Monday, January 15, 2001

By Ward Sanderson
Stars and Stripes

Is depleted uranium a silver bullet that only slays metal monsters?

Or is it Kryptonite that poisons our heroes?

The European health furor over America’s potent tank-buster might seem silly after reading Defense Department research. It can be dangerous, the reports say, but it’s more heavy-metal poisonous than radioactive — and less radioactive than natural uranium that’s in your backyard.

Basically, those reports conclude that the only ones who have anything to worry about are tank crews on the receiving end of uranium rounds. And knocking out tanks is the idea.

The problem is that the anecdotal evidence suggests there is more to depleted uranium: International troops in the Balkans are dying from leukemia. Children in Iraq, Gulf War activists say, are being born with alarming birth defects. And there are those who say Defense Department science is flawed because it is based on selective evidence.

Depleted uranium has become more than a material for anti-armor shells. It’s now fuel for a feud between science and emotion, NATO and its own members, establishment researchers and dissidents. The real winner will be the objective sleuth who looks at how many people got sick where, when, and how long after being exposed to these magic shells, then compares those figures to cancer rates in the rest of us. And that’s no easy number to crunch.

"Every time there’s a community concern over a cancer cluster, it’s a highly emotional event," said Dr. Michael Thun, head of epidemiological research for the American Cancer Society. "It is extremely rare to actually identify the cause."

And Thun said attempts will take time.

"It’s not something that can satisfactorily be done on the end of an envelope."

Thun won’t venture an opinion on DU war dangers for that very reason. But he did take a look at the numbers of sick Italian soldiers who did time in the Balkans — Italy being the first and loudest in demanding that NATO stop using depleted uranium.

There have been 60,000 Italian troops and 15,000 civilians through the Balkans since 1995. If they all were young, healthy and male, Thun said he would expect about six cases of leukemia out of the group. The Italians say they’ve had 12 cancer victims. Five of them have died.

That’s more than Thun’s estimation. But were the sick working closer to DU target sites than others? What are their ages? How long was each in the Balkans?

"The first step is to confirm the cases," Thun said. "The second step is to have some sense of the population at risk." Then comes comparing statistics.

'Rather recent exposure'

Leukemia, which causes white blood cells to crowd out everything else in a bloodstream, can come on faster than solid tumors.

Still, if the European cancers developed after tours in Kosovo, Thun doubts depleted uranium is the culprit. The mission began in 1999.

"It’s a rather recent exposure to give rise to leukemia," Thun said.

He said it is possible for someone to develop leukemia a year after radiation exposure, but he’d usually expect it to take 10 years.

Other scientists believe depleted uranium could never cause leukemia because the type of radiation it emits never reaches bone marrow, which makes blood cells.

But the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society calls the disease a mystery.

"Anyone can get leukemia," one of its publications reads. "Leukemia strikes all ages and both sexes. The cause of leukemia is not known."

There are plenty of reasonable doubts. But doubts do not cure the sick.

"The soldiers have leukemia," Thun said. "And that’s a problem by definition."

'They're very effective'

The United States was the only nation to blast DU rounds into the Balkans. It isn’t the only nation to swear by them.

"They’re very effective," said a spokeswoman with the British Ministry of Defense in London. "There’s no other weapon that’s as effective at penetrating armor. And that’s why we use it."

Results are why the United Kingdom backs NATO’s use of uranium rounds while others balk.

The stuff works wonders: The Pentagon report praises depleted uranium’s properties both as protective armor and magic bullet. The same qualities that allow it to sink through steel send lesser metals glancing off.

During the Gulf War, an Abrams battle tank reinforced with DU armor deflected three hits from three Iraqi tanks.

The Abrams then destroyed all three tanks with one shot to each.It used DU rounds to do it.

Firing such a round at a normal tank is like taking a revolver to a hobby-shop model.

Britain and America both say they have tested the miracle projectile and found it safe. Britain regularly fires test rounds in Cumbria and Scotland and checks the environment afterward.

