Depleted Uranium - US Department of State
There is a great deal of misinformation and unwarranted fears about depleted uranium (DU), which U.S. armed forces use in several types of ammunition to take advantage of its unsurpassed ability to penetrate armored vehicles.
The Health Effects of Depleted Uranium
In April 2001, the World Health Organization report Depleted Uranium: Sources, Exposure, and Health Effects, stated: "no increase of leukemia or other cancers has been established following exposure to uranium or depleted uranium." (chapter 13, p. 132)
Independent studies have shown large increases in cancers and birth defects where the Iraqi regime has used chemical weapons. According to Dr. Fouad Baban, Chairman of the Department of Medicine of Suleymania University in northern Iraq, "congenital abnormality rates" in Halabja, where the Iraqi regime killed 5,000 Kurds with chemical weapons in 1988, are "four to five times greater than in the post-atomic populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Dr. Baban says, "rare and aggressive cancers in adults and children are found at levels far higher than anywhere in the world."
Click through for lots of links to reputable sources about Depleted Uranium and related health issues. Also, [wiki]
Oh and just in case you could use a refresher in critical reading, here's the State Department's Guide to Identifying Misinformation.
A March 2001 European Commission report concluded, "exposure to DU could not produce any detectable effect on human health under realistic assumptions of the doses that would be received." (p. 11)
Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of the lack of a link between depleted uranium and cancer is the case of 20 Gulf War veterans who were struck by shrapnel from depleted uranium shells that hit the armored vehicles in which they were riding. Some have shrapnel pieces up to 20 mm long still embedded in their bodies. The veterans have very high levels of uranium in their urine samples, but not one has developed leukemia, bone cancer, lung cancer, or any kidney abnormalities, despite the fact that they are walking around with depleted uranium inside their bodies. In addition, none of the children born to any of these men has any reported birth defects. A study of these veterans, "Elevated Urine Uranium Excretion by Soldiers with Retained Uranium Shrapnel," published in the November 1999 issue of Health Physics concluded, "there is no evidence of adverse clinical outcomes associated with uranium exposure at this time in any of these individuals."
