I Left My Heart In (a 2500 miles radius of)
Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste. Your destiny is a mystery to us.
- Chief Seattle leader of the Duwanish tribe
There are efforts underwayto oppose explosions of radioactive materials by the
Like most people over 21, you may already know that the
Photo Top Left -- The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) triggered the atomic bomb called Priscilla on June 24, 1957 at the Nevada Test Site. According to U.S. Department of Energy documents, Priscilla was a balloon type test, it was weapons related, and had a yield of 37 kill tons. Photo Top Right -- This photo was taken on November 1, 1951 and was the "Dog" detonation. It was conducted as part of the Buster/Jangle test series between October and November of 1951. It was an airdrop with a yield of 21 kilotons. Another event Photo Center Left -- On December 18, 1970, the Baneberry underground nuclear test was conducted at the Nevada Test Site (NTS); the event released radioactivity to the atmosphere. Baneberry had a yield of ten kilotons (a kiloton is the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT). The nuclear bomb was buried about 900 feet beneath the surface of Yucca Flat near the northern boundary of the NTS. The radiation release or venting resulted in a cloud of radioactive dust that reached an altitude of 10,000 feet. Following the Baneberry venting, new containment procedures were adopted to prevent similar occurrences. Photo Center Right -- The Stokes atmospheric nuclear test was conducted at the Nevada Test Site on August 7, 1957. The tests was conducted as part the operation "Plumbbob" testing events. Stokes produced 9 kilotons and was exploded from a balloon. Photo Bottom Right -- This above ground atmospheric nuclear test was conducted at the Nevada Test Site on May 25, 1953. Named Grable the nuclear bomb was fired from a 280 mm gun. The test was an airburst, it was weapons related and had an estimated yield range of 15 Kiloton.
in
to U.S. President Franklin Pierce to mark
transfer of ancestral Indian lands to the
Yes, they fire radiation out into the very same air that our families breathe. Tons of radioactive munitions, in fact. Depleted Uranium is the name of one of the materials they use. And if that material sounds familiar? It because it�s the same stuff that they�re using on the �enemy� - that is, on civilians - in
No, we do not know what in the world the civilians of
But now the country is starting to buzz with the word of radioactive open air �testing� near
But this is not a story entirely about
The fiery �hot� issue of Depleted Uranium explosives �testing� has emerged into the spotlight in the
No wonder why they�re upset. Only a few miles away from them on a federally owned 7,000 acre parcel of land in the Altamont Hills at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in San Joaquin and
What started all the ruckus was that on November 13 a new permit, issued by
There are two efforts underway to appeal the new permit for Site 300 that allows for much larger explosions by using greater amounts of radioactive materials. Two appeals have been filed, one by a housing developer and the other by a resident who lives about five miles from the radioactive blast location, Site 300.
Small business owner, Tracy resident, and long-standing member of Tri-Valley Communities Against A Radioactive Environment (CARES), Bob Sarvey is leading the way to protect his community of 72,400 from radioactivity at Livermore�s Site 300 by appealing the permit of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. A health risk assessment performed recently shows a higher health risk just from merely inhaling toxic non-radioactive air contaminants than the Livermore Lab shows in its own radiological assessment.
Residents realized something was not quite right about this report. �Previously�, according to Sarvey, �the Lawrence Livermore Lab didn�t need a permit from the Pollution Control District because their chargers were under 100 lbs. equivalent to TNT - and under 1,000 pounds per year. Now, they are going to increase that to 350 pounds per charge, equivalent to TNT �and they are also going to increase the annual limit to 8,000 pounds. That�s eight-fold of what it was annually� and on a per change basis, three and a half times per charge�.
In addition to allowing up to 8,000 pounds of explosives containing radioactive matter annually, as reported in the Tracy Press on December 14the current county air pollution control permit allows Livermore Laboratory to emit up to 1,440 pounds of particulate matter up to 10 microns in diameter per year into the air. The public does not even have to be notified of such emissions unless the particulate matter exceeds a 20,000 pound limit.