"We test the soil, the water, the air," the ministry spokeswoman said. "The results of our tests are completely normal. Our test results so far show there’s absolutely no problem."

The alliance has no plans to perform tests of its own, NATO spokesman Mark Laity said. For now, it relies on and agrees with American findings.

"The scientific studies show that this is a safe munition," said U.S. Air Force Maj. Lindsey Borg, a NATO spokesman in Mons, Belgium. "At present, there is no reason to discount these studies."

The studies he referred to were investigations into Gulf War illnesses.

Many American soldiers came home from the war sick. They wanted to know why.

The Pentagon looked at depleted uranium. Not only did America use it against the Iraqis, but some American tanks were accidentally hit, as well. American soldiers were exposed to depleted uranium again when teams cleaned up the resulting desert wrecks. The shells not only tear into tanks, they catch fire and spray particles at the crew.

Last month, the Pentagon updated its study on DU effects in the Persian Gulf.

"The available evidence indicates that, due to DU’s low-level radioactivity, adverse radiological health effects are not expected," it concluded. "The available scientific and medical evidence to date does not support claims that DU caused or is causing Gulf War veterans’ illnesses."

It also denied that simply picking up a spent round could injure anyone.

It claimed that the level of beta radiation — particles small enough to pass through the skin’s surface — is so small someone would have to hold one for at least 250 hours before suffering harm.

Alpha vs. beta particles

Radiation is the decay of the nucleus of an atom. The atom gives off particles. The size of the particles determines how likely the radiation will hurt humans. Bigger is better; a portly particle can’t penetrate cells.

Depleted uranium primarily gives off alpha particles. Alpha particles are larger than beta particles and can’t pass through skin or even paper. Since depleted uranium is waste from manufacturing enriched uranium for energy or nuclear weapons, it is 60 percent less radioactive than the natural ore.

Alpha radiation "causes extensive local damage, but doesn’t penetrate tissue," Thun explained.

That’s why the Pentagon says a cloud of DU dust can be dangerous to lungs but not to skin; a layer of dead skin cells on the body supposedly is shield enough.

Radiation hurts people when particles either destroy cells or damage them. The damaged cells reproduce, creating more damaged cells, and those reproduce again. That’s cancer.

All types of uranium are chemically toxic, just like lead.

The Pentagon study did not discount the fact someone somehow couyld be poisoned by depleted uranium. It just said it didn’t have evidence that it happened to its troops.

The Pentagon also denies that DU dust and shells left on the battlefield pose a threat to refugees returning home.

Another study by the RAND Corp., a national security research group, also dismissed the dangers of exposure to depleted uranium. RAND declared that it could find no cases of anyone ever being chemically or radiologically poisoned by it.

Italy wants DU weapons banned

Italy does not care. It wants the weapons banned until they’re proven safe.

Romano Prodi, the Italian president of the European Commission, has said DU shells should be shelved if they even posed the smallest danger.

Italy’s worry caused other NATO nations to demand answers. Why were their troops sick?

The Italians already know where the wonder rounds rained down into Kosovo: All around their sector.

The western sector, knotted with roadways and blown bridges and the husks of ground-zeroed buildings, is home to the Italian command, and the bulk of America’s uranium barrage wound up there.

"The A-10s were used to strike armor, and that’s where most of that was found," Borg said.

The western part of Kosovo is threaded with roads used by Yugoslav forces during the war.

Italian authorities did not return calls for this report. However, a source close to an independent Italian investigation said Geiger counters reacted wildly near target sites in Kosovo. The alliance fired 31,000 DU rounds in the province.

Italy now wants to know where Americans used the rounds in Bosnia. That could take a while, as that war ended six years ago.

"The secretary general said it would not be easy to find," Laity said from Brussels.

The alliance has pledged to try.

"We’re hard at work on this," said a second NATO spokesman, Lee McClenny.

He called it an "urgent" task. But not one that will veer the alliance away from depleted uranium just yet.

