We all fully understand how Low Level Radiation (LLR) Particles are formed and how they drift around the world. We also know that such particles can be rained out of the atmosphere and fall to earth to contaminate the land, crops and water. So let’s now look in more detail at the health implications associated with the inhalation of these aerosols (nanoparticles).

Many authorities will tell you that Depleted Uranium (DU) is harmless and is similar to normal natural background radiation. However DU is not natural, it is the waste product of the nuclear industry and frequently contains traces of plutonium, other transuranics or trace amounts of various isotopes. It cannot be compared to normal background radiation!  

How can Low Level Radiation (LLR) enter your body and what are the implications. There are different ways DU/LLR can enter the body. A DU fragment such as shrapnel can cause a wound and DU dust can enter this wound to add to the problem.

Most complicated of all is the inhalation of nanoparticle aerosols of DU/LLR. Insoluble DU particles deposited in the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli will be cleared much more slowly, and therefore, would be expected to deliver a higher radiation dose to the lung from alpha radiation. Once DU/LLR has entered the blood, an irreversible cycle commences. The tissues in our bodies filter out the depleted uranium particles from the blood and cause a web of diseases called “Gulf War Syndrome.”

Unfortunately, the UNEP, WHO, ICRP, IAEA, Governments, DoD’s and many other authorities (not forgetting the pharmaceutical industry) have failed to understand the health implications when DU/LLR is inhaled into the body. They have together concocted a trail of deceit and failed in their duty of care to protect the world’s populations.

We are looking at dramatic increases in many forms of cancer, diabetes, and infertility. Because DU/LLR directly attacks the genetics of our body via our DNA, we are now witnessing terrible birth defects in babies. Leuren Moret covered this aspect when she said:
“Uranium and phosphate structures have a strong chemical affinity for each other. The DNA and the mitochondria are phosphate rich and therefore there is a strong attraction between uranium, the DNA and the mitochondria. Once the uranium has attached to the DNA and or the mitochondria, it does damage from the chemical heavy metal effect, the radioactivity released and the particulate effect ... The greatest damage from radiation exposure is to the unborn foetus and this genetic damage to the foetus is passed on to all future generations. Basically uranium exposure is a slow painful death from long lingering illnesses.”

Let’s look at diabetes as an example. The IMVA article “DNA and Mitochondrial Time Bomb” covered this aspect extremely well:
The Centers of Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta declares that 33% of the babies born this year will be diabetic by the year 2050 - Dr. Alan Cantwell

The article went on the say:  Diabetes, which is expanding almost exponentially in the world today, can in part be traced to the increasing radiation to which we are all being exposed. Every physician knows that radiation can lead to cancer, but making a connection between depleted uranium (DU) and diabetes seems ludicrous at first glance, is anything but. Most medical doctors have never heard of this, but neither have they paid attention.


Unfortunately, exposure levels are increasing dramatically with each ton of vapourized depleted uranium but that is not stopping the American and British governments from manufacturing, selling and using depleted uranium weaponry.

“Depleted (DU) uranium is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiological as an alpha particle emitter, is very dangerous when taken internally,” writes Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Canadian Epidemiologist. A new study, conducted by biochemist Dr. Diane Stearns at Northern Arizona University confirms that, separate from any radiation risks, cells exposed to uranium will bond with the metal chemically. Uranium and phosphate have a strong chemical affinity for each other and the DNA and Mitochondria are loaded with phosphate, so uranium is a DNA and Mitochondria deep penetration bomb. In this same report it gave a very stern message to governments and authorities:

“As it is with the autism epidemic, the medical establishment and the government are stonewalling investigations and understanding of the runaway train that diabetes is fast becoming. We are officially recognizing the tragedy of skyrocketing diabetes rates in adults and children, but the multiple causes are being ignored and so treatments are not appropriate and prevention efforts a joke. What we have to see clearly is that diabetes is actually an extremely serious warning to civilization, it is an announcement that the rising tide of radiation, mercury, other deadly chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs are poisoning humanity”.