It only takes one invisible micron of Depleted Uranium to cause organ damage and health failure. Can anyone possibly hazard a guess as to how much potential hazard that 1,440 pounds of particulates could cause - never mind the 20,000 pound particulate upper limit? Can you imagine willingly causing up to 1,440 pounds of radioactive particles to be blasted into the open air? If one miniscule particle so tiny as to be invisible can cause a terminal illness, whose mind can even fathom the devastation 1,440 pounds of this stuff could do to countless numbers of people?
But we must remember - Livermore Lab is allowed to explode up to 20,000 pounds into the air in a year and not even have to notify the neighboring communities. And Site 300 is only one of several such explosive �test� sites in the nation.
Lawrence Livermore representatives will not reveal to
Understandably, this news came as a big surprise to citizens of the Greater San Francisco Bay area. Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley Communities Against a Radioactive Environment executive director, said �This is a shocking change of plan� .
On January 8, Recordnet.comquoted Livermore Public Affairs Director Susan Hougton stating that the Lab plans to conduct �only three�� of the larger, 350-pound detonations in the next year and a half. According to Houghton, no blasts larger than 100 pounds have been conducted since 1997.
�Only three� large radioactive explosions in a year - and an unknown number of smaller ones at 100 pounds a �pop� - certainly does not sound like too much to be concerned over. So what is the big deal with exploding up to 8,000 pounds of explosives including radioactive toxics like Depleted Uranium out into the open air, anyway?
WHAT�S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT DU?
Depleted Uranium is an inexpensive, radioactive heavy metal more dense than lead. It is basically nuclear waste made from the uranium enrichment process. The supply is plentiful and the US Military uses it in its guns, tanks, bombs, missiles and cannons. To get a feel for how much of it there is of the stuff, The U.S. government has produced more than 1.1 Billion pounds of DU in its uranium enrichment facilities in
Our military has found that there are many attractive advantages to using Depleted Uranium (Uranium-238) over Tungsten steel, as Uranium-238 is an easier substance to process. It is also pyrophoric, which means it burns instantly upon impact or if ignited. DU also has the advantage of being easily able to penetrate targets from armored tanks to concrete bunkers.
Always happy to rid itself of nuclear waste, Depleted Uranium has been cheerfully given away by the government to weapons manufacturers, who then in turn make a profit by selling the weapons to the US Military for use in combat as well as for running �tests� out into the air. Sometimes in the past fifty years it has been burned in open pits and other times DU is exploded in an estimated twenty-three locations all across the nation, including
Experts who have studied the properties of Depleted Uranium and its deleterious effects upon human health have a great deal to tell us. Recently in a letter to Tracy Press, Marion Fulk, local resident and nuclear physical chemist retired from the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab formerly involved with the Manhattan Project, tells us a bit about the uranium that is being exploded at Livermore and its effects upon human health: �Uranium-238, sometimes called �depleted uranium�, poses a serious health threat, especially if inhaled in finely divided particles like those created by open-air explosives testing. Because of its properties, uranium-238 is a triple threat to human health. Its properties as a heavy metal create health damage once inside the body. Its properties as a hazardous chemical catalyst cause additional health risks. And its properties as a radioactive material offer a third route to cellular and DNA damage, illness and premature death in humans and animals.�
Despite the fact that Uranium-238 is commonly called �Depleted�, this was a label invented to get the public to think that it is a weakly radioactive material. Nothing could be further from the truth. This poison dust packs a powerful punch to the human body, as Dr. Rosalie Bertell, biometrician and environmental epidemiologist, international radiation expert, and Founder of The International Institute of Concern for Public Health explains, �Depleted uranium concentrate is almost 100 percent uranium. More than 99 percent of both natural and depleted uranium consists of the isotope U-238.� In addition, the U.S. Department of Energy and the 1995 U.S. Army Environmental Policy Institute admitsthat a small amount of additional toxic heavy metalsand radioactive isotopes are also present in Depleted Uranium, such as plutonium, neptunium, americium, Uranium-236 as well as Uranium-234 and Uranium-235.
