Vieques to U.S. Navy:
'Clean up DU shells'
By John
Catalinotto
Residents of Vieques are demanding that the U.S. Navy
fulfill its responsibility to the local environment and clean
up depleted-uranium shells it fired on the island.
In early January, Navy spokespeople admitted firing 263
shells reinforced with DU during practice runs in Vieques "by
accident." They said Navy forces were able to recover 57
rounds, leaving 206.
Activists on Vieques don't believe the tests were an
accident, since they know the Pentagon closely monitors the use
of DU shells. And they charge the Pentagon is covering up other
incidents in which the radioactive munitions were fired on the
island.
New York Democrat Rep. Jose Serrano has called for a
congressional investigation. "The use of cancer-inducing
depleted uranium on Vieques must be investigated through
federal hearings," he said.
DU shells are reinforced with uranium-238, a byproduct of
the process that makes atomic bombs or nuclear fuel. The dense
DU makes the shell capable of penetrating steel. But when it
strikes the steel, it burns and sends radioactive and poisonous
uranium oxide into the air, where it can be inhaled or
ingested.
Iraqi doctors have reported increases of childhood leukemia,
other cancers and birth defects in the area of their country
where U.S. forces fired almost a million DU shells. DU is also
suspected of being a cause of Gulf War Syndrome.
U.S. forces also used DU shells in Bosnia in 1995 and
against Yugoslavia in 1999, but the brass have refused to tell
United Nations investigators how many were used.
On Vieques, incidents of cancer among the residents are 26.7
percent higher than in the main island of Puerto Rico,
according to a 30-year study released several years ago by
Puerto Rico's Health Department.
Dr. Rafael Rivera Castano, an epidemiologist at the
University of Puerto Rico, said, "In Vieques, there are no
factories that contaminate the air. The only explanation is the
environmental contamination we've found--lead, arsenic,
chromium and now radioactive contamination from depleted
uranium--which only comes from the bombing and exercises of the
Navy." (Jan. 13, Fox News)
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