DU & Unclassified Manhattan Project Knowledge
- Clearly the U.S. Government Does Not Give A Dam Regarding U.S. Troops
Safety or The World's Safety
Letter from Leuren Moret to Congressman McDermott
with Declassified memo to Gen. L.R. Groves 1943 – a blueprint for DU
21feb03
"If you can't clean it up, don't use it." Doug Rokke
The Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics of Radiation 2000
February 21, 2003
The Honorable Jim McDermott, Congressman
Washington State 7th Congressional District
1809 7th Avenue
Suite 1212
Seattle, WA 98101-1399
(206) 553-7170
(206) 553-7175 FAX
RE: Declassified 1943 memo to General L.R. Groves – a blueprint for
depleted uranium
Dear Congressman McDermott,
Mr. Joe Pemberton, a lawyer in Bellingham, Washington, has asked me
to provide you with scientific information on the critical and
overlooked issues of particle size, penetration of gas masks, and
mobility of depleted uranium formed under battleground conditions. It is
also powerful scientific information to counter false statements
recently made by the White House1 and the DOD2.
I am writing this letter out of concern for the military personnel
who may now be serving on or near the Gulf War battlefields in Iraq and
may be quartered in areas already contaminated by depleted uranium
munitions. But they are not my only concern. The Gulf War Veterans who
are now suffering severe health consequences have also been exposed to
depleted uranium, chemicals and biological materials including vaccines
while serving in Iraq and Kuwait.
The children and people of Iraq have been the greatest victims from
exposure to depleted uranium15 used in the Gulf War and will continue to
be. Over time, they cannot escape the chronic, low level exposure to
internal radiation from depleted uranium and its decay products (see
Attach. 7) as it cycles and recycles through their environment3 in
water, air and food products.
Depleted uranium dust will continue to be an extreme hazard to
soldiers, civilians, populations in countries downwind6,8, and the
environment as a radiological contaminant to all living systems for ten
half-lives or 45 BILLION years.
I am a former Lawrence Berkeley Lab and Lawrence Livermore Lab
scientist, and now work with a group of independent scientists called
the Radiation and Public Health Project4. Together this group has
written ten books on the health effects of low level radiation.
Presently I am writing a science report on depleted uranium for the
United Nations Human Rights Subcommission, now investigating the
illegality and use of depleted uranium munitions. I have written the
Foreword (Attach.1) to Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Depleted
Uranium by Akira Tashiro5.
Attached (Attach. 2) is a declassified memo to General L. R. Groves,
director of the Manhattan Project, dated October 30, 1943. Major Doug
Rokke provided me with this memo. It summarizes a report written by
Manhattan Project physicists Drs. James B. Conant, A. H. Compton and
H.C. Urey on the dissemination of very fine radioactive material as a
method of warfare. It is a “blueprint” for depleted uranium as it has
been used in Iraq, Kuwait, Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan during the
past decade. The memo details the use of very fine and superfine
particles of radioactive materials as a military weapon. Depleted
uranium, produces very fine and superfine particles in large amounts as
it burns. The 1943 memo outlines what was known in 1943 and below are my
comments:
- A gas warfare instrument: the memo indirectly referred to fission
products from Fermi’s nuclear pile or radioactive waste like depleted
uranium. The pyrophoric effect of depleted uranium, which spontaneously
burns when heated to 170 C (once it is fired) and on impact, effectively
forms very large numbers of extremely fine (0.1 micron) and
submicroscopic particles as small as 0.001 micron or 10 Ångstroms (see
Attach. 3 - Chart “Characteristics of Particles and Particle
Dispersoids”) as described in the memo. Particles in this size range
behave like a gas when inhaled, disperse in the lungs to the blood lung
barrier where the white blood cells (greater than 7microns in diameter)
engulf the tiny particles of depleted uranium and carry them throughout
the body. Once these particles have been engulfed by blood cells or
lodged in tissues, they may not be detectable in the urine. Contaminated
personnel will take the depleted uranium home, deposited in tissues
throughout their bodies.