The Uranium-238 which is used in our weapons and is �tested� at test sites throughout the
Uranium weapons destroy health and irreparably damage all living things. In his book Radiation-Induced Cancer From Low-Dose Exposure, John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D. makes his point about radiation crystal clear: �By contrast, we think human evidence and logic combine to make a case which is already conclusive -- by any reasonable standard of proof -- against the existence of any safe dose or dose-rate of ionizing radiation, with respect to cancer-induction.�
For the case of simplicity for now, we will stick to the misnomer �Depleted Uranium�. A pyrophoric munition, DU explodes spontaneously upon being fired. Up to 80% of it is then oxidized, and an aerosol is formed of minute radioactive particles between the range of below 1 micrometer to 5 micrometers. Immediately after the Uranium-238 is fired, these particles are so tiny that they are actually an invisible gas which can be either inhaled easily into the lungs, ingested in food, or can enter the body inside a break in the skin, such as through a small cut on a finger. In combat, Depleted Uranium can also enter the body via shrapnel that enters the skin.
At the May, 1999 Hague Peace Conference, Dr. Rosalie Bertell stated that Depleted Uranium is �converted at high temperature into an aerosol, that is, minute insoluble particles of uranium oxide, UO2 or UO3 , in a mist or fog�Uranium oxide and its aerosol form are insoluble in water. The aerosol resists gravity, and is able to travel � in air. Once on the ground, it can be resuspended when the sand is disturbed by motion or wind. Once breathed in, the very small particles of uranium oxide, those which are 2.5 microns [ one micron = one millionth of a meter ] or less in diameter, could reside in the lungs for years�. Once in the lungs, the uranium slowly passes through the lung tissue into the blood. Uranium oxide dust has a biological half life in the lungs of about a year. Eventually, the uranium passes through the lung tissue and then into the blood stream, which may then be broken down in body fluids.
Eventually the uranium may be stored in bone, lymph, liver, kidney or other tissues. When found in urine seven or eight years after exposure, it is an indication of its long term internal uranium contamination through storage in the body�s tissues.
Marion Fulk gives us an energetic picture of how DU creates havoc once inside the body. �It is an alpha emitter, which means that it is particularly damaging if lodged inside the body. Uranium-238 decays with an energy of 4 million electron volts per alpha particle. The energy emitted tears up surrounding cells and may initiate a whole bunch of negative health outcomes, including, but not limited to, cancers.�
Dr. Doug Rokke stateshow fast DU works once inside the body, �Alpha particle emission measurements show that the dose or exposure rate is in excess of 10000 counts per minute.� DU, he says, �is a serious internal hazard�.
Explaining this nasty cell-busting process, Janette D. Sherman, M.D., specialist in internal medicine and toxicology, member of The Radiation and Public Health Project, and author of Life's Delicate Balance: Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer and Chemical Exposure and Disease states that when we are exposed to Depleted Uranium, it is a serious hazard as a chemically toxic heavy metal, plus it is also radioactive. Because the uranium is so concentrated, the alpha activity is increased, and a decay process occurs. Both alpha and beta radiation are emitted into the cell tissue that surrounds the miniature DU particle, affecting other cells and disrupting cell membranes, DNA, and the cell development process.
Quoting from Dr. Sherman�s book, �Aside from the radioactivity of uranium, it is a heavy metal poison and foreign body irritant with the potential to remain in the body for decades.� Uranium poisoning also involves general health impairment to the kidneys, liver, lungs, and cardiovascular, nervous and cell production systems, and cause disorders of proteins and carbohydrate metabolism .
Hmmm�Uranium can stay in the body for decades, you say? Well then, how do we know that any of us is not walking around right now with an invisible particle of Uranium-238 lodged inside one of our lungs, hanging out and waiting to give us cancer twelve years down the road? The point of the matter is, we don�t.
