Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko’s death by polonium poisoning sheds light on a less visible but potentially devastating health hazard: depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is used for armor-piercing weaponry because it is nearly as strong as steel and much denser than lead. Projectiles fashioned from depleted uranium slice through concrete and steel, composite and ceramic armor like a knife through butter. In the process the uranium burns up and turns into a fine-grained powder.

It is this oxidized form of depleted uranium that poses a health hazard to Iraqis and our troops. Once uranium powder enters the air stream it is absorbed into the skin, mucous membranes and lungs and from there enters the bloodstream. All isotopes of uranium are radioactive. The chemistry of uranium is similar to stable toxic metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead. Uranium bio-accumulates. Once entering us it builds up, especially in organs designed to remove toxins, such as the lungs and liver.

The Department of Defense should issue film badges to troops working in depleted uranium-contaminated regions of Iraq. Use of depleted uranium in combat must go the way of nerve gas and other weapons banned by international agreement. Past and continued use of depleted uranium and the resulting toxic waste residue is analogous to the litter of land mines in war torn areas of the underdeveloped world. Land mines continue to kill and maim the innocent years after combat ends. Iraqi physicians are already noting rates of malignant cancers of the lung and liver five times higher than normal in Iraqi children and adults, plus skyrocketing birth defects. Some health scientists consider depleted uranium exposure from the first Iraq war the culprit of “Gulf War syndrome.” Watch for another generation of veterans returning from this war with “mysterious” lingering illnesses and increased sterility.

Eric Teegarden

Mountlake Terrace