There is no known treatment for exposure.
- It will permeate a gas mask filter: particles in the 0.1 micron
range will penetrate even a HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate
Airfilter – see Attach. 4 - HEPA chart) in large numbers. The filters in
gas masks issued to military personnel are much less efficient than HEPA
filters. There are 1 billion particles of 0.1 micron diameter in a cubic
meter of normal air. It is clear that a man (without a gas mask)
breathing at a normal rate (about 28 cubic meters per day6) and
retaining 75% of the very fine particulate matter in the respiratory
system6 will inhale very large numbers of very fine particles in a short
time period.
In a day an average man would normally inhale 28 million particles in
the 0.1 micron range through a gas mask with HEPA filters. It would take
one billion fine particles to fill the period at the end of this
sentence. On the battlefield during live fire, the high concentrations
of fine and very fine depleted uranium particles could increase the
numbers inhaled in the small particle range by magnitudes.
The gas masks issued to military personnel now deployed to the Gulf
Region are defective and do not provide even a minimum of protection to
personnel. Recently I went on a speaking tour in 3 northeastern states
with Major Doug Rokke, January 25-February 1, 2003. In nearly every talk
we gave, a National Guardsman or other military person would tell us
that their masks fell off when they tilted their heads.
Air filters in gas masks also fail as they are wetted by moisture
from breathing or are used in the rain.
There is no possible protection from exposure to very fine particles
of depleted uranium through filtering of air.
- As a terrain contaminant: the dispersal of very fine particles of
depleted uranium will contaminate the terrain and deny access to either
side except at the risk of exposure. That includes civilians and animals
who may live there after the battle. The half-life of depleted uranium –
4.5 billion years – leaves the contaminated terrain radioactive forever.
Small particles less than 1 micron in diameter do not settle from the
air (see Attach. 3 – Chart “Characteristics of Particles and Particle
Dispersoids”) but become incorporated into atmospheric dust (see Attach.
5 - Chart “Natural Aerosols”) and are transported around the earth until
they are removed (“rainout”) by rain, pollution or snow3. Seasonal
climate change, agricultural activities, fires and other natural and
man-made disturbances will continue to remobilize particles in the upper
dust level contaminating terrains off the battlefield.
Weathering of larger particles of depleted uranium deposited on the
battlefield7 will contribute to concentrations of depleted uranium fine
and superfine particles in the air and upper dust level.
Air monitors in Hungary8 and Greece during bombing in Kosovo and
Bosnia measured Uranium 238 carried by the wind from the battlefields.
Seasonal fluctuations of depleted uranium particles in the air have been
reported in Kuwait6.
- Water and food contamination: the depleted uranium dust will cycle
through the environment both on and off the battlefield contaminating
water supplies and food. Food grown in contaminated areas will be
transported to markets and contaminate populations and areas far from
the battlefields. Wind, water, birds9 and animals who transport the
depleted uranium in their droppings, slowly contaminate wider and wider
areas.
- Internal contamination: inhalation of very fine depleted uranium
dust particles is extremely damaging to the respiratory tract and will
get into the blood stream where it is carried by blood cells and
contaminates tissues throughout the body. These “hot particles”10 will
continue to emit alpha and gamma radiation (see Attach. 6 - photo “Hot
particle in lung tissue”) as they travel throughout the body or where
they rest in tissue. After the Uranium 238 nucleus decays, the
radioactive daughter product which forms (see Attach. 7) will continue
to decay to other isotopes as many as four times. This will increase the
level of radioactive exposure by magnitudes. Depleted uranium particles
lodged in tissue will decay and continue emitting higher levels of
radioactivity from daughter isotopes into the surrounding tissues.
SYNERGISTIC EFFECTS: The health effects from exposure to a
combination of radiation, chemicals, and biological agents was not
addressed in this WW II memo. This is a critical issue on the
battlefield and should be considered in studies of Gulf War Illness. The
combination of radiation with heavy metals, chemicals and biological
toxins accelerate and increase the adverse health effects of exposure.
The effects are unknown since very little research exists in this
field11.
