Yourlawyer.com (Depleted Uranium Munitions News)

Study suggests cancer risk from depleted uranium

Tue, 08 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Depleted uranium, which is used in armour-piercing ammunition, causes widespread damage to DNA which could lead to lung cancer, according to a study of the metal's effects on human lung cells. The study adds to growing evidence that DU causes health problems on battlefields long after hostilities have ceased.

DU is a byproduct of uranium refinement for nuclear power. It is much less radioactive than other uranium isotopes, and its high density twice that of lead makes it useful for armour and armour piercing shells. It has been used in conflicts including Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq and there have been increasing concerns about the health effects of DU dust left on the battlefield. In November, the Ministry of Defence was forced to counteract claims that apparent increases in cancers and birth defects among Iraqis in southern Iraq were due to DU in weapons.

Now researchers at the University of Southern Maine have shown that DU damages DNA in human lung cells. The team, led by John Pierce Wise, exposed cultures of the cells to uranium compounds at different concentrations.
The compounds caused breaks in the chromosomes within cells and stopped them from growing and dividing healthily. "These data suggest that exposure to particulate DU may pose a significant [DNA damage] risk and could possibly result in lung cancer," the team wrote in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Previous studies have shown that uranium miners are at higher risk of lung cancer, but this has often been put down to the fact that miners are also exposed to radon, another cancer-causing chemical.

Prof Wise said it is too early to say whether DU causes lung cancer in people exposed on the battlefield because the disease takes several decades to develop.

"Our data suggest that it should be monitored as the potential risk is there," he said.

Prof Wise and his team believe that microscopic particles of dust created during the explosion of a DU weapon stay on the battlefield and can be breathed in by soldiers and people returning after the conflict.

Once they are lodged in the lung even low levels of radioactivity would damage DNA in cells close by. "The real question is whether the level of exposure is sufficient to cause health effects. The answer to that question is still unclear," he said, adding that there has as yet been little research on the effects of DU on civilians in combat zones. "Funding for DU studies is very sparse and so defining the disadvantages is hard," he added.

City, state veterans leaders seek munitions study

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700

During a campaign stop in Bristol, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman said he may try to amend a defense spending bill next week to add money for a study about the impact of depleted uranium munitions on the health of veterans.

"We need an independent study," the Connecticut Democrat said Friday.

Advocates for veterans have been saying for years they are concerned that the weakly radioactive, dense metal used in modern-day munitions may have exposed hundreds of thousands of soldiers to a range of health hazards.

They argue the U.S. government has done little to follow up the reports or lend a hand to veterans who may be suffering because of exposure to the material.

State Representative Roger Michele, a Bristol Democrat from the 77th District, called depleted uranium "the Agent Orange of this war" and asked for Lieberman's help in raising the issue on the federal level.

Michele, who co-chairs the General Assembly's Veterans Affairs Committee, said it is a big issue and that comprehensive testing is needed to find out what's really gone on with it.

He said that soldiers are coming home from battle with a range of health problems that might be connected to depleted uranium.

Michele said he believes that depleted uranium is "causing an awful lot of problems, like birth defects" and that a testing regimen is needed for returning veterans to find out how widespread the problem is.

City Councilor Art Ward, a Democrat who works as a veterans counselor for the state, said that experts haven't pinpointed particular problems but most think there's a major issue with depleted uranium.

"It's more obvious that it is than it isn't," Ward told Lieberman during the senator's campaign stop at Carmine's Italian Grill.

Lieberman said that if there is a question, the federal government has a responsibility to veterans to find out answers. He said that a defense appropriations bill that the Senate plans to take up Monday would be a good vehicle for adding funding to cover the necessary study.

"It may be that we can get an amendment in to get a study," Lieberman said. "It's short notice, but I think we can do it."

Study rethinks uranium danger

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Uranium, in its many forms, might be best for powering nuclear plants, shielding soldiers from harm’s way and busting enemy bunkers.

But in the scientific community, uranium is recognized as a noteworthy element, not only for its real world applications, but also for its elemental properties it is a weakly radioactive heavy metal.

Military use of depleted uranium, a byproduct of enriching natural uranium for munitions or nuclear power, has been a point of contention since its first widespread use in the first Gulf War, in which 320 tons were used.

The effect of radioactive material on living cells is well-documented but, until recently, the chemical properties of depleted uranium and how it affects living cells was not delineated.

A study put out by a woman originally from St. Paul proposes to change all that.

Diane Stearns, a professor at Northern Arizona University, published a study that suggests the mechanism by which depleted uranium affects mammalian cells.

Stearns said the study, which was put out by Northern Arizona University’s Native American Cancer Research Partnership, came out of interest expressed by American Indian tribes.

