During the last two years I have been trying to ascertain whether or not depleted uranium is a major factor in the illness of veterans, known as Gulf War Syndrome. The GWS is clearly widespread, important and relatively intractable. Research undertaken by the US Government has been very unsatisfactory, and the Rand Report which has been produced with Congressional money is little more than a public relations tool. Hence, I think that we should state as clearly as possible what we know - and do not know- at this point in time, about DU and the Gulf War Syndrome.


THE HAZARD:

When a depleted uranium penetrator hits a hardened target, there is an extreme temperature increase, in the range of 5000 degrees Centigrade. The melting points of uranium metal, 1132 degrees Centigrade and uranium oxide, which is 2865 degrees Centigrade, are exceeded. At this extreme heat, a ceramic (glass) form of uranium oxide is created, which is highly insoluble in human body tissue.

Therefore exposure to DUM (depleted uranium munition) is likely to include uranium oxide dust as well as ceramic uranium oxide aerosol in unknown proportions.

Any aerosol of this ceramic DUM which is smaller than 10 micron can be inhaled, and it can damage the respiratory system. The very small particles, less than 2.5 micron, can penetrate to the lower lung area, while the larger particles will affect the nose and trachea-bronchial tissue.. The particles can be rough, and the mechanical body motion will tend to knock off the protrusions first. These particles may be small enough to pass the lung-blood barrier and be scavenged by blood cells and deposited (permanently) in the thoracic lymph nodes. While this will be a very small amount, uranium is an alpha particle emitter and can damage the lymph tissue which travels throughout the body.

Gradually, with a probable half life of two years in the lung, these ceramic aerosol particles will be washed through the lung into the blood stream. (After two years 50% remains; after 4 years 25% remains; after 6 years 12.5% remains, after 8 years 6.25% remains in the lungs).


PROBABLE ORGANS AFFECTED BY THIS INTERNAL CONTAMINATION WITH DUM:

According to the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, in Bethesda Maryland, the uranium oxide which moves into the blood from the lungs will accumulate in the kidney, tibia bone (the inner and larger bone of the leg below the knee) and the skull. They add that there will also be significant concentration in muscle, spleen, liver, heart, lung and brain.


WHAT DAMAGE CAN BE CAUSED BY THIS INTERNAL CONTAMINATION WITH DUM:

DUM contains a mixture of four radioisotopes: U 238, Th 234, Pa 234 and U234. The predominant isotope is U 238, but the two decay products, Th 234 and Pa 234 are more radioactive than uranium. This means they are subject to more frequent atomic level "explosions" or nuclear transformations than uranium. The sphere of greatest influence around an internal particle of DUM about 2 microns in size, is about 30 microns in radius. The energy released by U 238 (half life of 4.51X10E9 years) in each transformation is a 4.2 MeV (million electron volts) alpha particle; that released by Th 234 (half life of 24.1 days) is 0.191 MeV beta particles; that released by Pa 234 (half life 6.75 hours) is 0.568 MeV beta particles and some 0.31 gamma rays; U 234 (half life of 2.47 X 10E5 years) releases 4.82 MeV alpha particles. It is not likely that any other radionuclides will be present. However, it should be noted that the diameter of the average human living cell is about 5 microns, and it only requires 6 to 10 eV to b reak the DNA. Therefore there is no level of DUM contamination which one could consider "safe" or "harmless".

The practice of averaging this damage over the whole body, and then declaring it "trivial" would like averaging the force of a bullet over a whole company of soldiers, and declaring that there was not enough energy to do damage to the company!

The picture one needs to form is that the human body has trillions of cells, and perhaps a few hundred are affected in the immediate vicinity of wherever these particles happen to be lodged. When a cell is damaged, is may die (which causes no further problem), be repaired, or continue to live and reproduce itself in the damaged state. It is this latter case which causes chronic illness, premature aging effects and can ultimately cause cancer.

Eventually, the particles are removed from the body in urine. The amount in urine reflects the amount which has been traveling in the blood in the two or three weeks prior to urine analysis. There will be more uranium still trapped in body tissues, so this amount must be estimated based on the amount passed in a 24 hour period in urine. There original amount of DUM inhaled eight or nine years earlier is even more difficult to estimate. Probably there was a mixture in the first contamination event, with some of the uranium passing through the body quickly and some retained for a long time. The amount measure now is likely to be the fraction with the longest biological half time.

WHAT EVIDENCE DO WE HAVE THAT THIS HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

More than 40 Gulf War veterans have now been tested for DUM in a 24 hour urine sample. About 9 members of the Iraq public living in the south have also been tested. The veterans average DUM in urine was about 3 micrograms, while the civilians had about 2 micrograms. Since DUM does no occur in nature, there should be no DUM in urine. It can be distinguished from natural uranium which is ingested with food and also occurs in urine, by isotopic analysis of the total uranium found. There is now no doubt that DUM with long biological half-life was inhaled by both military personnel and civilians in the Gulf War.


