Part 2 of 3
Depleted Uranium and other Toxic Exposures

Part 1: Human Studies

Part 2: Depleted Uranium and other Toxic Exposures

Part 3: Historical Political Background of the Dispute over Depleted Uranium

The effectiveness of uranium weapons is due not only to the high density of uranium, which is more dense than lead, but also to its ability to form inter-metallic compounds with iron. This combination melts through armor plating, and is air oxidized into very fine iron and uranium particles.

The presence of trace fission products, and residual U-235 found in the DU after the war in the former Yugoslavia, indicated that the uranium processed in enrichment was derived from reprocessed fuel rods. These trace transuranics metals add about 1% to the radioactivity of the mixture, but the toxicity added is unknown.

Samples of dust, resulting from live-fire impacting an armored target, were analyzed for physical, chemical, and biological properties at the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Chalk River Laboratories. Mass spectroscopic analysis indicated that the average uranium used was DU. There were also present elements of iron, aluminum and silicon. About 47% of the total mass was particles with diameters less than 300 microns, of which about 14% was less than 10 microns (i.e. it was respirable). The uranium oxides in the samples examined were mainly U₃O₇ (47%), U₃O₈ (44%) and UO₂ (9%).¹

• A DU friction fire, or DU explosion, as at Doha (the explosion of a weapons depot) during Gulf War I, reaches temperature between 3000 degrees and 6000 degrees Centigrade. For comparison:
• Ordinary glass cracks at 150 to 200 degrees Centigrade
• TNT explodes at 575 degrees Centigrade
• Waste Incinerators destroy organic particles at 590 to 650 degrees Centigrade
• Commercial Incinerators operate at 870 degrees Centigrade
• Hazardous Waste Incinerators operate at 980 to 1,200 degrees Centigrade
• The Twin Towers 9/11 fire was estimated to be 2,000 degrees Centigrade
• Nuclear explosion outer shock front is about 60,000 degrees Centigrade
• Core of a nuclear fireball is about 400,000 degrees Centigrade

Note: Most steel has other metals added to tune its properties, like strength, corrosion resistance, or ease of fabrication. Steel is just the element iron that has been processed to control the amount of carbon. Iron, out of the ground, melts at around 1510 degrees C. Steel often melts at around 1370 degrees C. The 2000 degree temperature tentatively assigned to the Twin Tower disaster on 9/11 was hot enough to melt the steel bolts, holding the braces which held the building together. Uranium melts at 1132 degrees Centigrade, and reacts with nearly all non-metals.

At the high temperature of a friction fire, most of the DU particles created are converted to a ceramic like form:

“DU projectiles hit very different targets, but especially buildings and armaments, like, for example, tanks, and when they do, the temperature in the core of the explosion exceeds 3,000 degrees Centigrade, which is more than enough to have all solid matter sublime, and, in some case, form new metal alloys. The gas expends over a large volume of atmosphere, then, rapidly, the matter becomes solid again, taking the shape of small spheres, stays suspended in the air and is carried away over distances depending on atmospheric conditions like wind, rain, snow and air pressure. This phenomenon was studied in 1977-78 at the U.S. Air Force Base of Leglin, Florida, U.S.A..

“After some time, all air-borne particles fall slowly down and settle on grass and vegetables, fruit or expanses of water where they become inevitably a guest of food and drink to animals and [people] alike. Even if the unwanted presence is known in advance – but very often it is utterly ignored – getting rid completely of inorganic particles can be very difficult”.²

Particles of one nanometer in diameter, can float in air indefinitely due to Brownian action or thermal motion of its molecules. How far it travels will depend on wind, air currents, and obstacles in its path.³

Professor Gatti participated in the investigation, after the war in the Balkans, sponsored by UNEP (The United Nations Environment Program)⁴. The diseased tissues of soldiers and civilians affected by the war in the Balkans, was submitted to Dr. Gatti for analysis. The soldiers, who served in the former Yugoslavian Territory, had an unusually high incidence of Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. The civilians, and staffs of the Humanitarian Missions, were suffering from the same diseases. Moreover, the Head of the Pediatric Clinic of Sarajevo, Professor Edo Hasanbegovich, reported an increase of leukemia among children, especially in towns located close to the Croatian border.

