Uranium Shells Tied To Gulf War Illnesses

A citizen activist group accused the Defense Department of ignoring the possibility that exposure to the Army’s depleted uranium shells may have caused unexplained illnesses suffered by Gulf War veterans.

“We’re here to demand an independent investigation,” Sara Flounders, coordinator of the Depleted Uranium Education Project, said Tuesday.

The New York-based group has published a book, “Metal of Dishonor,” which asserts that the Pentagon is endangering lives by using depleted uranium weapons.

The Pentagon maintains American troops face no health risk from depleted uranium, which it uses in artillery shells and bombs designed to destroy tanks. Depleted uranium also is used on tank armor to protect U.S. tanks in battle.

Pentagon tests have shown that the radiological hazard of depleted uranium is negligible, the department says. It insists that medical tests of the few dozen American soldiers known to have been exposed to depleted uranium during the war produced no conclusive evidence of health damage.

At a news conference, anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott accused the Pentagon of a “huge cover-up” of the health risks of exposure to depleted uranium.

“The Gulf War was actually a nuclear war,” she contended. Low-level radioactivity of depleted uranium shells used during the 1991 war against Iraqi armored vehicles and in test firings in Saudi Arabia is causing cancer in veterans and may be responsible for other unexplained Gulf War illnesses, she said.

xxxx