THIS IS AN ISSUE WHICH SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN FUTURE CONFLICTS SUCH
AS THE PLANNED BOMBING OF IRAQ.
MEASUREMENTS OF DU IN TISSUES FROM 71 DEAD RESIDENTS OF BASRA:
Dr. Hari Sharma, a radiochemist living in Canada and member of the
Radiation and Public Health Project, has measured depleted uranium
levels in the tissues of 71 residents of Basra who died after the Gulf
War from cancers12. They were in the age range of 35-50 years. He found
high concentrations of depleted uranium in tissue samples from these
individuals. The levels were about the same throughout the tissues,
suggesting that very fine particles were transported in the blood and
deposited or lodged throughout the body.
WORLD TRADE CENTER AIR STUDIES:
Dr. Thomas Cahill, Emeritus Professor of Physics and Atmospheric
Sciences at the University of California at Davis, conducted an
independent study of the air around Ground Zero at the World Trade
Center after the 9/11 disaster13. Using very sophisticated monitoring
instruments14 which detect very fine and ultra fine particles, Cahill
and his group monitored the smoldering pile at the WTC for 5 months
following the disaster from one mile north of the center. They measured
concentrations of particles in six size ranges from 2.5 microns to 0.09
microns13. They reported the highest concentrations of very fine
particles of metals ever reported in the US13, and unprecedented numbers
of very fine and super fine particles13. This air monitoring study of
the WTC provided new information about very fine and superfine particles
which have rarely been studied. Burning metals and other materials at
high temperatures generate very large amounts of very small particles.
For this reason depleted uranium which has burned is particularly
hazardous.
The EPA has verified that depleted uranium was in the plane that
crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11 18,19 and that the crash site was
contaminated. Residents of New York City detected radiation on hand held
geiger counters at the WTC site. The EPA not only failed to protect
emergency response personnel at both sites, but did not report or
measure13 concentrations of very fine particles at any of the 9/11 plane
crash locations. These are the most hazardous to health, and many
personnel who worked at the crash sites are now very ill.
Dr. Cahill also studied the Kuwaiti oil field fires following the
Gulf War.
ECRR: RELEASED JANUARY 30, 2003
A new report from the European Parliament has been released “2003
Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: Health
Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation
Protection Purposes” Regulators’ Edition: Brussels, 2003 10. The report
was written by 46 international scientists and has over 550 references
to epidemiological studies which include nuclear site leukemias,
Chernobyl infants, minisatellite mutations, weapons fallout cancers, DU
Gulf Veterans, and Iraqi children.
The report concludes that the International Committee on Radiation
Protection (ICRP) determined international standards for risk and dose
effects from studies on A-bomb survivors which were based on high dose,
external, acute exposures. The ICRP model only considered cancer as a
health risk associated with radiation exposure. The ICRP model, using
“bathtub” chemistry, “steam engine” physics, and deceptive reporting,
produced faulty and fraudulent estimates of risk and dose effects.
Additionally, because the ICRP model is based on acute, high dose,
external exposure it cannot accurately determine risks or dose response
for internal, chronic, isotopic exposures. For this reason, the ICRP and
ECRR models are mutually exclusive.
This new ECRR report based on epidemiological studies, concludes that
the health effects of low level radiation exposure have been
underestimated by the ICRP model by 100-1000 times. It also includes
other health effects due to radiation exposure from global weapons
fallout. In addition to cancer it estimates the number of foetal deaths,
infant mortality, and predicts “a 10% loss of life quality integrated
over all diseases and conditions in those who were exposed over the
period of global weapons fallout”.
The committee concluded that underestimates of risk and dose effects
for depleted uranium exposure could be very great since the effect at
the cell level may be very different than other types of radiation
exposures. For this reason the health effects of depleted uranium
exposure in Gulf Veterans will be investigated in depth by this
committee and will be presented in a new report.
