[CPEO-MEF] Fw: Nuclear doctor found 62% of sick Gulf War vets had uranium presen

[tfusco@portalsmith.net]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/world/29DOCT.html

Published on Monday, January 29, 2001 in the New York Times
Gulf War Studies Link Cancer to Depleted Uranium
by Marlise Simons

PARIS - The cancer deaths of 24 European soldiers who served as
peacekeepers in the Balkans and the illnesses reported by many others have
stirred alarm in Europe about the use of depleted uranium in munitions
fired from American warplanes during the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo. No
one has provably linked the use of depleted uranium to the deaths or
illnesses of Balkan veterans, and many scientists consider such a link
impossible. Nor is it clear that cancers are occurring at a higher rate
among former peacekeepers than in the population at large. But the fears
often stirred by mention of radiation have sent doctors, military experts
and politicians scurrying for explanations. Among the research they are
re-examining is the work of a retired United States Army colonel who has
insisted that some of the illnesses he has observed in Persian Gulf war
veterans may be linked to the depleted uranium and uranium 236 isotope he
says he found in their bodies.

Asaf Durakovic began examining gulf war veterans when he worked as chief
of nuclear medicine at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Wilmington,
Del., in the 1990's. Since that post was abolished in 1997, he has
continued with his privately funded research in Toronto.

In a recent interview, he said his analysis over the last three years of
body fluids of more than 40 American, British and Canadian gulf war
veterans who have turned to him keeps turning up evidence of depleted
uranium and uranium 236, a more radioactive uranium isotope.

Dr. Durakovic said that, unlike many other institutions involved in
testing for uranium, he uses mass spectometry tests that measure the
relative abundance of each isotope in the body.

He said he found depleted uranium, including uranium 236, in 62 percent of
the sick gulf war veterans he examined. He believes that particles lodged
in their bodies and may be a cause of their illnesses.

Radiation experts in France and Britain say they are now rereading his
work because he was the first to report that he found uranium 236 in the
urine as well as in the bone tissue of gulf war veterans. They suspect that
its presence indicates that other contaminants may be present.

continued...
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/29/world/29DOCT.html

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