'Nuclear waste is being dumped in our back yards and on battle fields around the world.' This how Damacio Lopez introduces himself to his audiences when he shows the film 'Invisible War: Depleted Uranium and the Politics of Radiation', and to answer questions. Damacio Lopez co-authored the 169 page report 'Uranium Battlefields'with Grace Bukowski, and was a consultant on this film. He has been working to promote awareness of the dangers of this weapon for several years, since he learned firsthand about the dangers of the material when his father died from the kind of cancers one would expect from inhaling or ingesting at their home in Socorro, New Mexico. Socorro is the location of the Energetic Materials Research Test Center, a testing site for DU. Official State Health Department statistics show that 3 of 17 of the hydrocephalus cases in New Mexico between 1984 and 1989 has come from tiny Socorro. There are more than 50 sites in the United States where DU has been dumped, tested and manufactured.
Depleted Uranium is a byproduct of the production process for nuclear fuel. It is a non naturally occurring isotope of U-238, and the Department of Energy requires this waste to be put in radioactive dumps. It is being manufactured by Russia, the US, France and Israel. It is being made into bombs by companies like Honeywell, Aerojet, Martin-Marietta and Sandia National Labs. American cleanup teams in Iraq were told that the U-238 was too heavy to be inhaled. They were not provided with protective gear. In the first Gulf War, over 940,000 projectiles were fired. Footage in the film showed the material that was released during the firing of weapons. One shell can spray DU particulate over a radius of 437 yards. This material fell to the ground in populated areas of Baghdad, in demilitarized zones and in other civilian areas. The fallout residue can be stirred up in wind, or when traffic moved the soils and could be easily breathed in by humans and livestock.
The US Military has been using DU in combat weapons since the first Gulf War, when over 320,000 tons of the stuff was dropped from planes and fired from anti-tank guns. The 'benefit' of using this material is its penetrating ability ‹ it will go through tank walls extremely effectively, and will cost less than its closest competitor, tungsten, DU is free. The US has also used this weapon in 1995 in Bosnia, and again in 1999 in Serbia and Kosovo.
Cancer rates in Baghdad and Basra have increased tenfold since the war. 1.2 million civilians have died in Iraq since the Gulf War. Some of these deaths are due to malnutrition and impure water due to the embargos, but there is also a highly significant and increasing number of tumors, cancers, leukemias and kidney diseases that are related to DU toxicity. Of the 700,000 American soldiers who served in the Gulf War, over 250,000 have gone for health care for complaints and diseases that are linked to DU exposure. Yet, the US government is not acknowledging the problem, and in fact, is telling many Gulf War veterans that this disease is 'post traumatic stress disorder' or even that it is 'all in their heads'. It is apparent that the soldiers were not advised about the risks or given the appropriate protective clothing in their contact with this material.
Doug Rokke, a retired military Gulf War Veteran who was featured in the film, spoke of his role in the investigations into Depleted Uranium. He prepared a training program for use by the Army in the handling of DU. The army re-made the training video, and the entire original curriculum is now classified material. Rokke believes that the Army did not use the training material because implementation would be too costly. He furnished a photo of a crew assigned to ship back a US tank hit by friendly DU fire. In the photo, there are no protective measures taken, and the soldiers are shown in T-shirts. They were told by their superiors that it was safe. It is inevitable that all of these people (which included over 250) inhaled or ingested DU particulate. Doug noticed problems with his breathing while he was still on the cleanup detail in Iraq and is now displaying other symptoms of DU related illness.
Carol Picou, who was also a GW veteran featured in the film, was discharged from the military in 1995, and served on the front lines as a combat nurse. Her digestive system quit functioning, and her thyroid went into paralysis. She chose to have sterilization in order to prevent having a child with birth defects. Because she openly accused the Department of Defense and the Veteran's Administration of attempted cover-up, she was subjected to wiretapping and other forms of harassment. Many of the Veterans need to remain silent in order to continue to receive their medical benefits. Treatment of these diseases is very expensive, and if the veterans were cut off, other insurance would be unavailable due to 'pre-existing conditions'. Of the 150 members of Carol Picou's unit, about 40 are seriously ill. Over 10 have died from the DU related illnesses. It is estimated that so far over 9,600 American Gulf War Veterans have died from DU related illnesses.
Professor Gunther had been seeing cases related to DU toxicity, and at one point went to visit the battlefields in Iraq. There he found some spent shells, which he brought back to Germany, and when he brought them for testing, they were confiscated as a radioactive substance. He was also 'advised' by the US government to discontinue his practice of investigating and treating DU related diseases. His findings indicate that the presence of U-238 'induces genetic instability'.
Many of the DU related symptoms faced by both Americans and Iraqis are identical. The stories of our own veterans pale in comparison to what the Iraqis are facing. The road between Kuwait and Basra was heavily assaulted by DU munitions. The Americans called it the 'Highway of Death'. The difficulty for the Iraqis are also in the considerable increase in birth defects and immune system diseases faced by young children. Children are being born with no arms, and with open sores, and older children are outside playing with spent shells. As a result, there is a large increase in cancers, leukemias and lymphomas in both children and adults. Due to the embargo, there is also a lack of adequate health facilities to serve them. Iraqis are farming tomatoes in demilitarized zones loaded with spent shells and the fallout, and so they are also ingesting DU in their food. While they may not all be in pain, the Iraqis are slowly dying. Six years later, tanks that were left in the field in Iraq were still giving Geiger readings for radioactivity.
Meanwhile, the US military complex continues to hold the line that it is 'extremely unlikely' that these illnesses are caused by exposure to DU. They have tested only 33 of the 200,000 veterans, those who had imbedded fragments. Testing by independent agencies has been suppressed, and the Pentagon still firmly denies the connection between DU exposure and resulting illnesses. The military has every intention of using DU again in combat.
This type of weaponry is in violation of International Conventions of War because it can attack civilians, and blow into other countries. The UN wanted to examine the areas where DU was used, but NATO and the Pentagon have refused to provide the information, saying that the information is 'classified'.
We Americans have this blood on our hands, and have damaged an environment that will not recover for the next 4,5 billion years. We do not know what constitutes a toxic dose, and the government is not releasing known dangers or supporting research. What can we do about it? Damacio says, 'We live in a time where little people can do great things.' Fortunately we still have a democracy where we can demand that this be addressed, although for how much longer we have democratic process also depends on us.
Damacio also has this to say: 'Bush is a symptom of our illnesses. He is a cancer that we have, and we are the ones who need to heal this . We can only heal this with love, compassion and understanding, he is a part of the human race, he is a part of us. Let's cut out this cancer before it gets any bigger, fatter and more dangerous.'