Although many strict followers of the ICRP methodology protested that there was not sufficient latency period for these cancers to be radiation related, they failed to consider the classic paper on the formation of clonal tumors, by Peter C. Nowell. Radiation can initiate cancers, and also promote cancers which are hereditary or have been initiated by some other carcinogen. Promotion of cancers already initiated requires no latency period. This exposition has been strengthened recently through the research into the many stages of cancer development, and genome instability of these various stages after exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation⁵.

In March of 2000, NATO revealed that DU shells had been used in the Balkans, and in 2001 traces of DU were found by UNEP, not far from Sarajevo, and in several other places in the area. Although the evidence pointed strongly to the DU shells, Dr. Gatti looked for another cause of the problem. She also noted the shared experience of all soldiers serving on firing ranges, with GWS.

By an innovative technique using an electron microscope developed at her Institute, Dr. Gatti examined tissue from Balkan soldiers, Italian Soldiers (exposed on firing ranges) and Yugoslavian residents who were experiencing similar symptoms. Astonishingly, all samples contained micro- and nano- size inorganic particles. She did not find DU or uranium, but that is understandable since samples were of soft tissue and were small.. She reported finding compounds of: iron and selenium; copper, chlorine and zinc; selenium, titanium, iron and aluminum; silicon and bismuth; silicon and lead; iron, copper and zinc; chromium, iron and nickel; iron and manganese, and one sample of zinc alone. These particles had been formed under a very high temperature, as could be determined because of their spherical shape, hollow in the larger sizes. This was compatible with a high temperature caused by a DU fire or a rapid fire friction in a military exercise. They were different from nano particles typically found in those without combat experience.

The focus of Dr. Gatti’s research has been solid inorganic particles of sizes one nanometer to 0.1 micron, i.e. ultra-fine particles or metal fumes. According to her:

“Once the debris that size enters the body, be it via the digestive or respiratory system, they can easily negotiate the luminal (cavity of a tubular structure) tissues and either be captured by the tissue itself, which acts as a filter, or be transported by the blood or lymph until they end their journey in some organ (for instance the kidneys and the liver). Lymph nodes, for example, are the organs where lymphoma’s start and develop, and where, in all pathological cases checked, we found the presence of inorganic particles. But also the other pathological specimens we had the possibility to observe show clearly and without any single exception the presence of debris”⁶.

Nano-pathologies are not unknown to the medical profession. For many years physicians have dealt with silicosis, asbestosis, and inflammatory reaction to debris from worn out hip prostheses, and dental fillings. When humans are invaded by micro- and nano-particles which are chemically inert and non-biodegradable, they induce a reaction through which the body tries to defend itself against the invasion. This reaction may become clinically observable. The body’s reactions opposing the presence of small-sized foreign particles less than 0.1 micron in diameter, constitutes the focus of a new discipline called Nanopathology. The best known nano-particles are viruses.

The body’s reaction to inorganic nano-particles starts with a mild irritation, which, if it becomes chronic, can lead to granulomatosis, a fibrosis and later, in some cases, a cancer. In the pathology of granulomatosis and sarcoidosis, the tissue often (always for granulomatosis) contains minute particles encapsulated, or even within a cell or nucleus, surrounded by inflammatory tissue. In patients suffering from deep vein thrombosis, extremely small particles have been found within the thrombi, with a variety of chemical compositions: talc, barium-sulphate, zirconium compounds, steel, iron, lead or silver compounds, some bound with mercury, tin and copper (composition typical of dental amalgams). Technically speaking, these compounds, some never seen before, can travel in the blood forever. They are so small that they can avoid the three methods of excretion from the body: feces, sweat and urine.

Nearly all of the first responders at the World Trade Center towers have had respiratory problems, namely, wheezing, shortness of breath, sinusitis and asthma. Now, three or four years after the disaster, many are suffering from a new syndrome called “WTC cough”, a persistent cough with severe respiratory symptoms. Hundreds on the fire fighters have had to end their careers because of this syndrome according to a new U.S. Government Accountability Office Study. This syndrome is being blamed on the dust, debris, smoke and various inorganic chemicals released into the air when the Towers collapsed [7].

