Depleted Uranium and
Fraudulent Science
by Paul Zimmerman
A sophisticated web of deceit hinders humanity from understanding
how the debris of depleted uranium weapons produces sickness in
exposed populations. As citizens of the twenty-first century, we put
our faith in science to unambiguously distinguish truth from
falsehood. We trust that what appears in the professional journals
and the university textbooks is an accurate depiction of nature.
Such naiveté blinds us from recognizing when fraudulent science is
fabricated as an instrument of political propaganda. In the case of
the toxicology of battlefield uranium, the subject is rife with
misinformation, purposely planted in the minds of men and women to
prevent liability from ever being assigned to those who field modern
chemical/radiological weapons.
Uranium munitions were introduced into combat during the first Gulf
War in Iraq in 1991. Since that time, evidence has confirmed that
the United States deployed uranium weapons is Bosnia, Kosovo,
Afghanistan and again in Iraq starting in 2003. Credible evidence
also exists that the Israeli military used uranium weapons in
Lebanon (Busby and Williams). The jury is still out as to whether
or not these weapons were fielded in Gaza.
In response to mounting worldwide opposition to the onset of
low-level radiological warfare, a number of humanity’s guardian
institutions published studies professing to prove that battlefield
uranium poses no hazard to health. In the UK, the Royal Society
published a two-part study entitled The Health Hazards of Depleted
Uranium Munitions. The World Health Organization authored Depleted
Uranium: Sources, Exposure and Health Effects. A paper prepared for
the European Parliament was written under the title Depleted
Uranium: Environmental and Health Effects in the Gulf War, Bosnia
and Kosovo. The European Commission published Opinion of the Group
of Experts Established According to Article 31 of the Euratom
Treaty: Depleted Uranium. In the United States, the Rand
Corporation penned numerous volumes addressing the possible causes
of Gulf War illness, including A Review of the Scientific Literature
as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses: Volume 7 - Depleted Uranium.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, under the
auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services,
published a lengthy study entitled Toxicological Profile for
Uranium. The National Research Council sponsored a work entitled
Review of Toxicologic and Radiologic Risks to Military Personnel
from Exposure to Depleted Uranium During and After Combat.
Environmental Exposure Report: Depleted Uranium in the Gulf was
written for the Department of Defense. The US Army Environmental
Policy Institute published Health and Environmental Consequences of
Depleted Uranium Use in the US Army. In addition to these studies,
a number of fact sheets, abstracts and summarizations of DU’s
effects can be found on the internet sites of the publishers of
these studies as well as the sites of such reputable organizations
as the International Atomic Energy Agency, NATO, the Health
Protection Agency, the UK Ministry of Defense, the Depleted Uranium
Oversight Board, the Canadian Army, the US Department of Veterans
Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Health Physics
Society and on and on and on.
As if written by a single hand, what knits together this body of
information is that all of it is an expression of fraudulent
science. Its reason for being is not to disseminate knowledge, but
rather, to obstruct true understanding of the radiological and
chemical toxicity to the human body contaminated by weaponized
uranium. A more perfect example is nowhere to be found of the
worldwide propaganda matrix that has been erected to control
thought, quell vocal opposition and protect criminals from liability
for producing illnesses in victimized populations
At the outset, it must be emphasized that there is no falsehood in
any of the information contained in the studies mentioned above.
None of them are guilty of committing sins of commission. Their sly
deception is delivered by what they withhold. Thus, they are guilty
of sins of omission. By means of what they leave unsaid, those who
deploy weapons of indiscriminate effect are being given license to
commit crimes against humanity.
