Comments from Theresa Marie K. Gandhi on Navy NWTRC draft EIS/OEIS Dec 2008
Whidbey Island Chemically Injured Network tm@tmgandhi.com
Comments to NWTRC EIS/OEIS draft December 2008 to conduct training, research, development, testing and evaluation of military hardware, personnel, tactics, munitions, explosives or electronic combat systems. NW Range Complex encompasses more than 122,440 square nautical miles of ocean and inland waters of Puget Sound. The range complex also includes more than 34,000 square nautical miles of airspace.
Achieving the Navy’s mandate and mission by any means necessary begins by mis-labeling the “No Action Alternative” as it is not a “No Action Plan” but continued training as usual.
At the least the U.S. Navy must not expand and adopt “Alternative 1 or 2”. Additionally the training must not take place within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
A search for “best available science” needs to be included even when it proves harm can come from standard operational procedures. Comments from the Orca Network need to be implemented and addressed. Comments from the National Resources Defense Council and organizations signing on to their comments need to be taken into consideration, investigated and recommendation adopted.
Volume 1 p. 3.6-1 Not in the Glossary but buried with the text of the EIS/OEIS draft was found the definition of “littoral zone”. As being: “near shore habitats that includes: islets, headlands, rocky inter-tidal areas, bottom-dwelling algaes (e.g., kelp forests), sea grass beds, soft substrate, estuarine and coastal salt marsh wetland, fjords and beaches. Mid-littoral beach is alternately submerged and exposed for moderate periods of time. In other words the NWTRC Study Area from within Puget Sound and south to California includes and “takes” all beaches and coastal salt march wetlands as would be DESIRED TO USE by the Naval Command. Tourists, residents, seed gatherers, clam diggers and fishermen could be restricted from their usual and accustomed shore line beaches. This could produce economic harm to multiple communities in all states on the West Coast.
Alternative 2 is the Navy’s preferred alternative because it would fully support the type and frequency of activities it believes are required to achieve complete Fleet readiness and allow the U.S. Navy to carry out its mission in the Pacific Northwest. RDT&E activities in the NWTRC are comprised primarily of unmanned aerial system (UAS) and underwater vehicle system activities.
Alternative 2 includes all elements of Alternative 1, plus: Increase the level of training activities over levels identified in Alternative 1; and Implement range enhancements, including: new air and sea surface targets; new electronic signal emitters; development of a small-scale underwater training minefield, and development of a portable undersea tracking range.
But missing in this Alternative is the ability of the Navy to maintain the long-term viability of the range complex while protecting human health and the environment not to mention the viability of fifty-one species of threatened or endangered salmon, aquatic species and marine mammals.
Acknowledge that the Navy is not equipped with the properly trained personnel capable of detecting multi-species who do not want to be detected. This is especially true when conducting training war games with multiple vessels, sonars and disrupted waters.
Make a commitment to further train sonar specialists to be able to detect the very elusive endangered marine species. Do not rely on high-frequency sonar technology to find marine mammals until independent researchers have determined its ability or not to harm the marine mammals in seeking to protect them.
Volume I: Hazardous Materials 3.3
P 3.3-14 Bomb and expended ordnance on the ocean floor would be “widely scattered” and have negligible adverse impacts and possibly some slight benefits.
To average the dispersion through out the whole NW Training Range does not make logical sense. To make the statement that “possibly some slight benefits” from bomb or expended ordnance – flies in the face of logic.
3.3.15 Missile’s solid propellant releasing ……ammonium perchlorate, potassium hydroxide, lithium chloride and other hazardous materials …. are expected to rapidly disperse …. that local concentration will be extremely low ….
Are assumptions that low concentrations will not harm those species exposed to them in their natural habitat? I could not find within the references any, or especially “best available scientific studies” to back up the above claim. To average the dispersion through out the whole NW Training Range without the missiles releasing these chemicals evenly throughout the entire range is not a credible statement.
Marine Mammals are immersed in this now toxic habitat, some consuming krill filter huge amounts of sea water through their consumption body parts.
All aquatic life bio-accumulates up the food chain. I saw no references regarding the possible bonding or absorption or not of these toxic materials to algae, krill or shrimp.
3.3.17 ……. molybdenum, titanium, tungsten or vanadium linked with the assumption that these toxic metals “will eventually oxidize …….. into benign by-products ……
Is an assumption not backed up with long term testing in comparable circumstances? No references could be found citing studies proving these heavy particles will ....... “eventually oxidize…into benign by-products”.
Depleted Uranium: 20-mm cannon shells of depleted uranium, their fragments and nano particles created when exploded are no where dealt with in the entire 1,068 pages. Claiming the depleted means the ordnance is only 60% as radioactive as uranium misses the entire point. Exploding DU weapons creates a nano particle poison gas that is carried on the wind inflicting rapid forming cancers in multiple organ systems in a very short amount of time one body at a time. These would widely disperse within the marine environment and then work their way up the food chain to human consumption aquatic species.
