Uranium suspected in Iraq merc's death

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.

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.

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Following impact with hard targets, uranium metal undergoes combustion releasing large quantities of very small uranium oxide dust particles into the environment.

These dust particles derived from depleted uranium weapons are drastically different from the natural uranium that is normally present in rocks and soil.

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

June 26, 2001 -- People may think of the ground under their feet as being stationary, but the soil and dust of the world is constantly on the move, blown aloft by the wind -- sometimes across entire oceans!

Now, anyone with access to the World Wide Web can watch airborne dust migrate around the globe simply by pointing their browser to the aerosol homepage for NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, or "TOMS" for short. Although the primary function of TOMS is to monitor the ozone layer, it also measures aerosols -- that is, airborne dust, smoke, and other particulates. NASA scientists use these data to create daily maps and movies that they post online.

Our planet's atmosphere provides a transcontinental highway for dust that's been stirred up from dry soils by strong winds. Because dust particles are so small -- often less than 0.002 mm across -- they can remain aloft for days as they ride global rivers of air. Larger sand grains don't get airborne as often or for as long, but they can be pushed along the ground by the wind or washed away by water erosion.

This constant reshuffling of the world's sand and dust ties the continents together and serves as a reminder that, in the natural world, there are no political boundaries. Airborne microbes and pollen in Florida or Brazil might have come from Africa. Mineral dust in the soils of India could have blown over from Iran.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26jun_1.htm

Fiction: Alpha particles can't penetrate clothes and skin.

Fact: This statement ignores the most prevalent and dangerous pathway for uranium to get into the human body. Inhaled uranium can remain in the lungs and bones for years where it continues to emit alpha, beta and gamma radiation. Each alpha particle can traverse up to several hundred cells causing somatic and genetic alterations. Multiply this by billions of such particles and a huge amount of cellular damage becomes possible. The majority (50-70%) of the airborne DU particles sampled during the testing of 105 mm DU projectiles were in the respirable range and capable of reaching the non-ciliated bronchial tree. Studies also indicate that the half-time in the lungs is up to 5 years.

Soluble DU compounds have rapid access to the bloodstream with consequent toxic effects on the target organs and the bone where it is incorporated. Mass spectrometry results of deceased Canadian veteran, Captain Terry Riordon, confirmed that depleted uranium was present in his bone. From there it can compromise the immune system and affect the stem cells that travel throughout the body thereby affecting many other organs. Soldiers inside a tank or armoured vehicle can inhale tens of milligrams of DU after the shell goes through the tank. Compare this to the maximum allowable yearly dose in the U.S. for inhaled uranium is 1.2 milligrams per year.

http://www.umrc.net/facts_and_fictions.aspx

Contamination of Persian Gulf War Veterans and Others by Depleted Uranium

by Leonard A. Dietz

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Only the first three isotopes in the uranium decay series or chain headed by U-238 are important in determining the radioactivity of DU (Ref. 12). Uranium-238 decays into thorium-234 (Th-234), which decays into protactinium-234 (Pa-234), which decays into U-234, etc. down the decay chain. The 246,000 year half life of U-234 is too long for it to decay much during our lifetimes and produce significant numbers of decay progeny.

The U-238 decay chain is broken during the chemical reduction of uranium hexafluoride into DU metal and is broken again during the melting and processing of the metal into a penetrator. To determine the maximum time it takes to regain equilibrium in the partial decay chain, we assume a solid sample of uranium that initially contains only the U-238 isotope, i.e. no decay progeny. Using Bateman's equations, (Ref. 13), we calculate the growth of Th-234 and Pa-234 activities as a function of elapsed time in weeks. The results are given in Table II.

Table II. Radioactivity (disintegrations/second) in 1 gram of
U-238 with no decay progeny initially present.

Half lives used:
U-238 = 4.47e9 years
Th-234 = 24.10 days
Pa-234 = 1.17 minutes, 6.69 hours (two decay states)
U-234 = 2.46e5 years (Ref. 14).
Scientific notation is used, i.e. 2.46e5 = 246000.

Weeks U-238 ---> Th-234 ---> Pa-234 ---> U-234
------------------------------------------------------------
0 12,430 0 0 0.000
1 12,430 2,270 2,150 0.000
5 12,430 7,890 7,840 0.001
10 12,430 10,770 10,750 0.004
15 12,430 11,830 11,820 0.007
20 12,430 12,210 12,210 0.010
25 12,430 12,350 12,350 0.013
30 12,430 12,400 12,400 0.017

After 25 weeks, Th-234 and Pa-234 have reached 99.4% of the decay rate of U-238 and for practical purposes have reached secular equilibrium with U-238, their parent isotope. Secular equilibrium means that the decay progeny of U-238 are being replaced at the same rate they are decaying; after 25 weeks all three isotopes are decaying at approximately the same rate. This is a maximum time; in reality, equilibrium will be reached much faster, since these two isotopes can never be separated totally from U-238. The isotope U-238 emits alpha particles and also emits some gamma rays. Its decay progeny Th-234 and Pa-234 each emit beta particles and gamma rays. An alpha particle is a fast helium atom with its two electrons removed, a beta particle is a high-speed electron and a gamma ray is like an X-ray.