The studies that find DU biologically benign all make mention at
some point that very little research has actually been conducted on
DU’s effect on human health. Consequently, now watch the card being
sloughed under the table, they divert their discussion from DU’s
effects to a discussion about previous research on the effects to
health of natural and enriched uranium. The justification given for
this divergence may at first sound perfectly reasonable. Given that
all isotopes of uranium are chemically identical, their chemical
effects to the body as a heavy metal will be identical, and since DU
is less radioactive than either natural or enriched uranium, the
radiological effects it produces in the body will be correspondingly
less significant. On the basis of this logic, some kind of review
is then made of the large body of past research on the
medical consequences of uranium exposure to such groups as uranium
miners, uranium millers, workers within the nuclear industry, and
populations whose drinking water was found to contain inordinately
high levels of uranium. By using as a means of comparison exposure
scenarios that have only limited or no relevance to DU exposure, the
possible medical effects of battlefield DU are circumscribed:
kidney damage due to uranium’s chemical characteristics or cancer
due to uranium’s radioactivity. Having craftily defined the only
possible medical effects of DU in doses likely to be encountered on
the battlefield, the observation is then made that, with few
exceptions, ill veterans or enemy noncombatants are not manifesting
any signs of kidney disease. Furthermore, the dose of radiation,
according to the International Commission on Radiological
Protection, is too small to induce cancer. The conclusion,
resoundingly proclaimed, is that battlefield uranium cannot possibly
be the cause of illness in exposed populations.
This argument is profoundly sophisticated. Even trained scientists,
giving uncritical thought to its flawed logic, will be fooled by it.
Easily taken for granted are the underlying assumptions that are
being passed off as indisputable fact.
All claims that depleted uranium produces no hazard to health in
exposed populations rely on the same fundamental premise: exposure
to depleted uranium aerosols on the battlefield is no different from
exposure to the uranium found in nature or industry. This
foundational assumption has never been validated by objective
scientific research. It is mere conjecture. To be true, a
reasonable correlation would need to exist between DU and the forms
of uranium involved in more traditional avenues of exposure.
Specifically, for the kinetics and biochemistry to be the same once
inside the body, particles of natural uranium and particles of DU
would need to be similar both in their physical characteristics and
their chemical composition. This is most certainly not the case.
Weaponized uranium is so different in its composition from the
uranium found in nature that to “assume” the two are comparable in
their toxicology is nothing less than unscientific twaddle. The
depleted uranium used by the army is a little less than 98 percent
pure uranium. Of this, 99.797% is uranium-238, 0.202% is
uranium-235, and 0.0008% is uranium-234. The uranium is alloyed
with 0.5% titanium, 0.75% molybdenum, 0.75% zirconium and 0.75%
niobium. Due to the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium-234,
protactinium-234m and protactinium-234 are also present in
infinitesimally small quantities. Further, as a result of the
introduction of spent nuclear fuel into the enrichment cascade of
the Paducah gaseous diffusion facility, the entire US stockpile of
depleted uranium is contaminated by trace quantities of uranium-236
plus the transuranic elements plutonium-239, americium-241,
neptunium-237 and the fission product technetium-99. This is only
the beginning of the chemical and radiological nightmare that is
depleted uranium.
While traversing the air on its way to
the target, a DU penetrator is set ablaze by air friction. Upon
impact with its target, this burning is intensified. Between the
heat of combustion and the friction of the dense uranium metal
slicing through an armored vehicle, temperatures are created ranging
between 3000o and 6000o C. This inferno vaporizes all materials in
its vicinity. Metals, rubbers, plastics, fabrics and glass from the
destroyed vehicle plus diesel fuel and organic matter from
incinerated victims are sublimated. Minute particles from all these
materials mix together in the super-hot cloud and commingle with the
aerosolized uranium particles. For a brief period of time,
conditions are perfect for the aerosols within the fume to recombine
into novel metal alloys and other potentially toxic chemical
compounds. As cooling and condensation begins, the molecular
structure of the metal particles is reconfigured, transforming the
particles into a crystalline-structured ceramic, spherical in shape
and highly insoluble (Gatti and Montanari). The end-product of the
conflagration is a witch’s brew of uranium- and nonuranium-bearing
particles possessing a complex chemistry. A preliminary study of
the elements in the dust produced by the impact of DU munitions with
an armored target revealed the presence of significant quantities of
uranium, iron, aluminum and silicon plus trace quantities of silver,
boron, barium, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, magnesium,
manganese, molybdenum, nickel, lead, strontium, titanium, zinc and
zirconium (Mitchel and Sunder). In addition, complex spherical
porous particles containing aluminum, potassium and silicon may be
formed by DU munitions impacting with soil and alloying with clay
and sand, or when hot, reactive, secondary particles from the
initial impact interact with the soil environment (WHO, CHPPM).
