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Home Issues August 1, 2005 issue In Fact...)
editorial | posted July 14, 2005 (August 1, 2005 issue
In Fact...
DEPLETED URANIUM TOLL IN IRAQ
John S. Friedman writes: A group of soldiers who served in Iraq plan to
file a lawsuit within a month in Federal District Court against the Army
for violating its regulations by not offering safeguards against exposure
to depleted uranium, used in tank armor and artillery, and for not providing
adequate medical treatment. Although DU has been linked to Gulf War syndrome,
and scientists are concerned about civilian exposure to it during the
1999 war in Kosovo, the Pentagon continues to deny that DU inhalation
has harmful health effects. After being misdiagnosed by the Army, the
nine soldier plaintiffs, from New York National Guard units, who suffer
from a variety of health problems, were tested by a private laboratory,
which in most cases found DU traces in their bodies. A child of Gerard
Matthew, conceived after the father returned from Iraq, was born with
a deformed hand and missing fingers. Matthew, a member of a transport
unit from Harlem, blames his exposure to DU-laden dust. Asked about the
soldiers' symptoms, an Army spokesperson said, "These concerns are not likely attributed to exposure to depleted uranium." The
Army's environmental tests of selected sites did not detect any DU. Dr. Asaf
Durakovic, who supervised the soldiers' private DU testing and sent his own team
to measure sites in Iraq, called those results "hogwash." In June Louisiana
became the first state to require that vets be tested for DU.