This would hold true for birds, like the ones in Afghanistan sitting on a wire that all fell to their deaths with blood flowing out every orifice after exposure to DU’s explosive poison gas cloud. Unless the bird deaths were from a detonated nuclear bomb that a “boots on the ground” veteran witnessed both in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bunker Buster Nukes used in Afghanistan were encased in DU. As to whether it was the poison gas from exploded DU or the radioactive cloud from a nuclear weapon encased in DU that impacted and killed birds and humans can not be known by this writer. Afghani walking away from the explosion also had blood pouring from every orifice and died shortly there after according to witnesses with boots on the ground in our military.
See www.willthomasonline.net/investigations -“US Veteran with Boots on the Ground Witnessed……..”. And see also referenced studies in “Experts in DU Radiation” submitted with these comments.
Volume 2: References 8
p. 8-4: Reference cited is 35 years old – Hanson, W.C. 1974. Ecological Considerations of Depleted Uranium Munitions. Report LA-5559 Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory……. did not deal with the nanoparticiles that are created from the explosions of DU munitions. My references of credentialed experts accompany these comments in document called “Experts Reports of Findings on DU……”
The only other reference cited on Depleted Uranium was: “Toque, C. 2006. Marine Environmental Depleted Uranium Survey Report ………Gosport, UK”
p 8-50 “Goertner, J.F. 1982. Predication of underwater explosion safe ranges for sea mammals………. It is hard to image that munitions have not been changed or improved in 27 years. I would think that the Naval Surface Weapons Center would have more recent studies. If so then why was it that this study was referenced?
p 8-56 “Kryter, K.D. W.D. Ward, J.D. Miller and D.H. Eldredge. 1966. Hazardous exposure to intermittent and steady-state noise. …….. Forty-three years there isn’t there a more recent study on this topic?
p 8-87 “Hickie, B.E., R.W. Macdonald, J.K. B. Ford and P.S. Ross, 2007. ‘Killer whales (orcas) face protracted health risk associated with lifetime exposure to PCBs,’ Environmental Science and Technology, 41(18):6613-9,” Using Depleted Uranium with a half life of 40 million years will enable uncountable marine lives to have lifetime (however shortened by the process) exposure when moving through or living near by wherever the U.S. Navy decides to use and leave on the ocean floor those fragments of radioactive weapons. Nanoparticiles dispersion will greatly expand the radioactive areas of the marine environment. See references in “Experts in Radiation….”
3.3.18 Underwater Targets. Airborne and surface emitting magnetic or acoustic signals used in training do not mention the decibels, range or potential harm to marine mammals.
3.3.19 Repeated at the end of multiple paragraphs: ……appeared to be minimal and had no detectable effect on wildlife or sediment quality cites no “scientific studies” over time to prove these repeated assumptions as valid.
3.3.20 Torpedoes. Under the No Action Alternative ……..this will have no measurable impact on the PACNW OPAREA environment. No statement is made regarding the “Preferred Alternative” and the impact than increased use and exposure would have.
3.3.21 ….potentially toxic battery constituents with USEPA water quality criteria …. for protection of aquatic life or “best available literature” ………can not be exceeded once every three years. The preferred alternative would not limit exposure to one battery expended every three years. This is an omission as it is not stated how this limit would be overcome.
3.3.22 3.3.23 Explosive Sonobuoys – Potential Impacts of Detonation Byproducts ….in the water, the charges explode, creating aloud acoustic signal. No decibel readings or range of sound is mentioned thus omission claims no harm when in fact there very well could be. When a 4 # bomb of whatever source exploded underwater near NSA Whidbey 5,000 fish floating on top plus up to 20,000 that had fallen to the bottom were killed and a law suit was filed. This fish kill was witnessed. How many are not? No mention of potentially massive fish kills can be found within these pages. Is it that there are no computer codes to record such events?
3.3.23 3.3.23 – 25 Again with underwater detonations of C-4 there is no measurement of the acoustic signal or of the number of fish or marine mammals that would swim through these regions in the five hours that these exercises take to complete. There was no mention and probably no computer input code for reporting dead fish or marine mammals sighted during or after the exercises are complete for the day in the report filed under “test results”.
(Governor/President Bush’s No Child Left Behind achieved a no drop out rate because the computer code to record “drop outs” was eliminated.)
3.3.24 3.3.26 _.27 Aviation Fuel and Other Propellants …..fuel (dumped over water west of NAS Whidbey) ….dissipates in the air……small number of incidents………neither …….have an measurable impact on the environment. Downwind of this air dissipation the breast cancer rate in San Juan County is the highest of any County in Washington State. Even the Counties closest to Hanford had less. What could be in the air that could cause this…..jet exhaust, fuel dumped more than a few times or maybe exhaust from ships burning bunker diesel fuel?
3.3.25 3.3.28 .29 .30 Bombs, Missiles, Naval Gunfire, Targets and Countermeasures, Torpedoes and Small Caliber Rounds A repeated phrase…..”this increase would not have a measurable impact on the environment.” This statement is contrary to reality. Yet again, no mention of the acoustic byproduct on the resident aquatic life of firing and exploding these weapons ordnances are mentioned.
