A 20-year-old soldier died from acute leukemia in Iraq

I would assume that anyone can have leukemia. But this is a 20 year old man who was healthy enough to be in the Army. Does anyone know if DU munitions have been known to cause leukemia? Thanks in advance if anyone knows.

Don

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2152000.php

Families seek answers about soldiers’ deaths

At least one family, and possibly two, want independent opinions on what caused the deaths of their loved ones after they became ill in Iraq.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Bellville, Texas, family of Army Spc. Zeferino Colunga requested medical records, personal effects and blood and tissue samples of the 20-year-old soldier.

Colunga, of the 4th Squadron, 2nd Armored Calvary Regiment, died Aug. 6 at Homburg Hospital in Germany, after he fell ill in Iraq. The family was told he had pneumonia and acute leukemia, his 19-year-old sister, Teresa Colunga, said.

“We gave the military my brother alive,” she said. “They gave him back to us dead. I want to find out what happened.”

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body!

This is from a drudge report..
"SOLDIERS and civilians in Iraq face a health timebomb after dangerously high levels of radiation were measured around Baghdad."


"Levels between 1,000 and 1,900 times higher than normal were recorded at four sites around the Iraqi capital where depleted uranium (DU) munitions have been used across wide areas."

"Experts estimate that Britain and the US used 1,100 to 2,200 tons of armour-piercing shells made of DU during attacks on Iraqi forces."

"That figure eclipses the 375tons used in the 1991 Gulf War. Unlike that largely desert-based conflict, most of the rounds fired in March and April were in heavily residential areas."

I wonder what will happen to the Army Times person who let that story see print

about hazardous duty pay and the like.

Rumsfeld was said to have been overheard griping that "no wonder we're losing the PR battle when our own side is writing stories like this."

DoD And DU
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8094

So he can be close to the action and get a real feel for what's going on?

LEUKEMIA OUTBREAK AMONG TROOPS CAUSES TURMOIL IN NATO
RAMSEY CLARK DEMANDS BAN ON DEPLETED URANIUM  
posted 1/7/01

Deaths from leukemia of Italian, Belgian, Spanish, Portuguese and  other NATO troops occupying Bosnia or Kosovo and other illnesses  have aroused a storm of popular anger and concern about dangers to  NATO troops stationed in the region from the residue of depleted- uranium weapons.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is a founder of the  International Action Center, has long been an opponent of DU  weapons.
DU is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process.  This radioactive and toxic substance, 1.7 times as dense as lead, is used to make shells that penetrate steel armor.  

Many people, including physicists and physicians, believe that uranium- oxide dust inhaled or ingested by troops in the Gulf War is the cause, or a contributing cause, of the "Gulf-War Syndrome". Of the approximately 697,000 U.S. troops stationed in the Gulf during the war, over 100,000 veterans are now chronically ill. Cancer rates in southern Iraq have increased dramatically. For example ovarian cancer in women has increased by sixteen fold.

The Pentagon used DU in large amounts in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia in  1995 and in Kosovo in 1999.
http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/du_eur.htm

was that enormous amounts of chemical weapons that cause cancer and can cause birth defects were used and stored in southern iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, as well as the massive oil fires, which filled the air with toxic smog in S. Iraq as well as released millions of gallons of oil into the water supplies.

Ramsey clark is also a noted defender of Saddam hussein, and Slobadan milosevic (he was Milosevic's attorney)
He has defended many dicators and war criminals,
from nazis to Rwandan Militia leaders.
The IACenter is part of ANSWER, and is affiliated with the stalinist WWP. They used to hold pro Serbian rallies. Clark once said that milosevic was a 'peaceful socialist' and saddam hussein was a 'man of great strength and courage'.

Can strike at all ages. One of my friends died in High School from it.

He would have had to had a complete physical when he signed up and was wondering if between the time he had that physical and the time of his death being at most, a couple of years is normal? I too knew kids who died from it at a young age. But if I remember right these kids were sick for a long time before they passed. Can the onset of this be that fast, and could a miltary physical have missed early signs if there are any? If you know? Because I do not.

Don

who said he had been feeling sick and tired, thought it was because he wasn't getting enough exercise, so he spent the next six months working out really hard. He really built his system up, but an uncontrolled nosebleed and fever sent him to the ED for treatment. He managed to get by about two more years before he died. The stress of his job didn't help either.

Or was he doing all of the diagnosing and treating by himself?