In an effort to de-mystify what is called by the US Military �Gulf War Syndrome� in veterans of wars in the
As evidenced by increases in incidences of cancerin veterans returning from wars in
In effect, scientific evidencesuggests that Uranium-238 does appear to have an adverse impact on reproduction and the destruction and mutation of genetic material, which is passed down to future descendentswhich can lead to birth defectsin the exposed individual�s offspring.
Studies have also shownthat DU has a toxic effect on the kidneys as they are the organ that eliminates toxins in the blood and thus are particularly vulnerable to both radiological and heavy metal toxicity and are the first organs to be damaged by uranium. Uranium-238 also causes neurologically related behavioral effects. Recently scientists have observed that there appears to be a correlation between Depleted Uranium and increases in diabetes.
Alan Cantwell, M.D. covers the latest scientific thinking on this connection in his article, �Depleted Uranium, Diabetes, Cancer and You�. In it Dr. Cantwell writes that �The CDC predicts that Type 2 diabetes will increase 165% by 2050. People with Type 2 diabetes are also twice as likely to get pancreatic cancer.� Basic common sense tells us that such dramatic increases in the diabetes epidemic is quite unlikely to be due merely to genetics and �lifestyle choices� alone.
Recent data from The International Diabetes Federation (IDF)indicates the enormity of the diabetes epidemic indicating that the disease now affects 246 million people worldwide. They predict that the total number of people living with diabetes worldwide will reach 380 million within twenty years. According to IDF President Pierre Lef�bvre, �Just twenty years ago, the best information available suggested that 30 million people had diabetes. A bleaker picture has now emerged. Diabetes is fast becoming the epidemic of the 21st century.�
Never before has a quote been so fitting as that from Leuren Moret, geo-scientist and international radiation specialist who wrote, �If it�s an epidemic, it�s not genetic.�
Scientists like Moretand Dr. Ernest Sternglassare now observing that increasing atmospheric radiation seems to play a vital role in the expanding worldwide increase in cases of diabetes.
ABOUT RADIOACTIVE BLASTS
With such known devastating health effects of this life-devastating toxin that stays in the body and basically rips it apart, one can�t help but wonder just what type of super-top secret, �national security� projects would necessitate exploding radioactive toxic uranium gas into densely populated areas where millions of Americans inhale these toxics right where they live and work?
I contacted the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Public Affairs office to try to better understand the rationale for detonating even greater amounts of radioactive explosives within a highly populated area. Could it be, I wondered, that they do not realize that their 11.7 square miles of nuclear waste materials �testing� Site 300 is less than 50 miles from
Certainly, I reasoned, no sane individuals would be exploding radiation into the air for fifty years - on purpose - if they realized how many families - men, women, children, and infants are breathing in that air?
The Public Affairs Director, Susan Houghton, seemed pleased to share that
Apparently the
How do you think the American public would feel if it realized that nuclear bomb simulators purposely and routinely fire off 100 pound toxic and radioactive air blasts that affect the air, water, soil, and food supplies in our communities? Site 300, after all, is only one of at several DU �testing� grounds in the nation. For example, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories both fire Depleted Uranium into the open air, as does the Nevada Test Site and Yuma Proving Grounds in
When asked in a phone conversation about radioactivity in the outdoor explosions, Public Affairs Director Houghton said she would not answer questions, but stated that tritium would not be used in the 350 lb tests. On this subject, another laboratory spokesperson, Linda Seaver, informed SF Gate that the Laboratory last used tritium in test explosions in 2001.
Tritium, radioactive hydrogen, is present in nature in tiny amounts. Significant quantities, however, are generated by nuclear power plants and the manufacture of nuclear weapons and atomic bomb testing. Tritium, like Uranium-238, is another destroyer of human cells and DNA. According to the Nuclear Information Resource Servicewebsite: �Tritium emits radioactive beta particles. Once tritium is inhaled or swallowed, its beta particles can bombard cells. If a particle zaps a DNA molecule in a cell, it can cause a mutation. If it mutates a gene important to cell function, a serious disease may result� Research indicates that tritium can remain in the human body for more than ten years�.