Because of the likelihood that novel uranium compounds are created
from this complex chemical inventory of their targets, it is
premature to declare that inhaled DU is harmless. Previous study of
common uranium compounds has produced the cautionary discovery that
each exhibits its own toxicological profile. Needless to say, the
full spectrum of chemicals created by the impact event has yet to be
scientifically analyzed. Neither the biokinetics or toxicology of
this concoction of particles is known. On the subject of the
hazardousness of depleted uranium, this is terra incognita.
Acute exposure events in the uranium
industry are a rare event. The reasons for this are many. First,
almost all of the particles inhaled by uranium workers are greater
than 10 microns. These sized particles are non-respirable: they
don’t reach the nonciliated portion of the bronchial tree and the
alveolar surfaces where absorption into the systemic circulation
takes place. Either they are immediately exhaled, scavenged by
macrophages and transported to the lymph nodes or translocated to
the nasopharynx by mucociliary action, swallowed and eliminated via
the gastrointestinal tract (with perhaps a tiny fraction being
absorbed in the gut.) By contrast, the size of particles produced
on the contaminated battlefield is significantly smaller. Impact
studies of DU penetrators have revealed that anywhere from 0.9% to
70% of the debris becomes airborne (Chambers et al.). Of this
material, a majority of the particles produced are respirable.
Inhalation can draw them deep into the lung where they can become
trapped. As they slowly dissolve over a period of years, uranium
crosses the aveoli and enters the circulation. Glissmeyer and
colleagues reported in their study of the particles formed by the
incineration of DU ammunition that 73% of the particles were
respirable. Referencing a different study, the RAND Report includes
this information: “For particles generated by fire, the percentage
smaller than 10 micron aerodynamic equivalent diameter (AED) ranges
from 0.1 to 33, while particles generated from impact of a hard
target are virtually all smaller than 10 micron AED” (Harley et al.,
USArmy CHPPM).
A second reason why uranium workers rarely suffer acute exposure
events is that the uranium dust to which they are exposed contains
uranium in low concentrations. Typically, one ton of ore contains
only one to four pounds of uranium oxide (0.05 to 0.20 percent).
Thus, dust particles inhaled by miners are a blend of extremely low
concentrations of uranium molecules intermixed with high
concentrations of the molecules of the various minerals with which
the uranium is found. In contrast, aerosolized uranium on the
battlefield is 100% metal. The entire surface area of each particle
is chemically toxic to the body’s molecular environment in the
immediate vicinity around each internalized particle.
The amount of radioactivity released within the body of exposed
individuals is the third reason why uranium workers are less at risk
of acute events than soldiers on the contaminated battlefield. The
specific activity of ore with a concentration of 0.20 percent
uranium is 4 nanocuries per gram. This is equivalent to 148 atoms
undergoing radioactive decay within that gram each second. In
contrast to this, the specific activity of depleted uranium metal is
about 400 nanocuries per gram (Makhijani and Smith). This equals
14,800 disintegrations per second. Obviously, DU poses an enhanced
radiological hazard over more traditional forms of uranium exposure.