According to Sally Ann Lederman, Ph.D., of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, who studied 300 non-smoking pregnant women in the New York Metropolitan area, pregnant at the time of the disaster, about 44% of the women who lived or worked within two miles of the World Trade Canter had babies who were smaller and with significantly lower birth weight than infants born to those further away. Infants born to those mothers who were in their first three months of pregnancy during the terrorist attack were born significantly earlier than infants whose mothers were at a later stage of pregnancy during the attacks. The authors say the studies suggest that there may be health and developmental implications for children exposed to the World Trade Center disaster⁸. It is known that nano particles can cross the placental barrier.

A Belgian group, at the University of Louvain, has demonstrated the inorganic particles of a size less than 100 nanometers (0.1 micron) can cross the alveolar barrier in the lung and enter the blood within one minute of inhalation. An hour later, that material was found in the liver⁹.

British researchers have demonstrated that the curve describing cardio-vascular disease episodes increases and decreases with the increase and decrease of particles less than 2.5 microns in the air, regardless of the material. Talc and asbestos are well known pollutants, and tobacco smoke carries fine inorganic particles which fell on the tobacco leaves during their growth and drying process, and which are practically impossible to remove¹⁰. All of these carry health penalties when inhaled. Based on the research of Dr. Gatti, other inorganic debris, besides DU compounds, will likely be inhaled and ingested on a DU battlefield, and other places where high speed weapons are fired.

Given that the Hiroshima nuclear bomb was principally composed of uranium, this nano-pathology, though not identified by either the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) or its successor, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), must have been present among survivors after the atomic bomb explosion. It may account for many of the unexplained pathologies of survivors, which have been ignored by the ABCC and the RERF.

It should also be easy to see why physicists, using the ICRP methodology derived from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki experience, based their calculations on the mass of DU converted to oxides and inhaled, calculated a small dose, and assumed that the use of DU in war, was not a serious health hazard.

From a physical hazard point of view, microscopic glass-like particles of any material are subject to breaking, and producing sharp pointed edges. Human cells are, on average, ten microns in diameter, and could be easily breached by such sharp objects.

The physical characteristics of DU fragments released in combat include: their ceramic smooth surface, fragility and potential shattering, nanometer particle size, foreign body irritation, and potential to stay in the body for very long periods of time and be transported through the lung-blood, blood-brain, and placenta barriers. Internal contamination means exposure of sensitive tissues and organs inside of the body to ionizing alpha and beta particles. Calculating the dose from that exposure requires knowing how long the exposure lasts and exactly where the emitters are lodged. Uranium dust in a mine stays in the body for a few days, other uranium compounds stay for weeks, but a significant fraction of the ceramic DU must stay in the body for 10s of years.

All of the isotopes of uranium are chemically toxic, especially to the kidney. This toxicity has been studied in the uranium miners and millers, and is based on particle size with average diameter of about 5 micron, and with uranium having high solubility in body fluid. The biological half life of uranium dust is measured in days, for the largest fraction. The retaining fraction is sequestered from the circulatory system by its capture in the bone. These unique characteristics are apparently not repeated in the uranium oxide created in combat situations. For these reasons, the Rand Report¹¹, which was a search of the literature on uranium mining, was rather useless. This report, so widely circulated and quoted, did not deal the DU used on the battlefield, so its conclusions are pertinent only to literature on those health effects of uranium in the mines and mills which have been researched.

The chemical toxicity of uranium, more broadly discussed, can be found in Encyclopedia of Occupational Health:

“Uranium poisoning is characterized by generalized health impairment. The element and its compounds produce changes in the kidneys, liver, lungs and cardiovascular, nervous and haemopoietic systems, and cause disorders of proteins and carbohydrate metabolism……Chronic poisoning results from prolonged exposure to low concentrations of insoluble compounds and presents a clinical picture different from acute poisoning”¹².

Because of the long half-life in the body, DU contamination with micro and nano-particles would be considered to be “chronic”.