At a Tracy City Council meeting on January 2, Tracy Press reportedLarry Sedlacek, Deputy Associate Director of Operations in the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory�s Defense and Nuclear Technologies Group, as saying that tritium could be used in tests that would be "aerosolized" after test blasts. He also stated that he �would not rule out using tritium in the blasts� saying details of the blasts are classified.� Sedlacek also admitted, "We have used tritium at Site 300 in the past�It is contained in our environmental impact statement that we could potentially use small quantities in the future, but we don�t have any scheduled."
Whether the tritium and DU blasts are scheduled on the calendar or they occur at the whim of the detonator button-pusher on duty at
One is left to ponder what would tritium be used for in the smaller, radioactive tritium tests? Local war correspondent Bob Nicholsoffered, �It is pretty clear from the tritium that
APPEALING BIG EXPLOSIONS
With such a long history of radioactive explosions at Site 300, one is left to sit and ponder the impacts of these explosions upon the health of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. A health risk assessment for air pollution was done by the San Joaquin Pollution Control District, yet their health analysis does not require them to report radiological impacts. Their function is only to report non-radiological toxic air contaminants.
How curious it is that the county which is required to report levels of air pollution toxics is not required to measure nor report on toxics caused by radioactive explosions being conducted within its county? Livermore Lab�s been �testing� there for 50 years, so it�s not like the Air Pollution Control Board hasn�t heard of what they�ve been up to all those years.
Residents like Bob Sarvey are understandably concerned that radioactive material such as Depleted Uranium and tritium will continue to be blown into
The second petition being filed on February 7 is by a developer, Tracy Hills LLC, AKT Development. Out of
OK IT�S HARMFUL - BUT IS THIS STUFF LEGAL?
Far, far away, the US Military�s premiere weapon of choice, Depleted Uranium, has been used in combat overseas at least as far back as 1991. It was also used in the former Yugoslavia and surrounding Balkans region [Europe] in the 1990s, in Kosovo in 1999-2000, in Afghanistan beginning in 2001, and in Iraq starting in 1991. While many people believe that DU use started in 1991 and then resumed in 2003 with the second Gulf War, Dr. Souad N. Al-Azzawi, Associate Professor in Environmental Geological Engineering of Mamoun University for Science & Technology, and Member of the reminds us, however, that the use of DU in Iraq never actually stopped. As the expert on uranium weapons-related environmental impact and diseases told us in August, 2006, at the 3rd ICBUW International Conference Hiroshima, �The USA and
What makes it hard to comprehend is that these weapons have been used for 15 years in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the
it �Urges all States to be guided in their national policies by the need to curb the production and the spread of weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect, in particular nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, fuel-air bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, biological weaponry and weaponry containing depleted uranium�.
Doug Rokke, Ph.D., health physicist, former Director, U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Project, and one of the authors of the Pentagon's program for environmental remediation summarizesthe international violations associated with use of DU: "According to an August 2002 UN report, the use of DU munitions breaches the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Charter, the Genocide Convention, the Convention Against Torture, the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980, and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907."
Before the second war in Iraq even started, Karen Parker, J.D., President and Co-founder of the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers, further elaborated on the illegality of DU weapons, in August 1999 when she testified��these radioactive weapons have already been used in Kuwait, Iraq, Kosovo and Serbia even though they are illegal under existing humanitarian law. There are four main tests which determine whether or not the use of weapons is illegal: (1) whether or not they stay within the territorial range of the conflict; (2) whether or not they damage the environment; (3) whether or not the effects of the weapons end when the conflict ends (or the temporal range of the weapons); and (4) whether or not they are inhumane, that is, continue to cause physical harm beyond the point used for military purposes. As the Sub-Commission is aware, Depleted Uranium Munitions fail all four tests.�
So apparently, international law be damned and world leaders dare not oppose this behemoth of a military beast. The
How many Americans do you think realize that radioactive Depleted Uranium explosions are being detonated in several federal �test� sites right here in the
We�re not talking about a poison that will go away in a few generations. This radiation will, in fact, be around longer than the earth itself has been around. In the scheme of things, we are radioactively poisoning earth forever.
