Re: More on DU

[Philip Hypes <phypes@lanl.gov>]

At 12:56 PM 7/30/99 -0500, you wrote:
>At least this story is better balanced--it acknowledges differing
>opionions in the scientific community. 
>--Susan Gawarecki
>

I'm sure it won't surprise anyone if I disagree with Susan's opinion.
It might be better balanced than an activists leaflet, but that still
won't induce me to use the word "balanced" in any sense when
referring to this article.

For anyone who cares, here's the letter I wrote to the good journalists
at nandotimes.com:

John O'Callaghan's article on Depleted Uranium did mention that there is
disagreement about the health effects of depleted uranium.  But he
seriously understated the amount of data available on the subject, and
ignored all data and that did not support his "DU contamination will kill
thousands" thesis.

People have been working with natural and enriched uranium, both of which
are significantly more hazardous than depleted uranium, for decades.
Occupational health studies have been conducted at many national
laboratories here in the United States.  Virtually every human being on
this planet has uranium in their body.  It's a fairly common constituient
of the earth's crust, which means it is also in the soil, the plants that
grow in the soil, the animals that eat the plants, and the water.  Coal
fired power plants release more uranium into the environment than can be
found in the cores of all the world's reactors.

If uranium were nearly as hazardous as the Iraqui health ministry would
have us believe, none of us would ever see our fortieth birthday.  It is an
irrefutable fact that thousands of our soldiers are alive today because of
the effectiveness of depleted uranium rounds, and nations around the world
are stockpiling them.  Depleted uranium will not go away; fortunately, it
also will not fulfill any of the radiation phobics' predictions.

As to the Iraqui claim that the US is responsible for cleaning up the
battlefield, we have to keep in mind that at no point in history has the
victor in a war been held responsible for cleaning up the battlefield.  For
most of human history, it has been the other way around;  winners do not
pay war reparations.  Had it not been for Iraqui agression, the war would
not have taken place at all.
___________________________________________________________
Philip Hypes
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Safeguards Science and Technology Group (NIS 5)
(505) 667-1556  phypes@lanl.gov

Opinions expressed are purely my own unless otherwise noted

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