As mentioned previously, there are two vectors to uranium’s
toxicity. It is radioactive and it is chemically hazardous due to
being a heavy metal. All the studies which give depleted uranium a
clean bill of health treat these vectors as separate. In fact, the
study published by the Royal Society is published in two volumes,
one addressing uranium’s radioactivity and one addressing its heavy
metal toxicity. Current research has proven this mode of thinking to
be wrong. A number of studies have confirmed that uranium’s
radiation effects and its chemical effects work together
synergistically, each enhancing the hazard of the other. Thrown
into this mix is a third vector, not addressed at all by the
so-called “definitive” studies on depleted uranium. Battlefield
uranium enters the body as “nanoparticles”. (A nanometer is
one-billionth of a meter. One hundred nanometers is equivalent to
0.1 micron.) This vector acts in synergy with the other two
vectors, further magnifying DU’s biological hazard.
In the mid-1980s, the US military conducted tests to determine the
size of particles produced by the impact of DU munitions (Glissmeyer
et al. 1984). Using sophisticated filter systems, the discovery was
made that 31% of created particles were less than 0.18 microns.
These ultrafine particles are commonly the product of combustion.
The toxicology of nanoparticles has received intense scrutiny in
recent years due to concern over the possible hazards to health of
various application of nanotechnology (“the manipulation, precision
placement, measurement, modeling, or manufacture of sub-100
nanometer scale matter” (Meyer et al.).
Important to this discussion is the fact that nanoparticles migrate
throughout the body in ways not exhibited by larger particles. For
instance, in traditional exposure scenarios, insoluble respirable
particles slowly dissolve in the nonciliated portion of the
bronchial tree, allowing uranium to enter the circulation over an
extended period of time. Nanoparticles behave differently. While
in an insoluble form, they can freely translocate across the
alveolar epithelium. A Belgian research group confirmed this
phenomenon when observing that insoluble 100 nm particles freely
crossed the alveolar barrier and entered the blood within one minute
of inhalation. Within an hour, this material was found in the liver
(Fontanova). However, rapid and complete filtration of
nanoparticles from the blood by the liver and spleen may not always
occur. Consequently, they are capable of gaining access to all
areas of the body. Further, nanoparticles have been observed
migrating out of the lung by crossing the pulmonary epithelium.
This translocation through tissue that is impermeable to
larger-sized particles is another unique avenue by which
nanoparticles attain ready access to an organism’s internal
environment. In addition, it has been demonstrated that under some
conditions nanoparticles are able to avoid detection by
macrophages. This invisibility to the immune system results from
the failure of nanoparticles to set off the chemical signaling
mechanisms that alert and guide macrophages to invaders.
Nanoparticles have also been shown to promote autoimmune disorders
(Donaldson et al. 2004). Not to be overlooked is that nano-sized
particles are capable of migrating along the axons of nerve cells.
In both the nasal and tracheobronchial regions, some varieties of
nanoparticles have been observed passing into nerve cells through
nerve endings of the olfactory and trigeminus nerves and the sensory
nerves endings in the tracheobronchial region (Oberdörster et al.).
Inhaled nanoparticles can cross the nasal olfactory mucosa and cross
into the olfactory bulb. From there they can translocate along
nerve fibers. This access to the central nervous system is one
route by which nanoparticles can enter the brain.
Uranium nanoparticles migrating through the body’s interior set the
stage for a unique exposure scenario, unequaled by more traditional
routes of uranium exposure. Of all possible configurations, a mass
of material presents a greater and greater surface area when broken
down into a collection of smaller and smaller particles. Greater
surface area translates into greater reactivity. Greater reactivity
translates into greater biological effect. Uranium migrating
through the body in the form of nanoparticles creates, for the
quantity of uranium internalized, the maximum possible chemical and
radiological exposure to the internal molecular architecture of the
body. Further, insoluble DU particles likely serve as a platform
for perpetual chemical interactions with the surrounding
microenvironment of the body, producing chronic heavy metal
poisoning enhanced by ongoing radiation exposure..