“The outstanding signs and symptoms [of chronic poisoning] are pulmonary fibrosis, pneumoconiosis, and blood changes with a fall in red blood count: haemoglobin, erythrocyte and reticulocyte levels in peripheral blood are reduced. Leucopenia may be observed with leukocyte disorders (cytolysis, pyknosis, and hypersegmentosis). There may be damage to the nervous system. Morphological changes in the lungs, liver, spleen, intestines and other organs and tissues may be found, and it is reported that uranium exposure inhibits reproductive activity and effects uterine and extra-uterine development in experimental animals. Insoluble compounds tend to be retained in tissues and organs for long periods”¹³.

Toxicology based only on the amount of soluble uranium required to damage the kidney tubules, is less than honest in the face of the known uranium-related health problems. Use of DU as a weapon, in the face of this prior knowledge, and the failure of the military of both the U.S. and U.K. to keep records of the pre-exposure clinical data of all military, for comparison with the post-exposure data, is unconscionable. The ILO material has been in the public domain since 1985, and is a common reference for concerned physicians.

Laboratory and Animal Studies of DU:

Animal experiments have demonstrated that uranium exposure results in damage to the entrance portals: namely, respiratory and gastro-intestinal systems; and to the exit portals: the lower intestine and renal systems. Uranium oxide was associated with fibrosis and other degenerative changes in the lungs, proteinuria, and increased non-protein nitrogen and slightly degenerative changes in the kidney tubules, in animals. Uranium oxide is associated with focal necrosis of the liver, and with hematological changes, lymph node fibrosis, severe muscle weakness and lassitude at doses inhaled in polluted air with concentration between 0.2 and 16 milligram per cubic meter. Damage to body organs of animals occurred at concentrations as low as 5 microns per cubic meter of air¹⁴.

In vitro studies on human osteoblast cells have indicated that they may be transformed to the tumorigenic phenotype, including induction of tumor when implanted into mice, differences in ras oncogene expressions, and phosphorylation by DU administered as uranyl chloride. The interaction of uranium with phosphorus containing groups in DNA is well documented¹⁵.

Iraqi Experience:

These concerns were raised at The Commission for Pollution Impact by Aggressive Bombing (CPIAB), a Conference sponsored by the U.K. government and held at Whitehall, London, in 1999.¹⁶

The research of Um-Al Ma’arek, 1991-1999, was. presented by M. Kammas at: Roundtable Conference Opinion on Depleted Uranium and Cancers in Iraq (CPIAB) demonstrating the scientific research done in Iraq on the question of after effects of the use of DU weapons. Kammas reported on a substantial rise in leukemia, lymphoma and bone cancer in Iraq. He noted that the relative risk for other diseases was elevated significantly, including infertility, congenital abnormalities, and kidney failure.

Similar findings were reported by Professor Gunther¹⁷ of Germany, who had visited Iraq after the war and was concerned about the extraordinary birth defects which he had seen there.

The ill health of the Iraqi people after the first Gulf War was also raised by an article in The Lancet: “Does Iraq’s Depleted Uranium Pose a Health Risk?” by K. Bichard¹⁸. Karen Bichard reports on the data collected by Bill Griffin, an Irish petrochemical engineer stationed in Iraq after the first Gulf War. Griffin reported that 500 children were dying every day in the post war period, and children’s cancer rates were increasing. In 1989, the death rate for children under five was 2.3 per 1000. In 1993, the rate had increased to 16.6 per 1000. In adult men, lung, bladder, skin and stomach cancers were increasing the most, and in women, breast, bladder and non-Hodgkins lymphoma were highest. Children and young men were suffering from high rates of osteosarcoma, teratomas and rhabdomysarcoma. Congenital malformations and diseases of the immune system were on the rise.

Bichard also reports the existence of a letter from the former U.K. Defence Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, to David Steel, former Liberal Party leader, stating that the DU weapons would emit radioactive and toxic materials that “present a health hazard”.

There are epidemiological studies undertaken by Iraqi professionals, many of whom studied in the West. These are, unfortunately, not generally available in the West, and rest under the cloud of political lies orchestrated by Saddam Hussein. These studies need to be assessed on their own scientific merits and not dismissed off hand for political reasons.