From this analysis we conclude that in a solid sample of DU, six months at most after manufacture of a DU penetrator, or DU armor for a tank, or DU particles in a person's body, substantial additional radiation in the form of beta particles and gamma rays always will be present. In fact, most of the penetrating gamma radiation and all of the penetrating beta radiation from DU comes, not from uranium, but from the decay progeny of U-238 (Ref. 15) (my emphasis /jc). In a year, only one-thousandth of a gram (1 milligram or mg) of DU generates more than a billion alpha particles, beta particles and gamma rays. The U.S. Army has investigated the generation of DU aerosols in armored vehicles hit by DU cannon rounds. Their investigators report "...that personnel inside DU struck vehicles could receive a dose in the `tens of milligrams' range due to inhalation" (Ref. 16). This exposure results in an acute dose of uranium.

Gamma rays become absorbed in body tissue as follows. If their energy exceeds 40 keV, part of the gamma-ray energy is transferred to an atomic electron, setting it in high-speed motion (1 keV = 1000 electron volts energy). The remaining energy is carried off by a new gamma ray. This process, called the Compton effect, repeats until the gamma ray has an energy below about 40 keV where the photoelectric effect dominates and the remaining energy can be transferred to a photoelectron. For example, using Gofman's method, (Ref. 17) one can calculate that an 850 keV gamma ray absorbed in body tissue will produce a packet of high-speed Compton electrons and a fast photoelectron that on average can traverse 137 body cells. By contrast, according to Gofman, X-rays commonly used in medical diagnosis have a peak energy of 90 keV and an average energy of 30 keV (Ref. 17) A 30 keV X-ray in body tissue can be converted into a photoelectron of this energy, which on average can traverse only 1.7 cells. Ionization along the tracks of high-speed electrons in tissue can cause damage to genetic material in the nuclei of cells. Thus, a high energy gamma ray from Pa-234 is much more penetrating than a typical medical X-ray and can damage far more living cells. The many 2.29 MeV beta particles emitted by Pa-234 are extremely penetrating in body tissue (1 MeV = 1 million electron volts energy). Referring to the experimental data given by Gofman (Ref. 17), each one of these beta particles can traverse more than 500 body cells.

http://www.wise-uranium.org/dgvd.html#PATHDU

Estimate of radiation dose from a depleted uranium oxide particle

If the above estimates of radiation dose (170 rem/yr) received by lung tissue surrounding the depleted uranium oxide particle is correct, then it is 34 times the maximum dose that radiation workers are permitted to recieve and 100 times higher than the maximum acceptable dose for the general population. For a 5 micrometer dia. depleted uranium oxide particle (8 times the volume), the estimated dose is 1,360 rem, or 272 times the maximum permissible dose to a radiation worker. Until these doses can be related to a cancer risk factor, they must be viewed as qualitative indicators of danger, as red flags.

www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/Dietz-L/Dietz-du-3.html

After the war, he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1949 with a BS in physics, and received an MS in physics in 1950. He then joined GE and worked in the general engineering laboratory in Schenectady until 1955, when he transferred to Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory where he worked for 28 years. He was an experimental research physicist in mass spectrometry and was responsible for developing advanced mass spectrometer instrumentation and new analytical techniques for isotope ratio analysis of uranium and plutonium. His extensive published research in ion detection resulted in ion pulse-counting detectors for mass spectrometry. He was manager of a technical group that included the mass spectrometer component. Dr. Dietz was active in a local Boy Scout troop while his sons were growing up and was a volunteer fireman for 14 years. He was treasurer of Jones Boarding Home, a local non-profit corporation that took care of mentally disadvantaged adults, and was active in the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Albany, and was president of the Albany Memorial Society. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he provided physics support on airborne uranium particles from depleted uranium munitions to TV, radio and print journalists, to Congress, and to environmentalists and researchers who were investigating the spread and health risks of these radioactive particles. A generous and loving husband and father, Dr. Dietz is survived by his wife of 55 years, Betty; his children, Thomas, Kristin and Allen; two grandchildren, Max and Iris.

http://www.umrc.net/dietz.aspx

Gulf War Veterans and Depleted Uranium
Prepared for the Hague Peace Conference, May 1999
By Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., G.N.S.H.

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Each atomic transformation produces another radioactive chemical: first, uranium 238 produces thorium 234, (which has a half life of 24.1 days), then the thorium 234 decays to protactinium 234 (which has a half life of 6.75 hours), and then protactinium decays to uranium 234 (which has a half life of 2.47E+5 or 247,000 years). The first two decay radioisotopes together with the U 238 count for almost all of the radioactivity in the depleted uranium. Even after an industrial process which separates out the
uranium 238 has taken place, it will continue to produce these other radionuclides. Within 3 to 6 months they will all be present in equilibrium balance. Therefore one must consider the array of radionuclides, not just uranium 238, when trying to understand what happened when veterans inhaled depleted uranium in the Gulf War.

http://www.grip.org/bdg/pdf/g1664.pdf

Uranium-238
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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While uranium-238 is minimally radioactive, its decay products - Thorium 234 and Protactinium 234 - are beta particle emitters with half-lives about 20 days and one minute respectively (Pa 234 decays to Uranium 234, which has a half-life of hundreds of millennia, and this isotope does not build to equilibrium concentration for a very long time). When the two first isotopes in the decay chain reach their (tiny) equilibrium concentrations, a sample of initially pure uranium-238 will emit three times the radiation due to uranium-238 itself, and most of this will be beta radiation. After all the beta radiation is almost over, the by-product of uranium-238 would be (Pb) lead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-238