[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: Depleted Uranium at Hawai'ian Army bases

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

[I believe depleted uranium is a hazard when it oxidizes and forms 
particulates, but that its simple presence as a metal is not necessarily 
a hazard. Unfortunately, many people who write about it don't describe 
its risks in sufficient detail. I can report that when I visited 
Schofield Barracks three years ago I was presented with no such waiver. 
- LS]

Report: Area unsafe

By Alan D. Mcnarie
Big Island Weekly (HI)
August 11, 2010


U. S. Army sources have often contended that the depleted uranium left 
by spent shells on its firing ranges at O'ahu's Schofield Barracks and 
Hawai'i Island's Pohakuloa Training Area pose no danger to the public.

In 2008, Army officials told the Hawaii County Council that DU did not 
pose a health risk to the public, even though the Saddle Road passes 
through Pohakuloa Training Area, where DU shell fragments had been 
found. In a recent letter to Rep. Mazie Hirono, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary of the Army Addison Davis, IV, wrote that "Many independent 
scientific studies of uranium in the environment show that DU presents 
no significant 'environmental health or safety hazard,' especially at 
soil concentration of the DU on Hawaii's ranges."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.bigislandweekly.com/articles/2010/08/11/read/news/news02.txt

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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