In the 1940s and 1950s, when uranium mining began in the Southwest, miners, many of whom were Navajo, were exposed to uranium and its carcinogenic daughter products such as radon.

Some of the exposed miners developed lung cancer. In 1990 the U.S. government issued the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which sought to compensate people who developed cancer and other illnesses from nuclear testing or uranium mining.

Stearns said her study focused on uranium as a heavy metal, rather than as a radioactive material.

“The big thing that we found is when you expose cells grown in the laboratory to uranium and isolate the DNA, it has uranium bound to it,” she said. “It could have effects as a radioactive metal because you have uranium right next to the DNA, but it also has effects as a heavy metal.”

Also, Stearns said, the mutations observed in the studies were different from what one would expect from mutations caused by radiation.

Stearns said conclusions from the study should not be directly applied to human health.

“We’re not trying to terrify everybody this is what we found, so we reported it,” she said. “These are mammalian cells grown in the lab, not human.”

At this point, Stearns said, it only “raises the question.”

She said that hopefully the knowledge ultimately can be used to prevent harm.

“If we understand its chemistry, hopefully we can understand how to prevent the damage,” she said.

Bill Tolman, a McKnight and L.I. Smith professor in the department of chemistry and the Center for Metals in Biocatalysis, said the mechanism suggested by Stearn’s study is reminiscent of one of the most famous anti-cancer drugs, Cisplatin.

“That drug has been found to cure several different types of cancer,” he said. “It’s a really important and very simple platinum complex. It works by binding DNA and changing its structure, ultimately leading to cell death.”

Depleted uranium and the military

Because of depleted uranium’s density (about 1.7 times that of lead) and its self-sharpening properties, it is widely used in projectiles, especially in anti-tank munitions.

Some U.S. soldiers became extensively exposed to depleted uranium for the first time in the first Gulf War because of friendly fire and exposure to contaminated vehicles.

Critics of using depleted uranium sometimes name it as the main or a secondary cause to what commonly are called Gulf War illnesses.

However, there is substantial evidence to the contrary, said Melissa McDiarmid, medical director of the Veterans Affairs’ depleted uranium follow-up program.

A possible link between depleted uranium and Gulf War illnesses has been reviewed by “celebrated, blue-ribbon panels who know a lot about this,” McDiarmid said.

To date, she said, there is no evidence that depleted uranium could be responsible for Gulf War illnesses.

McDiarmid’s program has followed 74 veterans of the Gulf War who were exposed to depleted uranium by friendly fire.

The main finding of the program is that people who have been exposed to depleted uranium or have embedded depleted uranium fragments will have greater levels of uranium in their urine.

The veterans in the program are separated statistically into those with high urine-uranium levels and those with low levels.

To date, McDiarmid hasn’t seen adverse health effects in either category of veterans caused by depleted uranium.

She said researchers do not see statistical differences in organ systems, which she called “a good thing.”

“One of the reasons I think we haven’t seen any differences is because if you compared the urine-uranium burden of the soldiers I take care of to the burden that’s been measured and reported in workers (and miners) 40 or 50 years ago, the guys I take care of have much lower values,” she said.

That is good news, McDiarmid said.

“What that means is we haven’t passed a threshold that one might have to pass in order to start to see organ dysfunction,” she said.

McDiarmid said her program always has focused on depleted uranium as a heavy metal, because tests show an affected person’s total radiation level is low.

Another facet of McDiarmid’s program is the free test it offers to veterans who are concerned about possible exposure to depleted uranium.

“Any veteran in the whole country who has any concern about potential exposure can access our program through their local VA,” she said.

Not all people agree with the conclusions being drawn from McDiarmid’s study.

Tedd Weyman, deputy director of the Uranium Medical Research Centre, said his organization has found elevated levels in U.S. soldiers and citizens from Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans.

The Uranium Medical Research Centre is self-described as “an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to provide objective and expert scientific and medical research into the effects of uranium, transuranium elements and radionuclides produced by the process of uranium decay and fission.”

Weyman said the number of people affected, about 50 percent to 65 percent of the total number tested, are exposed to the radioactive heavy metal.

He said these findings are “very troublesome for those that are dispersing it, like the army and the government and so on, because they don’t want people to know.”

He likened questioning uranium’s effects on the body to asking about the damage associated with smoking.

“The question represents the misinformation under which you have been propagandized,” he said. “In other words, uranium, as with all radionuclides, is an irradiating substance which releases particles into the environment.”

Weyman said that if radioactive material is inside the body, it immediately is doing damage at the cellular level.

“This is just fact,” he said.

There shouldn’t be differences drawn between uranium and depleted uranium, he said, because the effects are the same.

He said depleted uranium is 20 percent more radioactive than is generally accepted about 80 percent the level of natural uranium.