3.3.26 3.3-31 Underwater Detonations It is good news that the Navy will be relocating this process to Imperial Beach, CA from the near shore of Island and Jefferson County but not good news for marine life off of Imperial Beach. Implications for acoustic harm to marine life from underwater detonations in Imperial Beach, CA are not spoken too nor addressed in the No Action Alternative let alone in the Preferred Alternative.
3.3.27 3.3-32 -37 Repeated…..”will have no impact on the environment from bomb, missiles, etc…..” is not backed up with scientific proof of remarks and assumptions. Again no mention of the acoustical impact on marine life.
Through out the Hazardous Material sections there is an assumption that the toxic materials expended in exploding ordnances will have “no measurable impact of the environment” is not back up with any proof. Instead the Navy takes a particle and averages it dispersal against the whole area when in fact it is not dispersed throughout the whole 122,440 square nautical miles of the NWRRC.
Volume 1: 3.9 Marine Mammals
page 3.9-2 “There are 32 species of marine mammals known to occur in the NWTRC Study Area (Table 3.9-1). Again the “magic math” or “voodoo math” that has 0.00055 of one whale per squared km is not how reality presents itself. Whales and other marine species travel in “pods” and “schools” and occupy concentrated areas that are always moving. The “J” pod of Southern Resident Orcas do not spread throughout the 122,400 squared nautical miles- nm (420,163) square kilometers km of the PACNW OPAREA as shown within the EIS/OEIS draft.
3.9 -17: “Federal Agencies (i.e. U.S. Navy) must consult with NMFS to ensure actions will not destroy or adversely modify the Killer Whales (Orca) Habitat. Critical habitat means a more focused analysis on how the action would alter the habitat and how it will affect ability of habitat to support the populations conservation.”
Critical habitat designation encompasses parts of Haro Strait, waters around the San Juan Islands, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and all of Puget Sound – a total of just over 6,475 km squared …. excluded are 18 military sites covering 290 km squared of the designated area.
How will you warn the marine mammals to not trespass in these 18 “salt water island’s of harm”? Who will you warn Endangered Species to not use their usual and historic marine areas now that the Navy wants to use them to train to kill with weapons of war?
Volume 1 Fish 3.7
3.7-16 ESA Salmon runs overlap from mid May through late October.
Whales follow and feed on salmon, especially ESA listed Chinook salmon. Thus most of NWTRC would be a kill zone for Endangered Species.
Will training be suspended in the areas (all must pass Whidbey Island) where known salmon runs are?
Mitigation Measures, Page 5-23: “Limiting training activities to fewer than 12 months …. would not meet ….. readiness requirement of Navy’s mandate.”
Page 5-24 “Suspending training at night…… Prohibiting or limiting vessels from using MFA sonar in restricted visibility ….. violates international navigational rules… jeopardizes safety of ship and crew.” So much for “Marine Mammal Lookouts” as part of Mitigation Measures.
Volume 2 Appendix E Cetacean Stranding Report
p E-5 “Stranding report ……..Nationwide, between 1995-2004, there were approximately 700-1500 cetacean strandings per year…” Or possibly 13,500 strandings a year and even more for the years 1998, 2003 and 2004 are occurring.
It is known that from 2001 -2004 17,866 cetaceans and 5,928 pinnipeds were stranded. In three years from just two species the total is 27,794 strandings. Or 927 strandings per year.
Figure E-1 p E-6 Number of Stranding (Level A Data) shows: 1998 about 4500; 2003 about 4500 and 2004 about 4,000 a year. (The Figure did not allow an accurate number to be determined.) This seems like huge numbers of strandings are occurring. Are these mammal lives so discard-able that NMFS would give the Navy an LOA to “take”, harm and or kill, as the Navy pleases within Sanctuaries designated to insure marine mammal survival?
Source: Table E-1 page E-5 NMFS. Orca population in 1996 was 96 and has recovered to 87 animals within Puget Sound.
With increased terror producing underwater weapons and sonar this kill “take” rate per year can only increase. Five years another 45 marine mammals could be dead. If within the Orca population that could mean they are below the number needed to survive as a species.
Conclusions:
p E-22 “Subarachnoid and intracochlear hemorrhages were believed to have occurred prior to strandings and were hypothesized as being related to an acoustic event. ….no large-scale acoustic activity besides the Navy sonar exercise occurred in the time surround the stranding events.”
The U.S. Navy knows these facts related within the draft EIS/OEIS. Navy experts have reported on studies that show the ability of marine mammals to hear at greater distances than is admitted to within this draft up to 300 miles and maybe even further. And yet the Navy sought, most likely with the Bush administration’s help, a license to “take” i.e. kill marine mammals within their designated Sanctuaries. So with 122,440 square nautical miles the Navy must also use a very small portion of this total that is set aside for marine mammals in order to accomplish it’s training mission. At the least the Commander who is enabling this to happen should be ashamed. To those of us who are patriots and whose immediate family members have served, (42 years for my immediate family) in the Navy and Coast Guard, it shows a disregard for life that is near to extinction. Where is your courage of imagination to enable mission readiness and marine life to both win?
