RE: Depleted Uranium Ordnance

["Minnema, Douglas" <Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>]

For those of you who were not at the HPS mid-year meeting last week,
there was a presentation by the Army on assessing doses for the
"friendly fire" victims,  responders, and recovery personnel (the
highest potential exposure groups).  It is published in the proceedings.

Their estimate is less than 5 mSv (0.5 rem) CEDE, based upon 15 minute
exposures, and inhalation of 22 mg insoluble DU oxide and 4 mg soluble
DU oxide, and secondary ingestion of 13.3 mg insoluble DU oxide and 2.7
mg soluble DU oxide.

Apparently, this is preliminary, as the summary says "further refinement
of USACHPPM's exposure assessment and risk characterization ... will
continue and be incorporated into the final report".

My question is that these ingestion numbers sound significant when
compared to OSHA PELs, but I am not an IH and am not sure how to use
them.  However, this was  not discussed in the report.  Anybody have a
feel for that?

Doug Minnema, CHP
Defense Programs, DOE
<Douglas.Minnema@ns.doe.gov>

what few thoughts i have are truly my own.

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	James G. Barnes [SMTP:mail15077@pop.net]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 04, 1999 5:22 PM
> To:	Multiple recipients of list
> Subject:	Depleted Uranium Ordnance
> 
> Good Afternoon,
> 
> I was talking to a USMC officer who had served in the Gulf War, and
> when I 
> told him that I was a health physicist, he brought up the issue of DU 
> munitions.
> 
> One point that he mentioned that I hadn't really considered is that
> these 
> munitions are quite pyrotechnic (if that's the right word), and they 
> basically incinerate just about anything they hit.  So the DU has gone
> 
> through a catastrophic impact, followed immediately by a high
> temperature 
> burn, has basically vaporized, then has plated, deposited over an area
> near 
> the target.
> 
> It leads me to suspect that they definitely create a significant 
> contamination event, and I suspect the chemical form of the DU might
> be 
> much different than that found in a uranium mine.  So I'm not sure
> that 
> comparison of Gulf War Vets to Uranium Miners is really an apples to
> apples 
> situation.
> 
> Also, am I correct in believing that the chemotoxicity of Uranium is 
> similar to other heavy metals, i.e. there is a potential effect on the
> n  
> ervous system similar to that encountered in lead ingestion?
> 
> 
> Jim Barnes, CHP
> Radiation Safety Officer
> Rocketdyne / Boeing
> 
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