Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the enrichment
process of uranium for its more radioactive isotopes to be
used in nuclear energy .Because depleted uranium is
pyrophoric and a dense metal with unique features when
combined with alloys ,it is used by the military in armor and
ammunition and frequently used in combat scenarios.
Depleted uranium (DU) is a man-made,
radioactive, heavy metal derived from natural uranium (fig.
1). It reacts with most non-metallic elements; it has
pyrophoric properties and may spontaneously ignite at room
temperature in air, oxygen and water.
It is used by the military for the production of
distinctly powerful projectiles (e.g., bullets/ penetrators,
missile nose cones) and also as a protective armor for tanks.
As a projectile, a DU penetrator ignites on impact under
high temperature; it has a low melting point.
Large quantities of DU and/or radioactive decay
products and other radioactive impurities can lead to
substantial external exposure. A Geiger counter
measurement by a correspondent in the recent Iraq war show
that radiation emitting from a DU bullet fragment registered
nearly 1000 – 1900 times the normal background radiation
level.
A three-foot long DU fragment from a 12 mm tank
shell registered radiation 1300 times the background level.
A DU tank found by the U.S Army radiological team
emitted 260 – 270 millirads of radiation per hour compared
to the safety limit of 100 millirads per year. A pile of jetblack dust registered a count of 9839 emissions in one
minute, a level more than 300 times the average background
level.
Until recent years, the potential adverse effects of
uranium exposure during pregnancy had been scantly
investigated, with an evident lack of published
observations.
Potential mechanisms of toxic action of DU alloy
include mutagenicity and genotoxicity, disturbances in cell
division, changes or inhibition of protein or steroid
synthesis, disturbance or inhibition of enzyme systems, and
disruption of behavioral patterns involved in normal
reproduction.
The end product of these mechanisms may be:
1) increased or decreased cell death;
2) disturbed cell-to-cell contact;
3) reduced biosynthesis;
4) increased morphogenetic pattern formation;
5) disruption of tissue structure that may lead to
abnormal pathogenesis in the reproductive system or
developing fetus. If the repair processes inherent to fetal
tissue become overwhelmed, dysmorphogenesis of the
developing fetus may occur resulting in too few cells or cell
products being formed to affect structure and functional
maturation of the developing individual.
Depleted uranium exposure routes
The three traditional exposure pathways are
inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact . In
nonmilitary situations, the main routes of uranium uptake
are by inhalation and ingestion. Recently, internalization of
DU fragments resulting from embedding of projectile
fragments has increased because of the military’s use of DU
in ammunition and must now be considered as a potentially
significant route of exposure for DU.6
The risk of uranium inhalation increases during or
following the use of DU munitions. This is because the
impact of the ammunition will cause DU to become
aerosolized, forming oxides and small particles that become
suspended in the air by the wind, or settle into the
environment for later resuspension.
The ingestion route of entry becomes important if
food and drinking water are contaminated by DU.
Additionally, ingestion of soil by children is considered a
potentially important exposure pathway.
Hospital studies in Basara
The hospital diagnoses all children less than 15
years of age in the whole government of Basra with a
malignancy or suspected malignancy.
The Iraqi studies, the only population-based studies
available, have their limitations including a lack of
independent measures of exposure such as tissue and urine
samples, no control city for comparison, mobile population
so that some exposed individuals moved from the area while
unexposed people moved into the area and, as a
retrospective study, a question of assessment bias.
The findings can be summarized as following:
• 1990 - 2001 rate of malignancies per 100,000
children < 5 years of age has tripled.
• 1993-2000 rate of malignant diseases in children
compared to 1990 has quadrupled.
• Children under 5 with leukemia:
o 2 cases reported in 1990
o 41 cases reported in 2000
• Congenital Malformations: Incidence per 1000
births
o 3.04 cases reported in 1990
o 17.6 cases reported in 2000
Additional information comes from, Imad AlSadoon et al., who performed an analysis of registered
congenital malformation among births in Basrah, Iraq for
the period from 1990 to 2000.12
In general there was an apparent increase in the
incidence rate from 1995 upwards. In 2000 such incidence
was almost six folds higher than in 1991. To improve
statistical efficiency of the data collected and overcome
small numbers of cases recorded, the pattern and incidence
of congenital malformations are grouped into three periods,
1991 to 1994, 1995 to 1998 and 1999 to 2000.12
The incidence rate for the first period was 2.5
congenital malformations per 1000 births while the
respective figure for the second period is 4.57 and for the
third period were 13.49.
. I work as a software dev/analyst in a scientific institution so 'I'm not a thicko' you get the picture 