"Until proven otherwise, DU weapons are rounds that can be handled safely," McClenny said.

Some are working very hard to prove otherwise.

DU use a crime, says physicist

Maj. Doug Rokke is angry. The health physicist says the military didn’t pay him $1,100 it owed him over the holidays. He says he no longer can run the two miles his Army expects of him. He says his lungs are scarred and his kidneys ache. He says one of his friends just died of cancer.

And he says 20 of 100 soldiers who helped him evaluate the effects of depleted uranium in the Persian Gulf also are dead. The first fell ill seven months after going home.

Rokke once ran the Pentagon’s DU project. Now he calls DU’s use a crime.

"Think about this: Take 100 uranium pencils and throw them in your office," he said last week from his home in Illinois. "Would you go in your office?"

The 51-year-old was part of a team that went to the Gulf following the war. Its mission was to find whether discarded depleted uranium was dangerous, and to salvage contaminated equipment.

In a paper presented to the British House of Commons, Rokke wrote that the findings equated to, "OH MY GOD."

Each solid uranium round lost 40 percent of its mass, exploding into breathable dust. What was left in one piece was twice as large as the Pentagon expected it to be, Rokke concluded. And though they emitted less total radiation than natural uranium, the amount of alpha particles they emitted was actually higher.

"That’s the whole shebang," Rokke said. "The uranium munitions are solid … it’s not coated. It’s not plated."

The RAND report says intact rounds are shielded for safer handling. But the core is left bare after impact.

Rokke now believes exposure causes, among other things: lung scarring, kidney problems, rashes, vision loss, cancer, sexual dysfunction and birth defects. Most of the evidence, however, is anecdotal.

Taking warnings seriously

Rokke headed up the Pentagon DU project from 1994 to 1997. Its mission was to come up with a safety-training program, test troops exposed to depleted uranium during the Gulf War, and develop ways to salvage contaminated equipment following future wars.

The project called for the removal of spent shells from target areas, radiation detectors for doctors or cleanup teams, medical screening for troops possibly exposed to depleted uranium and protective gear for soldiers who work with it. It also banned recycling contaminated equipment.

Rokke said the government has only trained a few troops on these dangers and has ignored the other warnings.

He takes them seriously. Rokke said his team entered tanks that were murky with the metallic mist, and that’s why his fellow soldiers are sick or dying. Now, he worries about not only troops, but also Kosovar and Iraqi children who might breathe the dust or collect war souvenirs.

Rokke said Iraqis suffering greatly increased cancer rates. The National Gulf War Resource Center lists some of Rokke’s opinions on its Internet site.

It also has links to photographs purported to be children born with radiation-caused birth defects. One photo shows a baby with no facial features save a single deformed eye in its forehead.

Rokke originally favored the use of the wonder weapon as long as troops were told of its dangers and debris was cleaned up after a strike. Now he’s against any use of depleted uranium, period.

He claims the Army is against him. Still a Reservist on a medical brigade command staff, he said superiors have ordered him to keep quiet.

He said he’s been threatened and had his pay tampered with. He also said he lost his job as a professor at Jacksonville State University, Ala., because of his activism.

Al Harris, a university spokesman, said he could not discuss former employees.

Lt. Col. Paul Phillips, a Pentagon spokesman, said he was not aware of Rokke’s claims and would let Pentagon research speak for itself.

"We’re going to stick to what we have to say other than entering into something directly with him," Phillips said.

The Pentagon publicly has rebutted Rokke’s claims in the past.

Though Rokke blames lax medical care and no exposure screening for Gulf War vets, one of his papers admits to the same problem plaguing NATO now.

"Today," he wrote, "verification of adverse DU health effects is extremely difficult."

The world will just have to wait and see.

RELATED STORY:
          Depleted uranium: Where does it come from?

ON THE WEB:
          The Defense Department’s study of DU use during the Gulf War
          RAND Corp.’s review of scientific literature on depleted uranium
          The National Gulf War Research Center’s page on depleted uranium

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