Volume 2 Draft EIS/OEIS December 2008
Mitigation Measures 5
P 5-23; 2nd line, third paragraph: “However, the fall habitat requirements for most marine mammals in NWTRC are unknown.” It is known that salmon migrate from mid April to mid October to and from historic spawning rivers and streams. Marine Mammals will be within Puget Sound and off of West Coast rivers following their desired aquatic food, i.e. Chinook and other Endangered Salmon species. March 8, 2009 two grey whales were spotted between Whidbey Island and Everett. This is very early for such a sighting. With global warming this could become more common for this and other species of "whales".
Volume 2 Other Considerations 6
p 6-2 Securing a LOA under Section 7 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act …..to permit “takes” as appropriate within the two Marine Mammal Sanctuaries in the NWTRC so as to not limit nor constrain the Navy’s DESIRED use of the entire NWTRC area even though the Sanctuaries are small areas compared to the totality of the huge NWTRC Study Area is an unconscionable act of planned Endangered Species Extinction. Such hubris shows a lack of imagination, creativity or even strategic planning. If the Naval Commander could look into the eye of a terrorized whale who was experiencing trauma and maybe even death from a state sponsored terrorist act against an ocean resident mammal within a designated sanctuary he might find the will to plan training activities in a different manner.
If an “Axis of Evil Nation-State or “Terrorist” would propose and or do the same we would declare war against them. Only our own military has the right to “take” harm unto death, designated Endangered marine mammals within their designated protected habitats and “Sanctuaries”.
If it is true that President Bush signed an Executive Order giving the U.S. Navy authorization to use marine mammal killing sonar ten million times in five years then multiple extinction events can be expected sooner rather than later.
What is your budget for true mitigation and replacement of dead or extinct marine mammals? Will you create a huge salt water inland sea in Utah beyond the reach of sonar that kills?
As one of two survivors of ten dead within a cancer cluster I can identify with marine species who die because the Navy must have every square nautical mile available for their use even when the activities planned will kill protected and endangered species even to extinction.
6.3 page 6-6 “Construction of the shallow water minefield would cause short term and temporary impacts during construction” Not addressed are the explosive and acoustic effects from any explosions within the shallow water minefield.
6.3 page 6-6 “No habitat associated with threatened or endangered species would be lost as result of implementation of the Proposed Action.” An yet within two designated Marine Mammals Sanctuaries the Navy applied for and secured an LOA in order to “take”, i.e. kill, harass or harm marine mammals. These restrictions were put into place because of threatened habitat and Endangered Species status of marine mammals.
Everyone except the U.S. Navy is required by law to respect, honor and protect these multiple marine mammal species and their prey, i.e. Chinook and other salmon.
Volume 2: References 8
Page 8-46. “Everitt, R.D., C.H. Fiscus, and R.L DeLong 1979. Marine mammal of northern Puget Sound …….November 1, 1977…..NOAA ……….
The populations are no longer the same as they were 32 years ago. Is there no more recent “report on investigations”?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Experts Reports on Radioactive Depleted Uranium
Doctor reports, scientific findings and truth censored by US Military.
Abstract of articles assembled by Theresa Marie K. Gandhi
DU’s exploded small particle size and crystalline structure make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard. This differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading.
Marine Mammals ingest large amounts of salt water in one form or another. Nanoparticiles of exploded DU weapons in salt water have not been tested and most likely would be absorbed into various organ systems as has been documented to humans in the following reports of studies conducted by radiation experts.
The military promotes the misleading results from large sized uranium studies.
NWTRC draft EIS/OEIS thirty-five year old reference was not conducted on the explosive nanoparticiles of current DU weapons.
“Hanson, W.C. 1974 Ecological Considerations of Depleted Uranium Munitions. Report LA-5559. Los Almos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California. Los Almos, N.M.” Using this reference combined with the experts reports to follow does not inspire trust in the only other DU reference:
“Toque, C. 2006. Marine Environmental Depleted Uranium Survey Report – Kirkcudbright Training Area – 2004, Environmental Sciences Department, Institute of Naval Medicine. Gosport, UK” – volume 2, page 8-5.
Marion Fulk, former scientist with the Manhattan Project and nuclear physical chemist at the National [nuclear weapons] Laboratory at Livermore, California. “Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as ‘a non-specific catalyst’ in both ‘nuclear and non-nuclear’ ways. This means that the uranium particle can affect human DNA and RNA because of both its chemical and radiological properties. This is why internalized DU particles cause ‘many, many diseases,’ this is how DU causes severe birth defects”, Fulk said.
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the "micron size" or smaller, he said.
Bombs with DU, i.e. dirty bombs are the perfect weapons for killing lots of people
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, "The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body." In 1997 he cited experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs.
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. (Note about Dr. Durakovic; first, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Diagnostic distinction was shown between natural uranium and DU using the technique of Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry – TIMS. Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultra-sensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview.
Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." "The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas."
A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. It should be noted that her studies shows that DU is “neoplastically transforming and genotoxic” are based on in vitro cellular research.
British toxico-pathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. A University of Rochester study exposed nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes in mice nearly all died within 4 hours.
Leuren Moret is Past President of the Association for Women Geoscientists, has a background in the Geosciences. Has conducted extensive scientific research on atmospheric dust, the transport and cycling of radionuclides through the environment and through biological systems. She is recognized as an international expert, on the impact on global public health and the health of the environment, from radiation caused by atmospheric testing, nuclear power plants and depleted uranium.
“Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,” Leuren Moret wrote. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.
“When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. “Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and nerves, can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Hodgkin’s disease.”
THREE EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM INTERNAL EXPOSURE
1. Chemical – changes in a substance due to an alteration of its chemical composition caused by changes in its atoms or molecules;
2. Radiological – changes when the nucleus of an isotope undergoes disintegration and releases energy in the form of alpha or beta particles and/or gamma rays. About 30% of radiation damage to cells is caused by the “bullet effect” of the alpha and beta particles tearing through the cells. About 70% of the damage is caused by changes in the cells and biological molecules from the energy dissipated along the pathway of the alpha and beta particles and gamma rays;
3. Particulate – changes caused by the particle size, the most harmful being nano-particles which are defined as particles with a diameter of 0.1 micron and smaller.
The “particulate effect” of exploded Depleted Uranium creates gas and dust, formed on the battlefield. This produces large numbers of extremely fine particles. The greatest number by mass on the battlefield is formed in the nano-particle range – 0.1 microns and smaller (1). There is a particulate effect caused by these nano-particles in living tissues. There are now 16 peer-reviewed journals devoted to the new field of nano-technology.
Dr. Helen Caldicott “the two Gulf wars have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people---particularly children--- are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity." Because of the extremely long half-life of uranium 238, one of the radioactive elements in the shells fired, "the food, the air, and the water in the cradle of civilization have been forever contaminated," Dr. Caldicott explained.
Doug Rokke, formerly the top U.S. Army DU clean-up officer and now anti-DU crusader, says Israeli tankers fired radioactive shells during the invasion of Lebanon last year. U.S. and NATO forces also used DU ammunition in Kosovo. Rokke says he is quite ill from the effects of DU and that members of his clean-up crew have died from it.
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report "on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust was deliberately suppressed. Dr. Keith Baverstock informed the media; Iraq's arid climate would increase exposure from its tiny particles as they are blown about and inhaled by the civilian population for years to come.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. "American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Baghdad alone during the recent invasion. With over 250,000 Nagasaki bombs used that works out to over one million pounds of radioactive dust scattered throughout Iraq.
Dr. Hardan also states: "I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries that can help. The U.S. Military doesn't want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit, a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer an early and painful death?
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said: "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq wars, the situation will be even more desperate starting in five to 10 years and beyond."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush of war crimes gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. (To enemies, civilians, troops and American weapons makers.)
Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, writes in his "The Sorrows of Empire"(Henry Holt and Co.) that, given the abnormal clusters of childhood cancers and deformities in Iraq as well as Kosovo, the evidence points "toward a significant role for DU."
"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion.
In the fall of 2002, the Uranium Medical Research Center -UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of Non-depleted Uranium, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.
The Pentagon/Department of Defense have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers).
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
Conclusions
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breathe, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place.
Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.
DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law. By insisting on its use, Johnson adds, "the military is deliberately flouting a 1996 United Nations resolution that classifies DU ammunition as an illegal weapon of mass destruction."
By insisting on its use, Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute said, "the military is deliberately flouting a 1996 United Nations resolution that classifies DU ammunition as an illegal weapon of mass destruction."
Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.
In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.
Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.
What we can do to halt the use of genocidal DU weapons.
Because DU weapons violate the 1925 Geneva Protocol that prohibits “the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of all analogous liquids, material or devices”. DU weapons in nano-particle form are a “poisonous gas”.
Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois and author of The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence thinks so. He has launched a campaign for a global pact against uranium weapons. The Government of France is the official depository for the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Boyle contends every state submit a letter to the French government to enforce a ban. “All that needs to be done is for anti-DU citizens, activists and NGO's in every country to pressure their Foreign Minister to write to their French counterpart, drawing attention to the “Protocol for the Prohibition of the use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare”, of 17th June 1925, prohibiting uses as above. The letter should add that this Protocol is believed to: “already prohibit the use in war of depleted uranium ammunition, uranium Armour plate and all other uranium weapons”. Belgium, last month, outlawed uranium weapons.
A request should be made that the letter is circulated to all other High Contracting Parties to the 1925 Protocol and addressed to: His Excellency, The Foreign Minister, Republic of France, 37, Quai d'Orsay, 75351 Paris, France. Or Fax: 33-1-43-17-4275
1. “Characteristics of Particles and Particle Dispersoids”, HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 53rd Edition (1961).
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Particle-Dispersoids-TableSep61.htm
USA weapons designed, manufacture and sold to Israel two new categories of genocidal weapons. Hundreds of children have lost their legs and soon after their lives from: DIME bombs-Dense Inert Metal Explosives: are genotoxic, 100% carcinogenic bomb, developed and manufactured by the USA. The undetectable shrapnel from this highly-developed explosive attacks the immune system, and causes thousands of amputations, which only stave off the spread of cancer in its victims for 4 to 6 months. In other words, while the fighting may end with a death count of several hundred, months later the numbers will be ten times higher, when the focus is no longer Israel's attacks on Gaza. Essentially, with the tax dollar support and assistance from the United States, Israel is committing genocide and so are we.
