[CPEO-MEF] Uranium Casualties

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Uranium Casualties

Action on warfare?s new silent killer has been slow and inconsistent

By Ron Chepsiuk
Axis of Logic
September 23, 2004\

Members of the 42nd Military Police Company of the New York National
Guard remember the place in Iraq where they were stationed as a
hellhole. "The place was filthy; most of the windows were broken; dirt,
grease, and bird droppings were everywhere," Sergeant Agustin Matos
later recalled. "I wouldn't house a city prisoner in that place." There
were also the frequent sandstorms, blowing dust right into the area
where Matos and his fellow company members were based. Sergeant Hector
Vega, a retired postal worker from the Bronx who had served in the
National Guard for 27 years, said the smoke "was so thick, you could see it."

Both Matos and Vega survived the war and returned to the US, but all
hasn't been well since then. They and other members of their company now
suffer from a variety of maladies: nausea, dizziness, shortness of
breath, fatigue, joint pain, and excessive urination, for starters.

The soldiers repeatedly asked to be tested, but the army refused.
Eventually, they contacted the New York Daily News with their story.
Early this year, the newspaper asked Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a former Army
doctor and medical expert, to conduct laboratory tests. His conclusion:
four soldiers "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded
US shells manufactured with depleted uranium (DU).

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_12059.shtml

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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