Internal exposure to depleted uranium is a “novel” exposure to an
altered form of natural isotopes. The size, shape, surface texture,
density, chemical composition and other physical and chemical factors of
the particles greatly affect the health impact and damage to the cells
of any biological system from depleted uranium exposure. Particle size
may be the most overlooked and one of the most important characteristics
of depleted uranium dust formed on the battlefield. After burning,
depleted uranium is altered both physically and chemically and estimates
of risk to health and dose effects cannot be based on previous studies
of naturally occurring uranium. In the Research Report Summaries7 of
depleted uranium studies done for the military between 1974 and 1999,
they clearly provide information and concerns in these studies about the
hazards of depleted uranium both to health, exposure on the battlefield
and damage to the environment. This summary is well worth reading as it
provides a timeline of the military politicizing decisions on the use of
depleted uranium over 25 years. For example, in a 1980 Army report17:
This report provides an excellent history of the logic behind the
Army’s decision to use DU as a
kinetic energy, armored-piercing munition. DU’s final selection over
tungsten was based on
several reasons, including the lower initial cost of the penetrator
itself and its better overall
performance. DU and tungsten were rated even for “producibility”.
Tungsten had the advantage
for safety, environmental concerns, and deployment.
RADIATION RESPECTS NO BORDERS
Depleted uranium is being used as an effective munition on the
battlefield and as a radiological weapon to destroy the genetic future
of the Iraqi people15. Before the Gulf War, Iraq was the most developed
and advanced country in the Middle East16. Writing, religion, poetry,
music and science began in the region which includes Iraq, the Cradle of
Civilization. The ability of the Iraqi people has been recognized for
millenia. The Iraqi people are more feared than Saddam Hussein by the
US. Their talent for creativity, ability to be self-determined, and
their natural resources have made them the target of the US Government,
US oil companies and the Department of Defense.
In November of 1991, Richard Berta, the Western Regional Inspector
for the Department of Energy who was based at the Lawrence Livermore Lab
where I worked, told me: “The Pentagon exists for the oil companies…”
The use of depleted uranium by the Department of Defense has created
a slow Chernobyl in the Middle East.
With my best wishes and hopes that this radiation nightmare will
finally come to an end, and with thanks for your efforts to move the
issue into the light,
Leuren Moret
President, Scientists for Indigenous People
City of Berkeley Environmental Commissioner
Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists
2233 Grant Street Apt. 1
Berkeley, CA 94703
Phone/FAX (510) 845-3139
<leurenmoret@yahoo.com>
REFERENCES:
1.
White House statement on “depleted uranium scare”.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ogc/apparatus/index.html
2.
DOD Colonel Bob Cherry – Letter to Editor, February 2003, Olean Times
Herald.
3.
Letter from Dr. Ernest Sternglass August 23, 2001, RE: “Radiation and
Dust Particles”
4.
Radiation and Public Health Project
http://www.radiation.org
5.
Discounted Casualties: The Human Cost of Depleted Uranium by Akira
Tashiro, Chugoku Shimbun 2001.
http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html
6.
“Estimating the Concentration of Uranium in Some Environmental
Samples in Kuwait After the 1991 Gulf War” by F. Bou-Rabee, Appl. Radiat.
Isol., Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 217-220, 1995.
7.
Research Report Summaries on Depleted Uranium from 1974-1999,
conducted at National Laboratories and military labs.
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabl1.htm#TAB%20L_Research%20Report%20Summaries
8.
“Did NATO Attacks in Yugoslavia Cause a Detectable Environmental
Effect in Hungary?” by A. Kerekes et. al, Health Physics, Vol. 80 (2),
February 2001, pp.177-178.
9.
“Birds Bring Radioactivity Ashore” by Andy Coghlan, New Scientist,
January 4, 2003, p.5.
10.
2003 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk:
Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation
Protection Purposes Regulators’ Edition: Brussels, 2003.
http://www.euradcom.org
11.
The Petkau Effect – The Devastating Effect of Nuclear Radiation on
Human Health and the Environment by R. Graeub, 2nd Edition, Four Walls
Eight Windows, New York (1994).
12.
Personal communication: email March 28, 2002.
13.
