Current Controversy Over the Use of Depleted Uranium

In the Gulf War, in Bosnia, and in Kosovo, depleted Uranium has been used in armour piercing shells and tank armour. There have been many accounts of radiation sickness in veterans of these wars. Currently, the World Health Organization is investigating. Some experts believe that there is a cover up of factual information similar to what has happened throughout the history of radiation research.

Right now, in Europe and in Canada, the controversy is beginning to attract the attention of the public. So far, I've seen very little in the U.S. press.

Read all about it, at:

NATO faces uranium arms dilemma

Depleted Uranium in Kosovo: A tale of poisonous denial

United Nations tests shows Kosovo sites radioactive

United Nations Website: Complete coverage

UNEP Balkans (United Nations Environment Program)

Depleted science in DU debate?

Cheap, plentiful and toxic.

'My hair fell out and my teeth began to rot'

'I was in pain but they couldn't find anything wrong'

France reveals that 'Balkan Syndrome' is affecting soldiers

Gulf War Veterans

Metal of dishonor

Campaign against Depleted Uranium (UK)

Iraqi Children Dying Of US And British DU Ten Years After Gulf War

Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium, by R. Bertell, Ph.D., G.N.S.A., prepared May 1999 for the Hague Peace Conference.

U.S. Agency Seeks Approval to Recycle Radioactive Metals

"Reuters: World Health Organization experts said on Monday they doubted that depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by NATO in the Balkans over the past decade had caused blood cancer among troops from alliance countries."

In June 1989 the WHO sent a team of experts to the USSR. Their final report concluded among other things that:

"…scientists who are not well-versed in radiation effects have attributed various biological and health effects to radiation exposure. These changes cannot be attributed to radiation exposure ... and are much more likely to be due to psychological factors and stress."

In 1994 30% of children and 100% adolescents already had thyroid cancer in Belarus, caused by what the WHO experts called "psicological effects" ...

As of 1991 increased frequency of the following problems among Chernobil exposed people:

• Abnormalities of sexual organs and their function among clean-up workers.
• Allergies.
• Anemia; a 7-fold increase in sections of Byelorussia.
• Anemias of unusual types.
• Appetite-loss.
• Birth defects both in humans and other species.
• Bronchitis.
• Cancers of the breast, larynx, mouth, thyroid gland.
• Cataracts.
• Chromosome injuries (unrepaired).
• Dizziness.
• Endocrine-system changes.
• Fatigue at abnormal levels.
• Fevers abnormally often.
• Hair-loss.
• Headaches.
• Heart diseases.
• High blood pressure.
• Immune-system weakening ("Chernobyl AIDS").
• Incurable skin diseases.
• Leukemia.
• Liver diseases.
• Lung diseases.
• Metabolic changes.
• Nose bleeds.
• Premature deaths (7,000) among clean-up workers.
• Pressure in the temples.
• Slow recovery from illnesses and surgery.
• Stomach pain.
• Sickliness (unspecified) among children.
• Tuberculosis.
• Thyroid gland enlargement.
• Thyroid problems of unusual types.
• Vision-loss.
• Weight-gain abnormally slow for children.

It seems that WHO scientists use to prejudge rather than to study and consider themselves entitled to decide in advance what effects the exposure to radiation (and now in Kosovo radiation combined with chemical effects) can have or cannot have.

However in April 2000 they had to admit that yet 50.000 new cases of thyroid cancer would be caused by Chernobil disaster. Check it out here.

We wonder where do these type of experts in radiation come from...