As we have seen in more recent times (Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2007/8) the US is still providing Israel with weapons containing uranium components that hide under their new title “Conventional Weapons”. I can assure you that these weapons are certainly not conventional and really fit into the category of “Dirty Weapons”. Dr Chris Busby has received samples from both above locations confirming the use of both depleted and enriched weapons by the IDF.

We now see a rise in diabetes and cancers etc in Northern Israel and soon that same story will be repeated in Central and Southern Israel… this basically means that “Israelis are killing Israelis” as well as the populations in adjacent countries and the world.

Dr Chris Busby was the first person in the UK to spill the beans on the increased levels of radiation that had gathered over England as a direct result of the “Shock and Haw” attack on Baghdad. He has connected the everyday radiation exposure to modern ailments we see today: “There have been tremendous increases in diseases resulting from the breakdown of the immune system in the last 20 years: diabetes, asthma, AIDS and others which may have an immune-system link, such as MS and ME. A whole spectrum of neurological conditions of unknown origin has developed.”

Leuren Moret has been very critical of the ICRP Model, which in her opinion (and many other experts) has grossly underestimated the effects of DU/LLR on the body by anything between 100 – 1000 times.

The following is an extract from a specialists’ report which included Keith Baverstock World Health Organization European Centre for Environment and Health: “The risk to the lung of exposure to DU dusts cannot be inferred from the experience gained from uranium miners, or from survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, upon which the current ICRP radiological protection standards are based”.

The report went on to say that it has been convincingly demonstrated that changes, similar to those caused directly by irradiation, can be wrought in cells growing close to a cell that has been irradiated. The implication of the combined chemical and radiological transforming capability of uranium and the bystander effect means that, in estimating its significance in causing cancer, the simple assumptions based on committed effective dose, i.e. (committed absorbed dose to the lung, modified by a radiation weighting factor for the fact that the radiation arises from alpha particles) as has been adopted in recent reports by the Royal Society (RS 2001), the WHO (WHO 2001) and UNEP (UNEP 2001) would be an inadequate basis for predicting risks.

Baverstock was a very experienced expert who worked for the WHO. Because of the sensitivity of Baverstock’s report the article was suppressed and withheld from public viewing.

The UN, WHO, ICRP, IAEA, Governments, DoD’s and NATO etc. still fail to accept that DU/LLR is extremely dangerous (especially when inhaled). Perhaps they should be referred to the people who carried out the US Army training programmes. People like Major Doug Rokke who’s credits covered a broad range of expertise, namely US Army Medical Command's Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) teaching, medical response, and special operations team - US Army Depleted Uranium Assessment team during Gulf War 1 (Operation Desert Storm) and US Army's Depleted Uranium Project director from 1994-95.

He developed the congressionally mandated education and training materials and wrote US Army Regulation 700-48, the US Army PAM 700-48, and the US Army's common task for DU incidents. Doug knows intimately how dangerous DU is when he himself became a victim to this terrible illness.

Let’s look at another expert in the training area who had direct links with the DoD and US Army. How can the respective DoD’s and Senior Military Officers play down the risk from DU when they themselves send in experts to carry out the training of combatants? US Army Reserve Col. J. Wakayama (Office of the Secretary of Defense – Director of Training - Combat Support) gave an official slide presentation at Fort Belvoir, Va. on 20 August 2002, in which he read out the dangers of exposure to DU.

He highlighted: DU causes - Lung cancer, cell damage, targets the kidneys and bone, the cultured human stem bone cell with DU also transformed the cells to become carcinogenic, urine samples containing uranium are mutagenic, DU can be deposited in the bone causing DNA damage, long term respiratory effects such as lung fibrosis, immune deficiency, extra risk of leukaemia and other cancers. He put great emphasis on the risks to children playing in the rubble/dust and the damage to the environment i.e. soil, water etc. Tell that to the children playing in the rubble of the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and now Pakistan!

A visit to the US Governments own website and PubMed Journal is convincing! The title of this document is: Teratogenicity of depleted uranium aerosols: A review from an epidemiological perspective. Authors are Rita Hindin,[1] Doug Brugge,[2] and Bindu Panikkar [3]. They introduce DU as follows: “It has pyrophoric properties and may spontaneously ignite at room temperature in air, oxygen and water. These unique properties make it appealing for use in many civilian and military applications”.

