URANIUM LINKED TO IRAQI ILLNESSES

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The San Jose Mercury News (Thursday, March 19, 1998) ran a front page
story, "Iraqi Cancers May Hold Clue to Gulf-War Illnesses." Iraqi
government doctors have reported a threefold increase in birth defects
and cancer among Iraqi civilians in southern Iraq. Supporting those
studies, "doctors at three Iraqi hospitals cited anecdotal site-specific
evidence to support the government's conclusions."

"One of the prime suspects is depleted uranium, a low-level radioactive
metal first used in artillery rounds during Operation Desert Storm in
1991. Upon impact, the depleted uranium in munitions ignites and burns,
releasing toxic dust that could drift many miles from desert
battlefields to populated areas."

It will be some time before the causes of illnesses among Iraqis and
U.S. Gulf War veterans are fully recognized. Both the U.S. and Iraqi
governments have political reasons to blame substances released by the
other side.

The article is available on the Web at
http://www.mercurycenter.com/front/ , but you may need to subscribe to
download it. (Maybe someone else knows another Website carrying the same
Kinght-Ridder story.)

As I wrote back in 1991, uranium weapons may be the "Agent Orange of the
1990s."

Lenny
Lenny Siegel
Director, SFSU CAREER/PRO (and Pacific Studies Center)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org