White phosphorous was used in Lebanon and Gaza and made in the USA for Israel.
The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish color returned. When autopsies were done, reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac arrests. If they didn’t did die from burning to death down to bone and teeth. "You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your country is that U.S. taxpayers paid for many of the weapons used to kill people in Gaza," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. "And this, also, is why it's worse than an earthquake."
http://www.currentconcerns.ch/archive/2006/03/20060312.php
Abstract of articles assembled by Theresa Marie K. Gandhi
DU’s exploded small particle size and crystalline structure make the presence of DU dust in the environment such an extreme hazard. This differentiates its properties from that of the natural uranium dust that is ubiquitous and to which we all are exposed every day, which seldom reaches such a small size. This point is being stressed, as comparing DU particles to much larger natural ones is misleading.
Marine Mammals ingest large amounts of salt water in one form or another. Nanoparticiles of exploded DU weapons in salt water have not been tested and most likely would be absorbed into various organ systems as has been documented to humans in the following reports of studies conducted by radiation experts.
The military promotes the misleading results from large sized uranium studies.
NWTRC draft EIS/OEIS thirty-five year old reference was not conducted on the explosive nanoparticiles of current DU weapons.
“Hanson, W.C. 1974 Ecological Considerations of Depleted Uranium Munitions. Report LA-5559. Los Almos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California. Los Almos, N.M.” Using this reference combined with the experts reports to follow does not inspire trust in the only other DU reference:
“Toque, C. 2006. Marine Environmental Depleted Uranium Survey Report – Kirkcudbright Training Area – 2004, Environmental Sciences Department, Institute of Naval Medicine. Gosport, UK” – volume 2, page 8-5.
Marion Fulk, former scientist with the Manhattan Project and nuclear physical chemist at the National [nuclear weapons] Laboratory at Livermore, California. “Internalized DU particles, Fulk said, act as ‘a non-specific catalyst’ in both ‘nuclear and non-nuclear’ ways. This means that the uranium particle can affect human DNA and RNA because of both its chemical and radiological properties. This is why internalized DU particles cause ‘many, many diseases,’ this is how DU causes severe birth defects”, Fulk said.
According to Falk, more than 30 percent of the DU fired from the cannons of U.S. tanks is reduced to particles one-tenth of a micron (one millionth of a meter) in size or smaller on impact. "The larger the bang" the greater the amount of DU that is dispersed into the atmosphere, Falk said. With the larger missiles and bombs, nearly 100 percent of the DU is reduced to radioactive dust particles of the "micron size" or smaller, he said.
Bombs with DU, i.e. dirty bombs are the perfect weapons for killing lots of people
Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington was quoted as saying, "The [US government's] Veterans Administration asked me to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted uranium in the human body." In 1997 he cited experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the lungs.
At that time Dr. Durakovic was a colonel in the U.S. Army. He has since left the military, to found the Uranium Medical Research Center, a privately funded organization with headquarters in Canada. (Note about Dr. Durakovic; first, he was warned to stop his work, then he was fired from his position, then his house was ransacked, and he has also reported receiving death threats. Evidently the U.S. D.O.D is very keen on censoring DU whistle-blowers!)
Diagnostic distinction was shown between natural uranium and DU using the technique of Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry – TIMS. Dr. Durakovic, UMRC research associates Patricia Horan and Leonard Dietz, published a unique study in the August 2002 issue of Military Medicine Medical Journal. The study is believed to be the first to look at inhaled DU among Gulf War veterans, using the ultra-sensitive technique of thermal ionization mass spectrometry, which enabled them to easily distinguish between natural uranium and DU. The study, which examined British, Canadian and U.S. veterans, all suffering typical Gulf War Syndrome ailments, found that, nine years after the war, 14 of 27 veterans studied had DU in their urine. DU also was found in the lung and bone of a deceased Gulf War veteran. That no governmental study has been done on inhaled DU "amounts to a massive malpractice," Dietz said in an interview.
Ross B. Mirkarimi, a spokesman at The Arms Control Research Centre stated: "Unborn children of the region are being asked to pay the highest price, the integrity of their DNA." "The depleted uranium left by the U.S. bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancer-infested country. For hundreds of years to come, the effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas."
A 2001 study of DU’s effect on DNA done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller for the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. It should be noted that her studies shows that DU is “neoplastically transforming and genotoxic” are based on in vitro cellular research.
British toxico-pathologist Vyvyan Howard has reported that the increased toxicity of the nano-particle is due to its size. A University of Rochester study exposed nano-particles of Teflon for 15 minutes in mice nearly all died within 4 hours.
Leuren Moret is Past President of the Association for Women Geoscientists, has a background in the Geosciences. Has conducted extensive scientific research on atmospheric dust, the transport and cycling of radionuclides through the environment and through biological systems. She is recognized as an international expert, on the impact on global public health and the health of the environment, from radiation caused by atmospheric testing, nuclear power plants and depleted uranium.