Don

It also wouldn't be inconceivable that a really gung-ho young fellow
who knew he had leukemia but was currently in remission might conceal
his disease from the Army doctors so that he could go and "serve his
country", do his patriotic duty, etc.. I don't know how feasible this
concealment would be, but I could imagine that it is possible.

Then, remission ends, and he dies.

Or maybe I've just watched "Gattaca" too many times. :-)

Atlant

leukemia. However there is a latency period - data from studies after Nagasaki and Hiroshima show a mean latency period to radiation induced leukemia at about 10 years. It's dose dependent too - the higher the dose the greater the risk.
I think it's doubtful this soldier's leukemia is related to exposure. Then again, you never know.


On edit: Marie Curie died from it while working with uranium ore.

of radiation than this soldier was. Marie Curie died from working with Radium, not uranium and working with it without protection for years.

I got a letter yesterday from one of the guys I sent a care package too. I won't go into details as to what he wrote me but I will share this much 'it's hell' and he said it more than once.
I am so worried about him and all of the soldiers over there.
He's no freeper, thank goodness!

This scares me leukemia! I realize people do get lukemia but I just can't believe that the DU is not causing this or if it isn't DU our soldiers have gotten into something that the military is trying to hide from us or it's the vaccines. Would a persons immune system that's fine get out of wack due to a combination of the above and the heat on top of it all?

We also have to remember the heat wasn't a factor under Poppy like it is with this invasion? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Also, we've heard stories where they aren't getting enough water. That's the one thing I asked the soldier I sent a package too are you getting enough water!? He didn't answer that question, waaa!
So, he's getting some water from me just in case. I know if it was me I wouldn't ask a stranger to send me this or that. I figure, he's the same way and maybe after a few letters/packages he won't feel weird about asking for something he needs.


I do know someone that was over there under Poppy and I've seen him suffer from DU he says it's the DU. I trust him and don't think he would lie to me he's a smart man he isn't lazy (trying to get out of work or government aid) he still works his job even when he's in pain.

I sure hope this young woman Teresa Clunga and all of the families can find answers and peace.
Another letter and phone calls going out from my end tomorrow to my Representatives. Family can ask but so can I these soldiers need our support and if we call our Reps. it may help the families get some answers. I say we ride the Reps. hard!

I remember the day, the hour I got sick...June 10th around 8:30 pm.

I felt like shit for about 2 and a half weeks. Flu like symptoms, very high fever, always tired. I mean so tired I would drive my wife to the park and ride about a mile away, drop the kids at daycare, then have to get home as soon as I could to get some rest as I was ready to pass out.

The first time I saw a doctor she said I had an upper bronchial infection and that it should clear up in a week or so. The symptoms didn't decrease but persisted and 2 and a half weeks later, after insisting on a blood test, the result was Acute Myloid Leukemia.

After treatment I was transplanted with stem cells from my brother and am doing awesome! I am back to normal completely.

The point of acute leakemia is that it comes on very, very quickly with no "specific" symptoms to speak of.

As for the causeof it...no ideas whatsoever. I had worked construction for 10 years in various fields, but no exposure to any chemicals or stuff like that. I asked the various docs and specialists involved in my case what the cause might have been. Everyone had the same answer; there is no real "cause" per sey but they all agreed that enviromental may have something to do with it.

In my case, I am the only person on both sides of my immediate family to have ever had a form of cancer.

*edited for typos

I only wonder if you would have had complete blood work done as the military does to all new recruits two years before your onset would have discovered the disease at an early stage? Thanks for your story and hope you keep progressing as well as you have. You must be a real fighter. I salute you.

Don

I will ask my doc that question as it's a good one.
Here's the thing though...having only been sick 2 and a half weeks I did catch it early. Other patients I knew with the same for of leukemia were sick over 2 months + before getting treatment.
There is chronic myloid leukemia which you can have for a couple years easily before being diagnosed.

Remeber, actue means, quick onset. So having said that, I'd wager that a 2 year old blood test would not reveal any leumeia.

It is far too soon. Leukemia and other cancers would take years to develop. Furthermore DU radiation does not penetrate the skin, it is too weak.
If you were to become sick with DU poisioning, like most heavy metal poisoning it would most likely affect your kidneys first.

Or ingesting it. Guess whats all mixed up in the sand in Iraq now? You know the place that has sand storms about once a week? How long does it take then? If you know?

Don

would be very low in the sandstorm, probably lower than the amount of natural uranium in the sand. DU dust makes up only a small portion of a fired projectile. You would have to worry more about inhaling sand than depleted uranium.
If you inhaled a sizable quantity of DU, the danger would be more to your kidneys as a result of heavy metal poisoning.