As we have already discussed its use covers almost every weapon in some form or another namely Bullets, Penetrators, Missile nose cones, Bomb and Shell shaped charged liners (SCL’s) or to act as a counterbalance. It must also be noted that DU also contains traces of Plutonium and other Isotopes. If one wishes to further extend the abuse of the nuclear waste industry, we can add to that list Enriched Uranium (EU). Basically we are looking at dirty missiles, dirty bombs, dirty shells and dirty bullets that contain such components.

The report goes on to say that the quantity of aerosol production is relative to the hardness of the target and generally is around 10-35% and up to 70% when the DU catches fire (which it normally does). It also states that the initial fallout area is around 26 miles and as discussed, the aerosol has the capacity to travel vast distances. Once deposited on the ground the aerosols settle as partially oxidized DU dust. Potential contamination of ground water is another possibility – weathering could mobilize the metal into additional media.

On the health/medical side of DU the report states “Alpha radiation is only hazardous when internalized in the body, but once deposited in living tissue it releases its energy in a concentrated area causing greater damage than beta or gamma radiation … large quantities of DU and/or radioactive decay products and other radioactive impurities can lead to substantial external exposure”.

Their evidence became even more compelling when it revealed that a DU tank found by the US Army radiological team emitted 260 – 270 millirads of radiation per hour compared to the safety limit of 100 millirads per year. A pile of jet-black dust registered a count of 9839 emissions in one minute, a level more than 300 times the average background level.

At this point we should make it clear that persons attending such contaminated locations are not protected by conventional protective clothing, especially gasmasks, as they only screen out larger particles. With DU aerosols we are talking about something the size of 0.1 microns.

The article warns: “Trends toward increased use of DU by industry and, more recently, in warfare suggest that there are large and growing numbers of exposed people worldwide, both at production sites and in areas where DU weapons are deployed. While there is no clear basis for estimating the number of people who have been breathing and ingesting food and water in areas contaminated with aerosolized DU particles, the ever-expanding exposure of humans and the environment to DU particles, several micrometer and smaller, mobile and inhalable, necessitates a sense of urgency to better understand this hazard.”

They further point out that “inhalation is the main route of human exposure both in combat and non-combat situations. Once inhaled, DU particles <5 μm can lodge deep in the lung in alveoli and can be transported by macrophages to the lymph tissues. Thereupon, live tissue immediately adjacent to (or exposed to these) imbedded particles experience infrequent but high LET alpha irradiation along with the potential for chemical toxicity. Because the micro-particles of DU are much larger than individual solubilized molecules, they can create "hot spots" of localized alpha radiation” “while insoluble forms generally takes months to years to be absorbed. DU is organotropic and has long-term retention in its target organs, to wit the kidney and the skeletal tissue. The biological retention capability of DU in bones enhances the particulate radiation to the target organs”

This report draws attention to “biodistribution studies detail DU accumulation in the bone, kidney, reproductive system, brain and lung with verified nephrotoxic, genotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic properties, as well as reproductive and teratogenic alterations”.

Clearly evidence just keeps stacking up against those authorities that continue to evade the issue of DU and state it is safe!

This same document drew attention to research carried out: Most of the past 15 years of published research on the topic comes from two groups, Domingo, and others working at the University of Barcelona in Spain and McClain, Benson, Miller, Pellmar and others affiliated with the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI) in the United States.

With at least 6 published studies on topic, Domingo et al. have demonstrated that both oral and subcutaneous administration of UO2++ to female mice engender decreased fertility, embryonic and fetal toxicity including reduced growth and malformations (cleft palate and skeletal defects) and developmental ossification variations.

A Chinese study of reproductive toxicity of enriched uranium noted damage to genetic material, dominant lethality and skeletal abnormalities in fetal rats. Chromosome aberrations in spermatogonia, DNA alterations in spermatocytes and strand breakage in sperm were specifically notified. In vitro experiments documented extensive DNA damage when UO2++ was added to DNA in the presence of an electron donor. Since DNA is particularly dense in sperm-forming cells, such cells may be especially susceptible to UO2++-derived damage. In sum, aerosolized DU is a vehicle for internal delivery of a DNA-tropic substance that is both a heavy metal and an alpha particle emitter.