“Exposure pathways for depleted uranium can be through the skin, by inhalation, and ingestion,” Leuren Moret wrote. “Nano-particles have high mobility and can easily enter the body. Inhalation of nano-particles of depleted uranium is the most hazardous exposure, because the particles pass through the lung-blood barrier directly into the blood.
“When inhaled through the nose, nano-particles can cross the olfactory bulb directly into the brain through the blood brain barrier, where they migrate all through the brain,” she wrote. “Many Gulf era soldiers exposed to depleted uranium have been diagnosed with brain tumors, brain damage and impaired thought processes. Uranium can interfere with the mitochondria, which provide energy for the nerve processes, and transmittal of the nerve signal across synapses in the brain. “Damage to the mitochondria, which provide all energy to the cells and nerves, can cause chronic fatigue syndrome, Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Hodgkin’s disease.”
THREE EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM INTERNAL EXPOSURE
1. Chemical – changes in a substance due to an alteration of its chemical composition caused by changes in its atoms or molecules;
2. Radiological – changes when the nucleus of an isotope undergoes disintegration and releases energy in the form of alpha or beta particles and/or gamma rays. About 30% of radiation damage to cells is caused by the “bullet effect” of the alpha and beta particles tearing through the cells. About 70% of the damage is caused by changes in the cells and biological molecules from the energy dissipated along the pathway of the alpha and beta particles and gamma rays;
3. Particulate – changes caused by the particle size, the most harmful being nano-particles which are defined as particles with a diameter of 0.1 micron and smaller.
The “particulate effect” of exploded Depleted Uranium creates gas and dust, formed on the battlefield. This produces large numbers of extremely fine particles. The greatest number by mass on the battlefield is formed in the nano-particle range – 0.1 microns and smaller (1). There is a particulate effect caused by these nano-particles in living tissues. There are now 16 peer-reviewed journals devoted to the new field of nano-technology.
Dr. Helen Caldicott “the two Gulf wars have been nuclear wars because they have scattered nuclear material across the land, and people---particularly children--- are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity." Because of the extremely long half-life of uranium 238, one of the radioactive elements in the shells fired, "the food, the air, and the water in the cradle of civilization have been forever contaminated," Dr. Caldicott explained.
Doug Rokke, formerly the top U.S. Army DU clean-up officer and now anti-DU crusader, says Israeli tankers fired radioactive shells during the invasion of Lebanon last year. U.S. and NATO forces also used DU ammunition in Kosovo. Rokke says he is quite ill from the effects of DU and that members of his clean-up crew have died from it.
Dr. Keith Baverstock, The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health for 11 years and author of an unpublished study has charged that his report "on the cancer risk to civilians in Iraq from breathing uranium contaminated dust was deliberately suppressed. Dr. Keith Baverstock informed the media; Iraq's arid climate would increase exposure from its tiny particles as they are blown about and inhaled by the civilian population for years to come.
As a special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan has documented the effects of DU in Iraq between 1991 and 2002. "American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Baghdad alone during the recent invasion. With over 250,000 Nagasaki bombs used that works out to over one million pounds of radioactive dust scattered throughout Iraq.
Dr. Hardan also states: "I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima Hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological diseases we are likely to face over time. The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they decided not to come. Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."
Not only are we poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, but we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other countries that can help. The U.S. Military doesn't want the rest of the world to find out what we have done.
The Japanese began studying DU effects in southern Iraq in the summer of 2003. They had a Geiger counter which they watched go off the scale on many occasions. During their visit, a local hospital was treating upwards of 600 children per day, many of which suffered symptoms of internal poisoning by radiation. 600 children per day? How many of these children will get cancer and suffer an early and painful death?
Dr. Yuko Fujita, an assistant professor at Keio University, Japan who examined the effects of radioactivity in Iraq from May to June, 2003, said: "I doubt that Iraq is fabricating data because in fact there are many children suffering from leukemia in hospitals," Fujita said. "As a result of the Iraq wars, the situation will be even more desperate starting in five to 10 years and beyond."
The March 14, 2004 Tokyo Citizen's Tribunal that "convicted" President Bush of war crimes gave the following summation regarding DU weapons: (This court was a citizen's court with no binding legal authority)
1. Their use has indiscriminate effects;
2. Their use is out of proportion with the pursuit of military objectives;
3. Their use adversely affects the environment in a widespread, long term and severe manner;
4. Their use causes superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering. (To enemies, civilians, troops and American weapons makers.)
Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute, writes in his "The Sorrows of Empire"(Henry Holt and Co.) that, given the abnormal clusters of childhood cancers and deformities in Iraq as well as Kosovo, the evidence points "toward a significant role for DU."
"Ingested DU particles can cause up to 1000 times the damage of an X-ray", said Mary Olson, a nuclear waste specialist and biologist at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service in Washington D.C.
Dr. Alim Yacoub of Basra University conducted an epidemiological study into incidences of malignancies in children under fifteen years old, in the Basra area (an area bombed with DU during the first Gulf War). They found over the 1990 to 1999 period, there was a 242% rise. That was before the recent invasion.
In the fall of 2002, the Uranium Medical Research Center -UMRC field team went back to Afghanistan for a broader survey, and revealed a potentially larger exposure than initially anticipated. Approximately 30% of those interviewed in the affected areas displayed symptoms of radiation sickness. New born babies were among those displaying symptoms, with village elders reporting that over 25% of the infants were inexplicably ill. In Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, UMRC lab results indicated high concentrations of Non-depleted Uranium, with the concentrations being much higher than in DU victims from Iraq. Afghanistan was used as a testing ground for a new generation of "bunker buster" bombs containing high concentrations of other uranium alloys.
It appears that by going after a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan we have poisoned a huge number of innocent civilians, with a disproportionate number of them being children.
The Pentagon/Department of Defense have interfered with UMRC's ability to have its studies published by managing, a progressive and persistent misinformation program in the press against UMRC, and through the use of its control of science research grants to refute UMRC's scientific findings and destroy the reputation of UMRC's scientific staff, physicians and laboratories. UMRC is the first independent research organization to find Depleted Uranium in the bodies of US, UK and Canadian Gulf War I veterans and has subsequently, following Operation Iraqi Freedom, found Depleted Uranium in the water, soils and atmosphere of Iraq as well as biological samples donated by Iraqi civilians. Yet the first thing that comes up on Internet searches are these supposed "studies repeatedly showing DU to be harmless." The technique is to approach the story as a debate between government and independent experts in which public interest is stimulated by polarizing the issues rather than telling the scientific and medical truth. The issues are systematically confused and misinformed by government, UN regulatory agencies (WHO, UNEP, IAEA, CDC, DOE, etc) and defense sector (military and the weapons developers and manufacturers).
In Kosovo, similar spikes in cancer and birth defects were noticed by numerous international experts, although the quantity of DU weapons used was only a small fraction of what was used in Iraq.
Conclusions
If terrorists succeeded in spreading something throughout the U.S. that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and birth defects over a period of many years, they would be guilty of a crime against humanity that far surpasses the Sept. 11th attacks in scope and severity. Although not deliberate, with our military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have done just that. If the physical environment is so unsafe and unhealthy that one cannot safely breathe, then the outer trappings of democracy have little meaning. At least under Saddam, the Iraqi people could stay healthy and conceive normal children. Few Americans are aware that in getting rid of Saddam, we left something much worse in his place.
Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.
DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law. By insisting on its use, Johnson adds, "the military is deliberately flouting a 1996 United Nations resolution that classifies DU ammunition as an illegal weapon of mass destruction."
By insisting on its use, Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute said, "the military is deliberately flouting a 1996 United Nations resolution that classifies DU ammunition as an illegal weapon of mass destruction."
Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.
In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.
Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.
What we can do to halt the use of genocidal DU weapons.
Because DU weapons violate the 1925 Geneva Protocol that prohibits “the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of all analogous liquids, material or devices”. DU weapons in nano-particle form are a “poisonous gas”.
Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois and author of The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence thinks so. He has launched a campaign for a global pact against uranium weapons. The Government of France is the official depository for the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Boyle contends every state submit a letter to the French government to enforce a ban. “All that needs to be done is for anti-DU citizens, activists and NGO's in every country to pressure their Foreign Minister to write to their French counterpart, drawing attention to the “Protocol for the Prohibition of the use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare”, of 17th June 1925, prohibiting uses as above. The letter should add that this Protocol is believed to: “already prohibit the use in war of depleted uranium ammunition, uranium Armour plate and all other uranium weapons”. Belgium, last month, outlawed uranium weapons.
A request should be made that the letter is circulated to all other High Contracting Parties to the 1925 Protocol and addressed to: His Excellency, The Foreign Minister, Republic of France, 37, Quai d'Orsay, 75351 Paris, France. Or Fax: 33-1-43-17-4275
1. “Characteristics of Particles and Particle Dispersoids”, HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 53rd Edition (1961).
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/Particle-Dispersoids-TableSep61.htm
USA weapons designed, manufacture and sold to Israel two new categories of genocidal weapons. Hundreds of children have lost their legs and soon after their lives from: DIME bombs-Dense Inert Metal Explosives: are genotoxic, 100% carcinogenic bomb, developed and manufactured by the USA. The undetectable shrapnel from this highly-developed explosive attacks the immune system, and causes thousands of amputations, which only stave off the spread of cancer in its victims for 4 to 6 months. In other words, while the fighting may end with a death count of several hundred, months later the numbers will be ten times higher, when the focus is no longer Israel's attacks on Gaza. Essentially, with the tax dollar support and assistance from the United States, Israel is committing genocide and so are we.
White phosphorous was used in Lebanon and Gaza and made in the USA for Israel.
The burns, blackish in color, reached deep into the muscles and bones. Even after treatment was begun, the blackish color returned. When autopsies were done, reports showed that the cause of death was poisoning from elements of white phosphorous that had entered their systems, causing cardiac arrests. If they didn’t did die from burning to death down to bone and teeth. "You know, the most important thing you can tell people in your country is that U.S. taxpayers paid for many of the weapons used to kill people in Gaza," said Dr. Saeed Abuhassan. "And this, also, is why it's worse than an earthquake."
http://www.currentconcerns.ch/archive/2006/03/20060312.php
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