A MUST READ and FORWARD : The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm

[mikelewis]

This is hard to get through, especially if you have kids.

A MUST READ and FORWARD : The Tiny Victims of Desert Storm
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_19046.shtml

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. thank you for posting this needs to be talked up more.....recomended

the horrors of exposure to depleted uranium upon all children...Jesus wept

are the men in the WH who are responsible for this even capable of asking for forgiveness?

can they be forgiven?

[WatchWhatISay]

If I must read it

Then I'll have to finish it later. I've read all I can bear for now. It'll be tough to finish reading it, but I'll do it later.

[mike_c]

2. kick and a recommendation...

...no words.

[mikelewis]

3. "cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love"

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love."

* Source: Martin Luther King Jr. "Beyond Vietnam" Speech at Riverside Church in New York City, April 4, 1967

[JohnyCanuck]

4. Checkout the presentation by Thomas Fasy MD PhD on

Depleted Uranium hazards. Originally posted by reprehensor with the permission of Dr. Fasy.

Dr. Fasy is an Associate Clinical Professor of Pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He has longstanding interests in carcinogenesis and environmental toxicology. In the past two years, he has lectured at conferences and university campuses on the toxic effects of inhaling uranium oxide dusts derived from depleted uranium weapons.

<SNIP>

By the early 1900s, uranium was well recognized to be a kidney toxin. By the mid-1940s, uranium was known to be a neurotoxin. By the early 1970s, uranium was recognized to be a carcinogen based on mortality studies of uranium workers and on experiments with dogs and monkeys. The first evidence that uranyl ions bind to DNA was reported in 1949 and by the early 1990s, uranium was shown to be a mutagen. Also, in the early 1990s, uranium was shown to be a teratogen, that is, an inducer of birth defects. The toxic effects of uranium on the kidney and on the nervous system typically occur within days of exposure and radiation probably plays little or no role in mediating these effects. In contrast, the carcinogenic effects of uranium have a delayed onset. The teratogenic effects of uranium might be due to exposure of one parent prior to conception as well as to exposure of the mother to uranium early in pregnancy.

Now let us briefly consider the routes of exposure to uranium. In the context of the dust particles derived from depleted uranium weapons, this means exposure to uranium oxides. By far the most dangerous route of exposure to uranium oxides is the inhalational or respiratory route. Absorption of uranium oxides through the gastrointestinal tract, the skin and the conjunctivae is possible but quite limited.

<SNIP>

Soil particles contain uranium at very low concentrations, typically less than 5 parts per million; the vast majority of these soil particles, however, are too large to be inhaled deep into the lungs. In contrast, the dust particles derived from depleted uranium weapons contain very high concentrations of uranium, typically more than 500.000 parts per million; moreover, most of the D.U. dust particles are sufficiently small to be inhaled deep into the lungs. Thus, compared to the uranium naturally present in the environment, D.U. dust contains uranium in a form that is vastly more bio-available and more readily internalized.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4124449

[JohnyCanuck]

5. Gulf vets were unusually susceptible to a dozen ailments

Quote from the article:

Researchers have been probing Gulf War syndrome since late 1991, when returning soldiers reported a spate of mysterious maladies. Conclusions have been slow to arrive. Last June the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed that Gulf vets were unusually susceptible to a dozen ailments--from rashes to incontinence, hair loss to memory loss, chronic indigestion to chronic pain. But in August a Pentagon study concluded that neither the vets nor their loved ones showed signs of any "new or unique illness." Veterans' advocates disputed that finding, as did the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, which declared that the report's "reasoning . . . is not well explained." And while there is, as yet, no absolute proof that Gulf vets' babies are especially prone to congenital problems, patterns of defects have begun to emerge--patterns unlikely to result from chance alone.

It's interesting to note that the sick vets appear to report a multiplicty of symptoms.

From another article "Horror Of US Depleted Uranium In Iraq Threatens World":

Despite all that evidence of the harm done by DU, governments on both sides of the Atlantic have repeatedly claimed that as it emits only 'low level' radiation DU is harmless. Award-winning scientist, Dr. Rosalie Bertell who has led UN medical commissions, has studied 'low-level' radiation for 30 years. 2 She has found that uranium oxide particles have more than enough power to harm cells, and describes their pulses of radiation as hitting surrounding cells 'like flashes of lightning' again and again in a single second.2 Like many scientists worldwide who have studied this type of radiation, she has found that such 'lightning strikes' can damage DNA and cause cell mutations which lead to cancer.

Moreover, these particles can be taken up by body fluids and travel through the body, damaging more than one organ. To compound all that, Dr. Bertell has found that this particular type of radiation can cause the body's communication systems to break down, leading to malfunctions in many vital organs of the body and to many medical problems. A striking fact, since many veterans of the first Gulf war suffer from innumerable, seemingly unrelated, ailments. (emphasis added)

http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php/20050429121615724

[fearnobush]

6. Wow - thats real tough to read especially with twins on the way.

I rarely tear up, Im doing it now - fuck... these monsters must be crushed.
"There's a stark pattern of Defense Department recklessness." -SEN.JAY ROCKEFELLER

I will be a happy person when I get to spit on Rumsfeld's grave.