This report fits into the category as an internationally recognised journal and is substantiated in the fact that it is published on the US Government Webpage.

The report puts a strong emphasis on the experience drawn up in Iraq with particular reference to Basra who bore the brunt of DU weaponry. That must also be said for Baghdad who suffered the deluge of “Shock and Haw”. The birth defects in Iraq is beyond imagination and given the half shelf life of DU (4.5 billion years) this problem will not go away… it will be passed down from generation to generation and that is why the authorities will not admit to this crime against humankind. The genetics of the Balkans, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Gaza and Pakistan is at risk and because these aerosols do not respect international borders the problem is fast become a global issue, as statistics are now showing.

Finally to bring us up to the current time the following report brings even more damaging news regarding DU’s capability:
Uranium travels nerves from nose to brain (Environmental Health News dated 31st July 2009)  Tournier, BB, S Frelon, E Tourlonias, L Agez, O Delissen, I Dublineau, F Paquet, and F Petitot. 2009. Role of the olfactory receptor neurons in the direct transport of inhaled uranium to the rat brain. Toxicology Letters doi:10.1016/j.toxlet.2009.05.022.

Synopsis by Paul Eubig, DVM:
The report states radioactive uranium that is inhaled by soldiers on the battlefield and by workers in factories may bypass the brain's protective barrier by following nerves from the nose directly to the brain. Nerves can act as a unique conduit, carrying inhaled uranium from the nose directly to the brain, finds a study with rats. Once in the brain, the uranium may affect task and decision-related types of thinking.

This study provides yet another example of how some substances can use the olfactory system – bypassing the brain's protective blood barrier – to go directly to the brain. Titanium nanoparticles and the metals manganese, nickel, and thallium have been shown to reach the brain using the same route. Military personnel and people who work in uranium processing plants are exposed to the weak radioactive element via wounds or by breathing. Exposure may affect brain function; cognitive skills are lowered in soldiers who carry uranium-laced shrapnel.

The researchers – taking advantage of the fact that uranium can exist in different forms, or isotopes – used rats to compare how the element travels through the body if it is inhaled or injected into the blood. The animals breathed in one isotope at levels similar to those encountered on a battlefield where depleted uranium weapons are used. They were also injected with a different isotope. Researchers compared the levels of the two isotopes in different regions of the brain. The inhaled isotope accumulated at 2 to 3 times higher levels than the injected isotope in the olfactory (smell) paths from the nose to the brain and in the frontal cortex and hypothalamus of the brain. The front part of the brain controls executive function, which is the broad ability to gather information, make decisions and initiate action.

The scientists then chemically damaged the olfactory nerves in the nose. The rats with the damaged nerves had three times less uranium in the olfactory system than the rats with intact olfactory nerves. These finding suggests that inhaled uranium can travel directly from the nose along the olfactory nerves to the front of the brain. The olfactory pathway, then, plays an important role in inhaled uranium reaching the brain.

It is not known from this study if soldiers and civilian workers that breathe uranium could be at an even higher risk for cognitive effects or if inhaled uranium may affect brain function in similar ways as when it is carried through the blood.

The US, UK, NATO and Israel are still using these weapons on a daily basis, not only in action, but also in training exercises and on firing ranges around the globe. Israel currently has a stockpile of such weaponry ready to strike Iran. Add another possible attack on Lebanon or Gaza and we can see the absolute end to the genetics of the entire regional populations. 

References
1] Biostatistics and Epidemiology Concentration, University of Massachusetts School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst, MA, USA 01003
2]Department of Public Health and Family Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA, USA 02111
3] Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts School of Engineering, 200 College Avenue, Anderson Hall, Medford, MA, USA 02155.

Peter Eyre, a former British Naval officer, worked at NATO headquarters in cryptology, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East and South East Asia as a petroleum consultant; he lives in the UK and writes regularly for the Palestine Telegraph