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more on DU



Title: more on DU

posted at http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_431000/431817.stm

Friday, August 27, 1999 Published at 17:59 GMT 18:59 UK
BBC Sci/Tech
<<...>>
Depleted uranium study 'shows clear damage'
By Environment Correspondent Alex Kirby

The controversy over the reported dangers of depleted uranium (DU) has intensified, with a Canadian study said to show "unequivocal" evidence of damage to health.

<snip>
Research by Dr Hari Sharma, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, appeared to show traces of DU in the urine of 14 out of 30 British veterans he tested.

There is now considerable dispute over his work, with critics claiming he was dismissed by the university for work that lacked rigour and credibility.

His supporters say he has been victimised for publishing evidence suggesting DU harms both veterans and civilians.
But research at the Memorial University of Newfoundland appears to support Dr Sharma.
The researcher, a geochemist, Patricia Horan, used a mass spectrometer to analyse the urine of veterans.
This technique is said to achieve results between 50,000 and 500,000 times more accurate than Dr Sharma's.
'Beyond argument'
The one British veteran to have received the results of his test, Shaun Rusling, of the National Gulf War Veterans' and Families Association, was shown to be still passing DU in his urine eight years after the war.

Malcolm Hooper, emeritus professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Sunderland, says the new research provides "unequivocal evidence that will stand up to technical examination by anyone".

Professor Hooper, who advises Gulf veterans' groups, told BBC News Online: "This puts the whole thing beyond dispute. It is a breakthrough."

"It shows an initial, significant exposure to DU, exposure which the MoD and the Pentagon have always maintained did not happen.

"It is imperative that the UK government now launches a widespread study of thousands of those who served in the Gulf, in different jobs and locations.

"US forces used DU in Kosovo, and that is disturbing as well.
"The climate and the terrain are different, but we just don't know what happened.
"The government should be checking service people, civilians, journalists, everyone."
Cautious
But the Newfoundland research has not yet been peer-reviewed, which worries Tony Duff, secretary of the Gulf Veterans' Association.

He told BBC News Online: "I think it is interesting. But until it has been reviewed, we cannot draw any firm conclusions.

"I do not want to raise people's hopes by claiming it is definitive until we know that it is."
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presumably, with a mass spectrometer, you could tell the difference between DU and NU, right ?

jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca