They wouldn't be lying now would they?

WASHINGTON — Veterans groups and advocates worried about the health effects of depleted uranium on soldiers won a victory this week.

The House included an amendment in the defense policy bill that it passed Thursday ordering the Pentagon to study the impact of depleted uranium exposure on troops and their children. The Senate could begin debate on the bill this month.

Depleted uranium, or DU, is what remains after natural uranium’s radioactive fraction is removed for use as nuclear fuel or weapons. Because DU is very dense, the military uses it for armor-piercing weapons and armor protection, and in some tanks.

Troops have been exposed to it during the gulf war, in Bosnia and in Iraq.

“If DU poses no danger, we need to prove it with statistically valid and independent scientific studies,” said Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, the amendment’s author, who has been sounding an alarm for several years. “If DU harms our soldiers, we all need to know it and act quickly.”

Veterans groups and other activists contend that when equipment containing DU is destroyed on the battlefield, exposure to the dust poses radioactive risks to military personnel, as do embedded fragments.

Many refer to it as the next Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used in Vietnam that was thought at the time to be harmless...

[Thanks to Michael Moore for the heads up.]

Dioxin was known to be a teratogen and a carcinogen in the 70s. Although according to the military, "everybody" knew it was harmless. Everyone except biomedical scientists, one supposes. For example, see

*Fishbein, L. Mutagens and potential mutagens in the biosphere. I. DDT and its metabolites, polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorodioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, haloethers. Science of the Total Environment. 2(4):305-40, 1974 Jul.

or how about this:

*Kimbrough, RD. Toxicity of chlorinated hydrocarbons and related compounds. A review including chlorinated dibenzodioxins and chlorinated dibenzofurans. Archives of Environmental Health. 25(2):125-31, 1972 Aug.

Both published a long time before the web.

This is the same military that claims strontium 90 paint with a radioactivity of 10 Curies per square centimeter isn't dangerous, right?

Depleted uranium is toxic and radioactive and doesn't belong in weapons, since it hurts everyone, friend or foe. And it doesn't go away.

And we know about its dangers now.

It's a teratogen.

It's incredibly toxic on a long-term basis.

Scientists- NIH funded scientists- know this now. Even though, according to Chancellor Rumsfeld's military, "everyone knows" depleted uranium is "safe" to use in munitions. If you believe a word these bastards say about anything.