Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime

It’s 67% denser than lead and much more poisonous. It is radio active, highly combustible and deadly. It is used by military forces throughout the world. It causes death and destruction, as well as immense bodily harm. It is linked to cancers, leukemia, liver damage and fetal mutation. It is depleted uranium, and it is entirely legal.

Besides its residual radioactivity, depleted uranium is a heavy metal known to be highly toxic to mammals. It is especially harmful to the reproductive system and fetus development, causing reduced fertility, miscarriages and fetus malformations. Depleted Uranium is left after enriched uranium is separated from natural uranium in order to produce fuel for nuclear reactors. While the term 'depleted' implies it isn't particularly dangerous, this waste product of the nuclear industry is conveniently disposed of by producing deadly weapons.

In the 1950's the United States Department of Defence became interested in using depleted uranium in weapons because of it was cheap and available in huge quantities. It is used both as tank amour, and in amour-piercing shells known as depleted uranium penetrators. ‘Over 15 countries are known to have depleted uranium weapons in their military arsenals - UK, US, France, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan, Thailand, Iraq and Taiwan - with depleted uranium rapidly spreading to other countries. Depleted uranium was first used on a large scale in military combat during the 1991 Gulf War, and has since been used in Bosnia in 1995, and again in the Balkans war of 1999.’ (http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm)

Depleted uranium is chemically toxic. It can cause chemical poisoning to the body in the same way as lead or any other heavy metal. On impact with a hard target, such as an armored vehicle, the nose of the rod fractures in such a way that it remains sharp. The impact and subsequent release of heat causes the shell to disintegrate, turning to dust and burning when it combines with air. These dust particles emit alpha, beta and gamma radiation and can be carried in the air over long distances. When a Depleted Uranium penetrator reaches the interior of an armored vehicle, it catches fire, often igniting ammunition and fuel, killing crew members, and possibly causing the vehicle to explode.

As low level nuclear waste, depleted uranium, being toxic and radioactive, requires long term storage. It is relatively expensive to store but relatively inexpensive to produce or obtain. Its low cost makes it attractive for a variety of industrial and military uses. Perfect for an army on a budget! Depleted Uranium ammunition is manufactured in 18 countries though only the US and the UK have acknowledged using the weapons.

As the prime or exclusive use of nuclear weapons, such as depleted uranium, is not to poison or asphyxiate but to destroy material and kill soldiers through ‘kinetic energy’, they are not covered by the international law on poisonous weapons. This removes depleted uranium weaponry from coverage by any treaties. Despite claims by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, that depleted uranium breaches one or more of these treaties, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Charter of the United Nations, The Genocide Convention, The United Nations Convention Against Torture, The Geneva Conventions including Protocol I; the Convention on Conventional Weapons of 1980; and the Chemical Weapons Convention, these weapons are still being produced and used.

Calls for a ban on depleted uranium have been consistently rejected by the NATO nations and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, of France, the United Kingdom and the United States. They maintain their claim that use of these weapons continues to be entirely legal, and that the health risks are completely unsubstantiated. The UK government even alleges that cancers and birth defects in Iraq could be blamed on the Iraqi Government's use of chemical weapons on its own citizens.

Like other heavy metals, depleted uranium is potentially poisonous when taken into the body. It accumulates in several organs, such as the liver, spleen, and kidneys. In the wake of the 2003 attacks on Iraq, a significant rise in birth defects was recorded. ‘After analyzing records from public hospitals around the country, researchers from Baghdad University have shown that the long-documented rise in deformities in the southern region of the country has spread to the capital, Baghdad.’ (http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm)

High levels of birth malformations have been reported from the southern region of Iraq since the mid-Nineties, but this is the first report of similar conditions spreading to the capital.

The type of deformities found in newborn babies are characterized by multiple fingers, unusually large heads, unilateral lips or no arms or legs. Following the first Gulf War, Basra was particularly badly hit; now the phenomenon is moving north from Najaf to Baghdad. According to Wathiq Ibrahim, director of the Central Teaching Hospital for Paediatrics in Baghdad, nearly 90 percent of such cases do not survive. (http://www.cadu.org.uk/intro.htm)

Results from Neuro Cognitive tests on Gulf War veterans have shown a relationship between high levels of uranium in their urine and "problematic performance" on assessments of performance, accuracy and efficiency. Research by the Radiobiology Research Institute of the US army, into risks and harms of depleted uranium concluded that there are "numerous unanswered questions about its long term health effects." "Moderate exposure to either Depleted Uranium or uranium presents a significant toxicological threat" and it is suggested that "low dose Depleted Uranium induced carcinogenesis" may affect military personnel following shrapnel wounds or inhalation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium

‘On November 1 2006, the BBC reported that the U.S. and British governments have continued to use radioactive and chemically toxic Depleted Uranium weapons in Iraq, disregarding warnings that these weapons pose a cancer risk and are linked to numerous other health issues.’ (http://poisondust.org/ )Making weapons from the waste products of the nuclear business is a very cheap and convenient, but potentially deadly way to get rid of nuclear waste. The use of these weapons must stop. It is up to the larger more influential countries to disarm themselves, and then convince other nations to give up their own weapons.