“It’s like saying which is worse: getting shot with 10 bullets or with eight bullets what difference does it make?” he said.

Weyman said uranium’s effect as a heavy metal and its radioactive nature both are important.

Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director for Deployment Health Support in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said there is no evidence to support depleted uranium affecting human health.

He said studies conducted on animals suggest uranium’s toxicity should not be tied directly to humans.

“The information is based on animal studies where, if you give an animal a very high blood level of uranium or depleted uranium in a very short period of time, it will cause kidney failure,” he said.

What’s interesting, he said, is that the level that causes kidney damage in animals is being exceeded in some of McDiarmid’s patients with fragments in their body, and their kidneys have adapted and are functioning normally.

Kilpatrick said the issue continues to be studied because people continue to be exposed.

“We are very concerned about the health of our men and women in uniform; we have a policy to do the testing should they be exposed,” he said. “We know that as long as it is outside of their body it doesn’t pose any health risk to them at all.”

New research on uranium's effect on DNA

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700

A Northern Arizona University biochemist and her students report that uranium can damage DNA as a heavy metal independent of its radioactive properties.

Their research has enormous implications for the study of depleted uranium as a component in military munitions.

Phys.org news agency reported on April 7 that Stearns and her students are the first researchers to discover that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells can mutate, the uranium altering the cell's DNA code. The end result can be that the affected DNA can produce a different protein or wrong amounts of protein, affecting cell growth, some of which can metastasize into cancer cells.

While scientists have long known that uranium can damage DNA as a radioactive metal, Stearns and her collaborators discovered that uranium could also damage DNA as a heavy metal, independent of its radioactive properties.

Sterns said, "Essentially, if you get a heavy metal stuck on DNA, you can get a mutation."

While scientists have discovered that other heavy metals are known to bind to DNA, Stearns and her collaborators are the first to link this trait to uranium.

The results of the team's research were published recently in Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis journals.

Depleted Uranium Munitions Birth Defect Cancer Injury Lawyers

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700

Depleted Uranium Munitions

Depleted uranium, or DU, is a radioactive by-product from the industrial process used to enhance uranium. Depleted uranium is the leftover uranium-238 that results when scientists seek to alter naturally occurring uranium into uranium-235, which is used to produce nuclear energy. Depleted uranium is used in bullets and shells because it is a very heavy metal and can penetrate most armaments. Depleted uranium is the end result when most of the highly radioactive isotopes of uranium are removed.

The United States and Great Britain’s armed forces use munitions manufactured from depleted uranium because, when combined with metal alloys, they are most effective warhead for penetrating enemy tanks. In addition, depleted uranium is twice as dense as lead, the United States Army uses depleted uranium in armor plating. As soon as depleted uranium makes contact with its target, the uranium becomes a mist that can often be inhaled. Winds can carry this radioactive dust several miles, potentially contaminating the air and water that innocent humans breathe and drink. These munitions were used in both Iraq wars, Kosovo, and training sessions in Puerto Rico. Additionally, soldiers can experience the same ailments and side effects.

2006 Northern Arizona University Study
In April 2006, Northern Arizona University released a study illustrating that depleted uranium may damage DNA. In Iraq, depleted uranium deposits have already had effects on the population, including a 600% rise in both leukemia rates in children and birth defect rates. Northern Arizona University, biochemist Diane Stearns and her students are the first to show that when cells are exposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNA and the cells acquire mutations. When uranium affixes to DNA, the genetic code in the cells of living organisms can change. Therefore, the DNA can make the wrong protein or wrong amounts of protein, which affects how cells grow. Some of these cells can grow to become cancer. Their findings were published recently in the journals Mutagenesis and Molecular Carcinogenesis.

The team’s findings have influential implications for the general population and the Navajo Nation living near abandoned mines within Southwestern states in the U.S. and in war-torn countries and the military, which uses depleted uranium. The uranium-mining boom crashed in the '1980s, and Stearns estimates that there are more than 1,100 abandoned mines on the Navajo Nation. Northern Arizona University, senior Hertha Woody grew up on the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, NM.

Prior to joining Stearns' research group, Woody said she was not very aware of heavy metal contamination of soil and water from a large uranium tailing pile near her hometown. But now she wonders about the ongoing health problems of her uncle who worked in the uranium mine at Shiprock. And she worries about others living in the area. "My parents still live there and drink the water," she noted.

On March 24, 2006, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wa. announced the start of an online petition aimed at convincing Congress to pass his bill insisting that the government investigate the harmful effects of depleted uranium munitions used by American troops.

If you or a loved one have developed a serious side effect or ailments as a result of being exposed to depleted uranium munitions, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified pollutants attorney.