In March 2000, NATO announced that depleted uranium weapons had been
used in the Balkans. Suspiciously, an undiagnosed illness similar
to Gulf War Syndrome was identified among some soldiers serving in
the former Yugoslavia, staffers of humanitarian missions and
Yugoslavian residents. Using an innovative technique of electronic
microscopy, Antonietta Gatti and Stephano Montanari analyzed tissue
samples of those suffering from the mysterious disease. Every
sample that was tested contained inorganic, combustion-derived,
metal-alloyed microparticles and nanoparticles. The investigators
made this observation: “Lymph nodes, for example, are the organs
where lymphomas start and develop and where, in all pathological
cases checked, we found the presence of inorganic particles. But
also all the other pathologic specimens we had the possibility to
observe show clearly and without any single exception the presence
of debris.“ To confirm an environmental origin, the authors noted
that particles found in tissues of diseased soldiers and civilians
were “mutually compatible” with those found on the ground in the
territories where the pathologies were contracted. This is one
avenue of investigation, so far ignored in the U.S., that need be
pursued in any sincere attempt to understand the origins of Gulf War
Illness.
The most damning criticism of the
so-called “expert” studies of uranium toxicology is that they are
oblivious to the current knowledge base. Recent research has
provided abundant evidence that uranium is genotoxic (capable of
damaging DNA), cytotoxic (poisonous to cells), mutagenic (capable of
inducing mutations), teratogenic (capable of interfering with normal
embryonic development) and neurotoxic (capable of harming nerve
tissue).
One example is particularly instructive. Oxidative stress is
produced in the body when increased levels of free radicals, oxygen
ions, and peroxides are produced which overwhelm antioxidant
defenses. Under this condition, cells become vulnerable to adverse
structural and functional changes. Free radicals can damage DNA,
degrade mitochondria and cell membranes, interfere with intra- and
intercellular communication, and obstruct proper synthesis of
proteins, enzymes and hormones. In addition, oxidative stress can
provoke an inflammatory response. It is by this means that
combustion-derived nanoparticles are thought to produce their
deleterious effects (Donaldson 2005). Internal contaminants that
produce chronic oxidative stress and a chronic inflammatory response
may be responsible for autoimmune-like disorders. Also, oxidative
stress has been implicated as a causative factor in a number of
diseases. It is also a major factor in the aging process.
So the question need be asked: What do the authoritative studies on
uranium toxicology have to say about oxidative stress? Outside of a
passing reference on the subject in a couple of works, these studies
are mute on the subject. But how can this be? Scientific evidence
exists that internalized uranium produces oxidative stress. When
uranium undergoes radioactive decay, it produces free radicals. As
a heavy metal, uranium produces free radicals. Nanoparticles
produce free radicals. Married to these realities is the fact that
oxidative stress is known to be genotoxic, mutagenic and cytotoxic.
Further, oxidative stress is known to erode healthy cellular
structure and contribute to the etiology of a number of neurological
and degenerative diseases. It is quite feasible that oxidative
stress in people chronically contaminated with uranium is a factor
in the nonspecific disease process known as Gulf War Syndrome. And
yet, those who control the discussion as to the health effects of DU
don’t even deem the subject worthy of consideration.
Enough has been said to demonstrate that stale research on
traditional forms of uranium exposure is inadequate in explaining
internal contamination by weaponized uranium. So why do the
published works in DU’s defense error by likening the two? The
answer is, at this point, obvious. They are designed to obstruct
understanding rather than further it. They are cleverly crafted
political documents masquerading as scientific treatises. In the
end, by their falsehood, they victimize us all.
The foregoing was a review, highly
abridged, of a 127 page chapter in the book A Primer in the Art of
Deception entitled “The Harlot of Babylon Unmasked: Fraudulent
Science and the CoverUp of the Health Effects of Depleted Uranium.”
Included in that chapter is an extensive review of recent research
into the toxicology of uranium, fully referenced, and a discussion
of known uranium effects ignored in the published literature
defending DU weapons as having no deleterious consequences to human
health.
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and
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