WELL!!!...
First, Doug Rokke hasn't even a tenth the specialized training and education Bob Cherry has, does not hold a degree in ANY health related field, and IS NOT a "Health Physicist", but yet his word is as 'Biblical' to you? From all OFFICIAL accounts, he was a 'merely' a reservist's who had the above mentioned "specific" training for response to DU incidents.
Second, if ANY of the Anti-DU crowd's diatribes had any founding, why aren't there masses of civillians sick and dying all over the US? There are thousands of us (including Bob Cherry) who have actually handled (and inhaled and injested) HIGHLY oxidized DU particles on military ranges like Yuma, Aberdeen, Nellis, Jefferson... Proving Ground's, many for over 30 years, prior to there being special handling procedures like what are in place today, but yet there seems to be no irregularly high health effects amongst these individuals (I've been told they used to hold BBQ's with contaminated wood out in the contaminated areas at YPG in the 'old' days, YES TIMES HAVE CHANGED.  What about the miners and fabricators of DU munitions and all the incidents that have occured there, the only thing I have heard anything about is lung problems, mostly associated with Radon, not heavy metal toxicity.

Richard Urban
MERELY a Radiation Protection Technician and former Alt. RSO
Yuma, AZ