A CPIAB report to the European Commission¹⁹ describes several toxic compounds released after the bombings in Yugoslavia could cause chronic health problems. This official report states: “Perhaps the most dangerous is depleted uranium”.

3.10.8 Something unusual happened in the first Gulf War, leaving more than 200,000 formerly healthy men and women on medical disability, and more than 12,000 dead in the U.S. alone. The most startling change in the war environment was the DU metal fume produced in the high temperature friction and impact fires. Although there were other suspected exposures to toxic chemicals, vaccinations, and infectious disease vectors, none can account for the great generality of effect including veterans from all combating armies, and civilians at various distances from the battlefield. A best educated guess would be that the cause was an air pollutant which was widely dispersed. Moreover, many of the so called Gulf War Syndrome symptoms have also occurred after the high intensity fire at the World Trade Center, 11 September 2001, and at military firing ranges.

Other Hazards of Gulf War I:

The 2000 Report and Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses has presented of the research findings to date as follows:

“In recent years, research studies have provided consistent evidence of linkages between exposure to neurotoxins during the war, particularly, acetylcholinesterase-inhibiting compounds, and Gulf War Veterans’ illnesses. Numerous animal studies have demonstrated both that low dose exposure to chemical nerve agents can produce chronic adverse neurological and immunological effects, and that combinations of Gulf War-related exposures often work synergistically to yield toxic effects that exceed those resulting from individual exposures. These studies parallel clinical research findings demonstrating neurological injury and impairment in Gulf War veterans and epidemiologic studies that have consistently identified significant associations between veteran-reported neurotoxin exposures and higher rates of multi-symptom illnesses. Other Gulf War-related exposures also may be linked to veterans’ illnesses and will be more thoroughly addressed in future Committee Reports.”²⁰

Among the potential factors either already studied or to be studied, aside from DU, by this Committee are: vaccines, sarin and cyclosarin, pesticides (organophosphates), Pyridostigmine bromide (PB), oil well fire smoke, airborne fallout from demolition of chemical targets, antibiotics and anti-malarial medicines, sand dust, diesel and jet fuel, and the Kamisyah chemical factory blow-up. The Committee has ruled out the Veterans’ illnesses as explained by deployment stress and war-time trauma. They find that the majority of ill veterans have no identifiable psychiatric condition.²¹

Between 26 and 32 % of Gulf War veterans experience multi-symptom patterns of illness, over and above that experienced by veterans not deployed to the Gulf War theatre²².

According to this investigative committee, there has been no systematic research into the causes of this Gulf War illness, and no systematic collection of records and medical data which would assist the investigation. Undoubtedly this was due to the military’s insistence that the problem was due to stress.

Both the U.K. and U.S. have provided hospitalization reports of ill veterans, and also first cause of death for those who are dead. Gulf War veterans have a higher proportion of hospitalizations for musculoskeletal disorders, digestive diseases, respiratory diseases, symptoms , signs and ill defined conditions, injuries and poisonings, and for specific diagnoses that include gastroenteritis and colitis, asthma, fractures and fibromyalgia. These of course, indicate damage to the body’s entrance portals: namely the respiratory system and the gastro-intestinal system, plus bone and musculoskeletal system problems due to toxic materials which entered within the body through the lung-blood barrier or the gut-hepatic-portal and blood system. The highest death rates were from accidents and injuries, but their death rate from other specific diseases was no different than those of non-deployed veterans. This may indicate some brain or central nervous system disorder²³.

According to a National Survey of Gulf War Veterans, their symptom patterns differ from those of other veterans, and from the general public. However in contrast to the occasional headache or digestive problem or joint pain which might afflict anyone, Gulf veterans experience severe headaches and joint pain and chronic diarrhea all at the same time, maybe also in connection with dizziness, memory problems, fatigue and skin rashes. The syndrome of symptoms is remarkable close to that of the Atomic Bomb Survivors.

Source:²⁴

The committee which made up the U.S. Gulf War Syndrome Investigative Committee was composed of four neuroscientists, one neuropharmacology expert, a Professor of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, and the President of enviroSec, Inc. Needless to say they first examined all of the potential neuro-toxic agents on the Gulf War I battlefield²⁵. It is unlikely that any member of the Committee has background in the implications of a depleted uranium fume.

