Re: Uranium blamed for Gulf War Syndrome (BBC)

[tmohaupt@wright.edu]

Has anyone measured internal deposition of uranium in persons with 
the Gulf War Syndrome purportedly caused by depleted uranium?

Tom

> Date:          Thu, 04 Feb 1999 10:54:39 -0600 (CST)
> From:          Sandy Perle <sandyfl@earthlink.net>
> Subject:       Uranium blamed for Gulf War Syndrome  (BBC)
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Reply-to:      radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu

> Tuesday, February 2, 1999 Published at 23:00 GMT - BBC
> 
> Uranium blamed for Gulf War Syndrome  
> 
> Exploding missiles tipped with uranium exposed servicemen to the 
> toxic metal  
> 
> Sixteen British Gulf War veterans say they have proof they are 
> suffering from radiation poisoning, caused by materials in the 
> weapons used by the Allies.  
> 
> The men believe this could be a factor in Gulf War Syndrome, the 
> condition which thousands of soldiers say they developed after 
> serving in the region.  
> 
> In Iraq, doctors also say children have been deformed by the same 
> radiation.  
> 
> Shaun Rusling served in the Gulf War and today, he takes a dozen 
> different drugs to treat a catalogue of illnesses, from chronic fatigue 
> and post-traumatic stress disorder to problems with the nervous 
> system and depression.  
> 
> Doctors have diagnosed him as suffering from Gulf War Syndrome.  
> 
> The Ministry of Defence says the syndrome as such does not 
> exist, so Mr Rusling and two of his fellow Gulf veterans, Mike 
> Kirkby and Mike Burrows, have been desperately seeking reasons 
> for the illnesses since their return from the war zone.  
> 
> They say independent tests carried out in Canada revealing they 
> and 13 other veterans have uranium radiation poisoning may at last 
> provide some answers.  
> 
> Mr Rusling says: "Basically we have just been diagnosed with a 
> bone disease...that is where depleted uranium finishes - in your 
> bones.  
> 
> "I'm saddened by our treatment by the Ministry of Defence because 
> we went out to do our job.  
> 
> "I treated Iraqi casualties with more care and compassion than this 
> government has treated me," he adds.  
> 
> Mr Rusling believes it was while serving with a field hospital unit 
> that he was exposed to depleted uranium in dust form.  
> 
> A by-product of weapons grade uranium, which in most forms is 
> perfectly safe to handle, depleted uranium was used by British and 
> American forces on the tips of missiles to devastating effect.  
> 
> Controversially, the veterans say they ingested tiny particles of the 
> toxic metal after the missiles burned up in the atmosphere.  
> 
> Mr Kirkby says: "They were blowing locations up and we were 
> driving through bodies and blown -up tanks. You were breathing all 
> the smoke and the dust off the sand."  
> 
> In Iraq, there is no shortage of tragic stories about families whose 
> children have a wide range of birth deformities.  
> 
> Professor Selma Al-Tah, a paediatrician in Baghdad, believes her 
> studies demonstrate a link with depleted uranium and the many 
> terrible genetic defects.  
> 
> "A lot of cases are really monsters. Some of them have no necks, 
> their appearance or their facial appearance is completely 
> distorted", she says.  
> 
> No matter how many examples there are of terrible deformities or 
> leukemia, Iraq's hospitals are so badly off that proving a link with 
> depleted uranium will be difficult, if not impossible, without the 
> proper resources.  
> 
> But the fact that similar cases have also been identified among the 
> families of British and American soldiers who served during the Gulf 
> War, is regarded as too much of a coincidence.  
> 
> The Ministry of Defence's medical team is highly sceptical about 
> these latest reports.  
> 
> However, a spokesman said it would be happy to study any new 
> tests which may shed light on the many and varied conditions 
> affecting Gulf War veterans.  
> 
> On Tuesday, families of veterans also criticised a government 
> report, released last week, which said Gulf War Syndrome did not 
> exist in the form of one condition.  
> 
> The report, by doctors working in the Ministry of Defence's Medical 
> Assessment Programme and released last Thursday, said soldiers 
> who fought in the 1991 war had developed illnesses, but no single 
> psychological or physiological cause was found.  
> 
> The National Gulf Veterans and Families Association said the 
> report was "an outrageous attempt to cover up Gulf War illness". 
> 
> Sandy Perle
> E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
> Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205
> 
> "The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
> the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
>               - G. K. Chesterton -
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Tom Mohaupt, MS, CHP
Wright State University
Radiation Safety Officer

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Fax:  (937) 775-3301
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