- Here is the estimate of the tons of DU the US used in
Iraq: 1000-2000 tons - more than three times the amount used in the first
Gulf War...only this time it was primarily spread in Iraq's cities, not
on the battlefield.
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- The uranium and its radioactive decay products will remain
toxic for over 4 billion years...and will slowly destroy the genetic future
of the Iraqi people.
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- But the death and destruction will not be contained within
the borders of Iraq. Winds will spread it throughout the Middle East and
beyond. The US has carried out its omnicidal plan now on Afghanistan and
Iraq...what country is next?
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- Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Kuwait, the Gulf States,
and Iran will breathe the invisible war too... and they will share the
fate of the Iraqi people, the caretakers of the cradle of civilization.
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- Uranium Cancer Check For Returning UK Troops
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- By Paul Brown The Guardian Weekly
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- Soldiers returning from the Gulf will be offered tests
on the levels of depleted uranium in their bodies to check if they are
in danger of kidney damage and lung cancer as a result of exposure, the
Ministry of Defence said this week.The ministry was responding to a warning
from the Royal Society, Britain's top scientific body, that soldiers and
civilians might be exposed to toxic levels. It challenged assurances from
the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, that depleted uranium was not a risk.
A ministry spokeswoman said that if soldiers followed instructions correctly
and wore respirators in areas where depleted uranium might have been used
they would not suffer dangerous exposure, but all would be offered urine
tests. The overall results would be published. The ministry said it would
also publish details of where and how much depleted uranium was used. Brian
Spratt, chairman of the society's working group on depleted uranium, said:
"It is highly unsatisfactory to deploy a large amount of a material
that is weakly radioactive and chemically toxic without knowing how much
soldiers and civilians have been exposed to it . . . It is vital that this
monitoring takes place within a matter of months." Experts have calculated
that between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of depleted uranium were used by the
coalition in the Iraq campaign.
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- The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0501, page 4
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