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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the May 15, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Groups demand investigation of Pentagon's toxic metal

By John Catalinotto

Two events May 6 have started to chip away at the media censorship surrounding the dangers from depleted-uranium weapons.

Gulf War veterans, scientists, and doctors joined former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott in Washington that day to demand an independent inquiry into the health and environmental consequences of depleted-uranium weapons, which they describe as "highly toxic and radioactive."

DU is the waste product from the manufacture of enriched uranium. Like lead, it is a toxic heavy metal, and it is also a perpetual source of low-level radiation. Because DU is 1.7 times as dense as lead, shells made from DU alloys penetrate steel easily.

Speakers charged the U.S. government with criminal negligence for not informing soldiers of the known dangers of depleted uranium weapons during the 1991 Gulf War. They presented materials from several government documents that confirm that the military was aware of the dangers of radioactive weapons during that conflict.

Sergeant First Class Carol Picou (retired), who served in the Army 41^st Combat Support Hospital in the Gulf War, was at the news conference. Picou described her own symptoms from Gulf War illness and discussed the possibility that DU poisoning caused them.

Mark Panzera was with the 144^th New Jersey National Guard Service and Supply Company when his unit was hit by "friendly fire." Panzera had shell fragments in his body, and tested positive for DU. He blamed his loss of kidney function on the DU poisoning.

Participants in the news conference, organized by the Depleted Uranium Education Project of the International Action Center, explained how tens of thousands of GIs were in areas where they could have inhaled or ingested particles of toxic and radioactive uranium oxide from burnt DU rounds.

Sara Flounders, coordinator of the Depleted Uranium Education Project, demanded an independent investigation of Gulf War illnesses. She said: "the long history of Department of Defense cover-ups and false assurances, from the troops exposed to atomic testing to the Vietnam Vets exposed to Agent Orange, to the multiple toxic exposures in the Gulf" makes the Pentagon's own investigation suspect.

DU weapons were used for the first time during the Gulf War. More than 14,000 large caliber rounds and over 940,000 small caliber rounds were fired in Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield, scattering between 300 and 800 tons of DU waste throughout the Persian Gulf.

New book published on DU

The DU Education Project has published a new book entitled, "Metal of Dishonor-Depleted Uranium-How the Pentagon Radiates Soldiers and Civilians with DU Weapons," which is being released this week.

Clark, Caldicott and Picou are among the 25 activists and scientists who contributed articles to this book. They and others attended a panel discussion and book reception in the evening in Washington May 6 to promote "Metal of Dishonor" and to explain about DU.

That evening in New York, Project Censor, which began 20 years ago at Sonoma State University in California as a student project, met at Columbia University to present awards for the 10 most censored stories of 1996. Among the 10 stories selected as most censored was that of the danger from DU weapons.

Chris Larson, representing the Military Toxics Project's Depleted Uranium Citizens' Network, accepted the award for the work her group did trying to break through this censorship. Larson also announced the publication of "Metal of Dishonor" and a video with the same title produced by the People's Video Network.

Readers can find more information about the book and video on the International Action Center web page at http://www.iacenter.org or write the IAC at 39 W. 14 St., Suite 204, New York, NY 10011; phone (212) 633-6646; email iacenter@iacenter.org.

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