Sunday, February 18, 2001
By DAN FAHEY
BOSTON--Despite scant coverage in the U.S. media, a controversy over depleted-uranium
ammunition used in the Gulf and Balkan wars has been raging in Europe. Several governments
that provided troops for these conflicts fear that a rash of unexplained illnesses in
veterans--including hemorrhaging, tumors and cancers--may have been caused by ammunition
fired by U.S. warplanes.
Germany, Italy, Norway and the European Parliament have called for a moratorium on using
the ammunition, while the World Health Organization has announced plans for a study of
civilians in Kosovo and Iraq who may have been exposed. Last week, Pekka Haavisto, the
head of the United Nations' investigation of depleted uranium, warned of the necessity to
"closely follow the state of health" of those exposed to the ammunition in the
Balkans.
Questions abound: Is there a causal link between depleted uranium and serious illnesses?
What constitutes dangerous levels of exposure? How many soldiers and civilians have been
exposed? How much plutonium is there in the ammunition?
One thing is certain: The Pentagon has inflamed the controversy by withholding information
and stonewalling investigations. It is likely to remain a major headache for the Bush
administration, especially for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Depleted uranium is a chemically toxic heavy metal that emits low-level alpha radiation.
It is used in armor-piercing ammunition because it is extremely dense and pyrophoric,
which enables it to punch and burn its way through hard targets such as tanks. But
depleted uranium also contaminates the impact area with a fine depleted-uranium dust that
presents a health hazard if inhaled in sufficient quantities. In the aftermath of the Gulf
War, research on rats conducted by the military's Armed Forces Radiobiology Research
Institute found that depleted uranium's chemical toxicity--not its radioactivity--may
cause immune system damage and central nervous system problems and may contribute to the
development of certain cancers.
Dr. David McClain, the military's top depleted-uranium researcher, told a presidential
committee investigating Gulf War illnesses in 1999 that "strong evidence exists to
support [a] detailed study of potential DU carcinogenicity." A separate Army-funded
study conducted by the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, N.M., found
that depleted uranium caused cancer when implanted in laboratory animals. While Fletcher
Hahn, a senior scientist at Lovelace, cautioned about applying the findings to human
beings, he also called the study "a warning flag that says we shouldn't ignore
this."
Despite the military's own research, however, in recent weeks Pentagon spokesmen have
dismissed concerns about depleted uranium as unscientific hysteria and propaganda. For
example, Army Col. Eric Daxon recently attributed concerns about depleted uranium to
"a purposeful disinformation campaign" by the Iraqi government. Yet, the Army
anticipated the current controversy even before the war against Iraq. A July 1990 report
from the U.S. Army Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command predicted that,
"Following combat, the condition of the battlefield and the long-term health risks to
natives and combat veterans may become issues in the acceptability of the continued use of
DU [ammunition] for military applications." The report added that depleted uranium is
"linked to cancer when exposures are internal."
Six months after the Army's prescient report, U.S. and coalition fighting forces charged
into Kuwait and Iraq, oblivious to the hazards of the 320 tons of depleted-uranium
ammunition shot by U.S. tanks and aircraft. When thousands of veterans reported myriad
health problems after the war, a series of federal investigations queried the Defense
Department about its use of depleted uranium. In each case, the Army Surgeon General's
office asserted that only 35 veterans had been exposed, a number so small that it did not
justify further research.
Through Congressional inquiry and the determined work of Gulf War veterans' advocates,
however, the Pentagon was forced to dramatically increase its estimates of the number of
veterans exposed to depleted uranium.
In January 1998, the Pentagon's Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses
made a long-overdue admission: "Combat troops or those carrying out support functions
generally did not know that DU contaminated equipment such as enemy vehicles struck by DU
rounds required special handling. The failure to properly disseminate such information to
troops at all levels may have resulted in thousands of unnecessary exposures."
The Pentagon's figure of "thousands" tells us little about the effects of
depleted uranium on these veterans. Unfortunately, until 1998 the Department of Veterans
Affairs accepted the Pentagon's original number and examined only 33 veterans exposed to
depleted uranium. Some of these veterans continued to excrete depleted uranium in their
semen and urine six years after the war. Several have mild central nervous system
problems. The VA removed a bone tumor from one veteran who was wounded by DU shrapnel.
In the absence of an epidemiological study of a larger number of exposed veterans,
however, no firm conclusions about the role of depleted uranium can be drawn.
Unfortunately, the lack of candor has continued even after Kosovo. When the war ended, a
United Nations task force asked NATO to identify areas contaminated with depleted uranium
so that peacekeepers, civilians and relief workers might be warned about the potential
hazard. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization inexplicably refused to comply with the
request. In February 2000, eight months after the war, NATO finally confirmed that U.S.
jets had released the equivalent of 10 tons of depleted uranium in Kosovo and Serbia.
Another seven months passed before NATO disclosed the 112 locations of contamination. But
it wasn't until last month--19 months after the bombing stopped--that NATO finally posted
warning signs at the sites.
From all accounts, peacekeepers, civilians and relief workers in Kosovo were surprised to
learn about depleted-uranium contamination in their midst. There, as in Iraq, children had
long been playing on destroyed equipment. In addition, adults had scavenged destroyed
equipment for usable parts and scrap metal.
European outrage increased when the U.N. disclosed that some depleted-uranium ammunition
used in Kosovo contains plutonium and other highly radioactive elements. Pentagon
spokesmen asserted that the amounts of plutonium in the ammunition are extremely low, but
they have failed to publicly disclose the levels of plutonium in ammunition shot in
Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Kuwait and on training ranges in Japan, Germany, Puerto Rico and
the United States.
The Pentagon's history of withholding information about depleted uranium has fueled
suspicions among many of our allies. Rumsfeld should try a new approach: ordering full
disclosure of all information and complete cooperation with international investigations.
Dan Fahey, Who Attends the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Is a
Navy Veteran and Former Board Member of the National Gulf War Resource Center
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times