We are not sure of the calculation of DUM still trapped in body tissue, or still in the lung, based on the amount found in urine for individual veterans or civilians, because there are biological parameters
needed for this calculations. The characteristics of this toxic material have not been made available with sufficient scientific backing to civilian health professionals. They may be available from the
Military Radiobiology Laboratory. I found only one published research paper on ceramic DUM, published just before the Gulf War by the National Radiation Protection Board in the UK. Even this one paper was not quoted in the Rand library research. More analysis needs to be undertaken before one can have a secure estimate, based on urine measurements, of how much DUM is retained in the body, and how much was originally inhaled or ingested during the war.


MEDICAL CARE FOR THIS CONTAMINATION:

The most important first step to health would be to facilitate the removal of the DUM from the body. This type of therapy is complicated by the known effect of DUM on the kidneys. Therefore, if you pull too much DUM from tissues, you run the risk of sending too much too quickly through the tubules, kidney and ureter, causing unwanted damage.

For anyone with a relatively large amount of DUM inhalation, it will require hospitalization under the care of a qualified toxicologist in order to use appropriate chelation therapy to remove a substantial part of the contaminant. For lesser contamination, I would recommend using distilled water for drinking, because it is a mild chelating agent. Another product, called Blue-Green Algae (or Spirulina), which can be purchased in a Health Food store, can also be used. However, at the first sign of any kidney problem one should stop using it or cut back on the dose. If one has the help of a physician who will monitor for kidney damage, it would be best.

This chelating agent will pull out toxins of all kinds from tissue, not just the DUM. Sometimes if one has in the past experienced a rash from some product, that same rash will again appear. This is because the toxic material was stored in fatty tissue (where it was not in circulation) and the Blue Green Algae has brought it into the blood stream for excretion. It is important to combine a large amount of distilled water with this therapy, so that there is less damage to kidneys and so that the toxins do not go back into storage but are removed from the body in urine. You can control this therapy yourself by stopping to give the body a rest when needed, or regulating the dose. When there is no more reaction to the chelating treatment you have probably finished pulling out the toxins from storage.

Another natural therapy, which is often helpful, is to give the liver a rest from its usual functions so that it can detoxify the body. This is the liver's natural function. This requires a day or two in which you eat nothing but unprocessed foods - fresh fruits and vegetables, or freshly squeezed juices. It is not a diet to lose weight, so eat as much as you want. It is just meant to give the liver a break from processed foods with easy to digest natural products, so that it is free to do the detoxification needed. Many Vietnam vets saved their lives and health through this practice!

This detoxification is important since the body stores what it thinks are nutrients for special needs of the body when there is some stress or trauma. If one has surgery, as in an automobile accident, gets pregnant, or experiences some other stress, the body will dump these toxins into the blood in order to help! Therefore the time to detoxify is when one feels the best!


The body will try to heal itself, but may require rest, tender loving care, and some medical assistance. However, the removal of the cause of damage is your number one concern.


WHERE SHOULD BE PUT OUR EFFORTS NEXT:

How to proceed at this time is really a political decision rather than a medical one. You may want to determine what proportion of the GWS can be attributed to DUM. This could be done, but it would require a well designed random study of veterans in each relevant type of military activity that was present in the Gulf. With such a random sample and a urine analysis for each vet, we could estimate the proportion of vets in each activity category exposed, and the relative amount of exposure, and match this with the proportion exhibiting the symptoms of GWS.

It would also be possible to do a study which would look at the level of DUM in urine and the spectrum of illnesses exhibited by the veteran, so to identify those symptoms most likely to be related to the DUM. This would also require careful planning of a strategic study.

Undertaking this research would help vets whether they were tested or not if a class action type legal approach is taken. However, it would be both slow and costly. Results might not be ready for years because of the need to raise money and then carry out the testing.

My feeling is that the detoxification is more urgent than the research! If those who try this detoxification would carefully document their experience together with any noted health improvement, I would find this to be the best research and the most helpful way to proceed. It does not mean very much to prove your point if you are dead.


LEGAL IMPLICATIONS:

It is my understanding, based on the discussion in Geneva August 1999, that the 1997 Protocol I Article 36, which deals with new weapons, states the prohibitions in terms of weapons which ”cause or could cause…” language. I think that the information which I have presented here would be in the “ could cause…” category, and it is a strong reason for declaring these weapons illegal under existing international law. However, I am not a lawyer, and you need to check with someone competent in international law, like Dr. Karen Parker. I would be glad to help, if you wish to take legal action to have these weapons banned. This might be another route toward achieving the recognition and assistance demanded by the severe medical consequences experienced by the Gulf War veterans.