The Investigative Committee found a pattern of illnesses which appeared to reflect the time periods and locations of service of the veterans: Gulf War illness rates were: 9% among veterans who left the Gulf area before the war started in January 1991, and highest, 43% among those who stayed in the theatre five months after the cease fire. They were lowest, 21%, among those who served aboard ship, higher, 31%, in those who served on land but in support functions, and highest, 42%, among those who entered Iraq or Kuwait, countries where combat occurred. They comment:

“Differences in illness rates by location and time period indicate that veterans’ illnesses are linked to specific experiences during deployment, evidence that is independent of veterans’ recollections concerning specific experiences”.

Depleted Uranium fits the pattern of exposure during and after conflict on the battlefield area. Those on battleships in the Harbor of Kuwait handled DU weapons and were exposed to aerosols. Interestedly, the pilots were seemingly spared from the exposure which caused the Gulf War Syndrome of illnesses. DU also acts like land mines, and continue to cause illness after the war is over.

Because the symptoms which are reported by veterans also occur in the general population, the Investigative Committee recommended that evaluation of the burden of illness be based on the excess rate of multi-symptom illnesses in the Gulf veterans²⁶. The excess prevalence of multi-symptom patterns of illness occurred in 26 to 32% of the veterans of the First Gulf War.

When asked about what they think caused their illness, most veterans refer to the PB pills which they took, or the pesticide sprays and insect repellants which they recalled as being used excessively. In 1996, government reports emerged which verified the presence of chemical agents in the area when the military detonated a large weapons depot containing nerve agents at Khamisiyah. The government estimated that about 100,000 personnel were exposed. There were other reports of possible chemical weapon exposure, but contrary to regulations, military logs detailing nuclear, biological and chemical weapon incidents during Desert Shield and Desert Storm were destroyed after the war. The GOA (General Accounting Office) found the military documents and plume analysis to be unreliable²⁷. Authors of the Investigative Report seemed unaware of the Doha fire which consumed some 300 tons of military DU.

The IOM (Institute of Medicine) published in 2000, an analysis of the potential of PB to cause long term health effects. They concluded that it was not possible to either confirm or deny the association of PB with Gulf War Syndrome²⁸.

The Investigative Committee did not find there to be sufficient evidence to determine whether or not organophosphate pesticide exposures which do not cause acute symptoms, can still cause long term disability²⁹.

Epidemiological studies have attempted multivariate analysis based on self-reported exposures by veterans. In such studies participation in combat, exposure to oil fire smoke, and exposure to depleted uranium lack consistent findings. It should, however, be noted that recall of participation in combat and exposure to oil fire smoke would be fairly precise, while depleted uranium which is invisible and undetectable to the senses would be easily overlooked.

The Investigating Committee concluded their analysis with:

“Taken as a whole, this accumulated body of research provides compelling evidence of a probable link between neurotoxic exposure in the Gulf War and the development of Gulf War Veteran’s illnesses.”³⁰

Unfortunately, the destruction of military logs after the war and the original DOD emphasis on research into battle fatigue has delayed timely findings of causality and development of modalities of cure or mitigation for those who are suffering from these undiagnosed illnesses. The author hopes that the misleading documents produced by organizations depending on the ICRP physics model of analysis of Depleted Uranium exposure will not be a further barrier to productive research. One could not tell by studying these documents that DU produces a high temperature fire and metal fume which can penetrate into the body, pass the lung-blood, and blood brain barrier, and also cross the placenta, causing damage to tissues and organs. Because of its nanometer aerodynamic diameter, it can remain in the body indefinitely. The kidney filters are too coarse to filter it out. This will be discussed further in Part 3, of this series.

References:

¹ Chalk River Medical Publication: 15194923; Chalk River, Ontario, K9J 1J9, Canada.

² “So-called Balkan Syndrome: A Bioengineering Approach”, by Dr. Antonette M. Gatti and Stephano Montanari, Laboratory of Biomaterials of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, 11 February 2004.