“N.Y. air hazards found: EPA assurances contradicted by UCD
scientists” by E. Lau and C. Bowman, Sacramento Bee February 12, 2002.
SacramentoBee-2-12-02-NYairHazardsFound-EPAassurancesContradictedByUCdavisScientists.pdf
[PDF file]
14.
Detection and Evaluation of Long-Range Transport of Aerosols (DELTA)
Group
http://delta.ucdavis.edu/
15.
A Different Nuclear War: Children of the Gulf War by Takashi Morizumi
http://www.savewarchildren.org
16.
Children of Iraq: The Dream of the Future UNICEF, printed by Express
International – Lebanon (1988).
17.
Richard P. Davitt “A Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages
of Depleted Uranium and Tungsten Alloy as Penetrator Materials”, Tank
Ammo Section Report No. 107, Dover, NJ: US Army Armament Research and
Development Command, June 1980.
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabl1.htm#TAB%20L_Research%20Report%20Summaries
18.
“Depleted uranium: devastation at home and abroad” by Leuren Moret,
San Francisco Bay View, November 7, 2001.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/02.01/020117moret.htm
19.
“Tödliches Uran-Recycling” by Geseko von Lüpke, NATUR January 2002.
http://warp6.dva.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=112520
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: “Forword” by Leuren Moret to Discounted Casualties: The
Human Cost of Depleted Uranium by
Akira Tashiro, Chugoku Shimbun (2001).
Attachment 2: Declassified memo to General L.R. Groves, Director of
the Manhattan Project, October 30, 1943.
Source – US Army Major Doug Rokke
Attachment 3: TABLE: “Characteristics of Particles and Particle
Dispersoids” from the HANDBOOK OF CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 53rd Edition.
This chart provides the particle range which is very wide for
metallurgical dusts and fumes, a range from 100 microns to 0.001 microns
(10 Angstroms). Particles smaller than 0.1 microns will coagulate and
form larger particles, but the greatest number or population of
particles will be in the 0.1 micron range (see Chart “Natural
Aerosols”). This particle range is smaller than blood cells, bacteria,
pollens, spores and other typical air contaminants. Very fine particles
are extremely hazardous to health because they are carried by the blood
throughout the body. The rate of radiation exposure from one very small
particle can be more than is allowed for a whole body exposure in one
year (see photo “Hot particle in lung tissue”).
Attachment 4: CHART: “Penetration of a HEPA filter as a function of
particle size” from 18TH DOE NUCLEAR AIRBORNE WASTE MANAGEMENT AND AIR
CLEANING CONFERENCE, Baltimore 1984. Experimental penetration of
particles through a HEPA filter – determination that approximately 0.1%
in the 0.1 micron particle range will pass through the filter. If there
are 100,000 particles 0.1 micron in diameter per cubic centimeter of
air, then 120 per cubic centimeter of air will pass through a HEPA
filter. In one day an average man will inhale 28 million particles in
the 0.1 micron range through a HEPA filter.
Attachment 5: CHART: “Natural Aerosols” from ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE
& TECHNOLOGY 7th Edition (1992), McGraw Hill.
This chart provides the average size distribution for natural aerosols
in atmospheric dusts. The largest population or number of particles in
an aerosol dust is in the 0.1-0.01 micron range. Depleted uranium
particles in this size range will be incorporated in atmospheric dusts
and will travel indefinitely, transported by winds.
Attachment 6: PHOTO: “Hot” or radioactive particle in lung tissue”
photo by Del Tredici, Burdens of Proof by Tim Connor, Energy Research
Foundation (1997). This is a photo of a “hot particle”, in this case a 1
micron particle of plutonium, and shows the alpha tracks emitted from
that particle in one year.
Attachment 7: Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia 5th Edition
(1976) Decay paths for natural uranium – Table 1 The Uranium Series, and
Table 3 The Actinium Series. The decay paths for uranium are very
complex but decay through a number of steps before they become stable
and are no longer radioactive. Each of these steps produces a
radioactive daughter product which will be more radioactive than the
original uranium atom.
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