This doctor has done some.

http://www.iicph.org/docs/DU_Human_Rights_Tribunal.htm

I am an epidemiologist, with 30 years of experience in studying the health effect of exposure to ionizing radiation. I would like to call the attention of the UN Human Rights Tribunal to the use of depleted uranium (DU) weapons against Iraq in the Gulf War, and by NATO in Bosnia and the Kosovo-Yugoslavian war. DU is radioactive waste, and it attains special deadly properties when it is fired in battle. Because of its density and the speed of the missile or bullet (up to 5 mach) containing it, DU bursts into flame on impact. It reaches very high temperatures, and becomes a ceramic aerosol which can be dispersed 100 km from the point of impact.

<snip>DU is a very powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV (electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body. This long stay of DU from weapons within the body can now be demonstrated through 24-hour urine analysis. The presence of DU eight years after the Gulf War exposure, means that the internal organs: lung, lymph glands, bone marrow, liver, kidney, and immune system have experienced significant localized radiation damage. Testing of urine for both veterans of the Gulf War and citizens of Iraq has confirmed this long-term exposure to DU.

Since no DU occurs naturally, all uranium found in urine should be natural uranium unless there is a specific exposure to depleted or enriched uranium. From the two isotopic measurements, one can tell whether or not DU is present in the total sample of uranium by the following method:

<snip>This first approximation indicated that DU was present in the urine of both the Gulf War veterans and some of the Iraqi people, in quantities ranging from 0 to 10 micrograms. The radiation dose evaluation based on the biological half life for insoluble uranium oxide of 500 days, suggested by ICRP, shows that there is significant radiological hazard from this DU inhalation. DU is also a heavy metal, and is chemically toxic to humans. The true (observed) biological half-life of this ceramic uranium appears likely to be more than 10 years, and this presents an even more enhanced chemical and radiological hazard. For example, the magnitude of the individual hazard for fatal cancer may be as high as 3% to 5% for some veterans.

Two points need to be stressed: veterans and civilians in these wars WERE exposed to DU; and this inhaled DU represents a seriously enhanced risk of damaged immune systems and fatal cancers. This type of radiological and chemical warfare should be banned.

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I read of studies done on people who actually got shot with a DU round or had some shrapnel in them---none developed cancer.

I just do not buy all the horror stories about DU---there are far too many other forms of carcinogens and chemical toxins in Southern iraq during the 1980s and the gulf War for me to believe that DU was the main cause of the health problems.

DU is toxic, and is a low grade radioactive substance. It could be dangerous and should be cleaned up ASAP--and tests and monitoring of possible victims of DU poisoning should be done. DU should be shelved until definitive studies of it's potential toxcity are better known--but many studies say that DU is not as dangerous as made out, including by the World Health Organization, the European Union, The US Government and several independent studies.

I have noticed that the main doctors who condemn DU use all happen to be very left wing, or associated with very left wing organizations. If DU was such a problem, wouldn't we see conservative doctors coming out against it?

can be found conveniently compiled at

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0265931X

go to vol 64 issue 2/3

on edit, i believe these articles are freely available to the public, but if not i'll be happy to pass alongs pdf's to anyone who wants them

The armor piericing ordinance that is used on tanks contains DU. Wouldn't that still be present and able to infect soldiers as a result of clean-up operations, or infect the children I've seen playing on those burned out tanks?

I find this curious. Did he have leukemia before entering the army? Maybe not, but if he had a germline genetic mutation, it may not have manifested itself, and thus would not show up on a routine examination. Inhaling radioactive dust would not seem likely to cause such mutations, as leukemia results from problems in the bone marrow. So where did the leukemia come from? I find it unlikely he died directly from leukemia.

Leukemia would indeed increase his likelihood of contracting pneumonia, as depending on the type, might interfere with his ability to fight off an inhaled organism or small particle. If that particle was radioactive, I would anticipate lung cancer, versus a leukemia. I find it interesting that they found no cause of the pneumonia (perhaps more of a pneumonitis, from inhaled particles? Inquiring minds would love to know), so this lends more mystery to why this soldier died.

Pneumonia seems to be running rampant over there, and AFAIK, bacterial pneumonia is not a prevalent disease in the hot, arid desert environment.

Went home from class friday feeling bad.

His roommate found him dead sunday.

Turned out later it was acute leukemia. So, yes, it can strike quite fast.