³ Brownian motion is observed for particles less than 0.001 mm (1 nanometer). These are small enough to share in thermal motion, yet large enough to be seen with a microscope or ultramicroscope. The first satisfactory treatment of Brownian motion was made by Albert Einstein in 1905.

⁴ “The Potential Effects on Human Health and the Environment Arising from Possible Use of Depleted Uranium during the 1999 Kosovo Conflict”. UNEP 2000.

⁵ “The Clonal Evolution of Tumor Cell Populations”, by Peter Nowell, Science, October 1976. This work has been confirmed recently by research into genomic instability. “The loss of stability of the genome is becoming accepted as one of the most important aspects of carcinogenesis” in “Genome Instability and Ionizing Radiation” by WF Morgan et al. in Radiation Research 146: 247-254, p.247),1996.

⁶ “So-called Balkan Syndrome: a Bioengineering Approach”, By Dr. Antonette M. Gatti and Stephano Montanari, Laboratory of Biomaterials of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy , 11 February 2004.

⁷ Government Accountability Office. Lederman, S. Environmental Health Perspectives (on line). And News Release, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Reuters.

⁸ “Effects of the World Trade Center Event on Birth Outcomes among Term Deliveries at Three Lower Manhattan Hospitals”, by Sally Ann Lederman et al., Environmental Health Perspectives Sept. 2004.

⁹ Membrane Projects in the Fifth Framework Programme (FP 5) 1998-2002, Enrica Fontanova, Nanobiology and Membranes. Louvain University.

¹⁰ “Research Shows Hazards in Tiny Particles”, by Barnaby J. Feder. New York Times (Late Edition Section C, p. 8) 14 April 2003.

¹¹ “A Review of the Scientific Literature as it Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses. Volume 7 Depleted Uranium”, by Naomi H. Harley et al. Rand’s National Defense Research Institute, Sponsored by the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Federally funded, under Contract No. DASW01-95-C-0059; 1998.

¹² Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety, Third (Revised) Edition, Volume II, Technical Editor Dr. Luigi Parmeggiani, published by the International Labor Organization (ILO) 1983, ISBN:92-2-103289-2, Geneva, Switzerland.

¹³ ibid page 2238.

¹⁴ ATSDR 1998: Toxicological Profile of Uranium. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

¹⁵ WHO/SDE/PHE/01.1, Department of Protection of the Human Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva,April 2001.

¹⁶ CPIAB, Report of Environmental and Health Consequences of the Use of Radiological Weapons (DU) on Iraq in 1999.

¹⁷ “The Gulf War Syndrome, a Parallel to Chernobyl: Documentation of the Aftermath of the Gulf War”, by Professor S-H Gunther, Presented at the Roundtable Conference Opinion of Depleted Uranium and Cancer in Iraq, 1 Whitehall Place, London, 1999.

¹⁸ The Lancet: Vol.351: 657, 1998.

¹⁹ ibid. Ref. 16.

²⁰ Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses: September 2004 Report and Recommendations, page 103.

²¹ ibid Ref. 20, page 2

²² ibid. Ref 20 page 3.

²³ ibid Ref 20. page 21.

²⁴ “Illness among U.S. veterans of the Gulf War: a population based survey of 30,000 veterans”, by Kang, HK et al. Journal of Occupational and Occupational Medicine 42: 491-501, 2000 and “Parallel Radiation Injuries of the Atomic Bomb and Chernobyl; Victims after ten years”, by Katsumi Furitsu, M.D. Investigative Committee of Atomic Bomb Victims, Hannan Chuo Hospital, Osaka Japan.

²⁵ ibid Ref. 20, Appendix B.

²⁶ ibid. Ref. 20, page 27.

²⁷ “Gulf War Illnesses: Preliminary Assessment of DOD Plume Modeling for U.S. Troops Exposure to Chemical Agents” Washington D.C. June 2003. (GAO-03-833T.

²⁸ “Gulf War and Health: Volume I, Depleted Uranium, Pyridostigmine Bromide, Sarin and Vaccines”, Washington D.C., The National Academy Press; 2000.

²⁹ ibid. Ref. 20, page 57.

³⁰ ibid Ref. 20 page 66.