We have created a legacy of a toxic radioactive environment for our children and future descendents forevermore. We who are Baby Boomers have slept through this nuclear and nuclear waste radioactive �testing� while we went to school, built our careers, and have been immersed in raising our families and trying to make a living. So, too, have our parents� and grandparents� generations, and now today�s younger adults are just starting to make their way in this world.
While we were busy doing other things, far too busy to worry about what was taking place on military �testing� ranges, proving grounds, and national �laboratories�, sixty years of radioactivity �testing� has taken place right here, our own soil, into our air. There appears to be no end to it in sight.
Through �testing� of bombs, tanks, and guns containing Uranium-238, tritium and other toxic substances at military ordnances, national laboratories, and other federal lands throughout the
What we are doing with these uranium munitions is, as Leuren Moretstates, �illegal under international human rights and humanitarian law�. She informs us that the
Jim Howenstein, M.D. agrees and posits that the use of thousands of tons of Depleted Uranium used for decades at
MAKING THE CONNECTION
What would happen, do you think, if the connection was made in the minds of 300 million Americans between widespread cancers, diabetes, asthma and other respiratory diseases, auto-immune system diseases and birth defects as a result of Americans breathing in low-level, ionizing radiation? To say the least, this mind-blowing revelation would not exactly �sell� on-going American wars. One can understand precisely why a government - and the mainstream media it controls - would try extremely hard to keep the radioactive explosions, irreparably damaging to the air and environment, all very hush-hush.
One can�t help but ponder the concept of a government - any nation�s government - willfully, knowingly, releasing vast amounts of radioactive substances into the air, water, and food supply of its very own people. Upon contemplation, the average brain can not begin to comprehend the sober seriousness contained within such a concept. Aghast with the horrific implications, one is forced to ask if this poison dust - which is being inhaled in our air and ingested within our food and water - is not purposely intended to have an adverse health impact upon those living within our own country, too?
What seems to be too horrific a concept must at least be considered.
In a working papersubmitted by Y.K.J. Yeung Sik Yuen at the United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights on September 25th, 2003, Yuen concluded �that these weapons are intended to be used on enemy soil, thus making their devastation less of an issue for their users and their own nationals than for the �enemy� victims.�
Arguably, Yuen�s reasoning certainly does appear logical. If a weapon of devastating consequences is used which has consequences upon �the enemy�, yet possesses no adverse effects upon the aggressor population using it, the chances of that weapon being discontinued due to the insistence of the aggressor�s population would be slim.
It will therefore be interesting to observe if Americans will react differently (that is, react with appropriate and fitting moral outrage) against uranium weapons use upon civilians in the Middle East when we realize that our government has been using upon us - right here in the United States - the exact same types of munitions they have been using on our so-called �enemies� overseas.
As Charles W. Chestnutt said, �Sins, like chickens, come home to roost.� Or, in other words, �What goes around comes around�. Use of uranium in weapons upon some unknown foreign �enemy� who are we told �hates our freedom� is apparently not too big of a concern for most Americans - at least not yet.
BUT WHY HERE? WHY US?
Radioactive weapons use inside the US is certainly nothing new. The US Military has been conducting explosive radioactive �tests� inside
Former Livermore Laboratory whistleblower, Leuren Moret, gives us a clue as to why a nation might want to �test� Depleted Uranium within its own country: �International scientists, Drs. Andre Gsponer, J.-P. Hurni, and B. Vitali, watch-dogging nuclear weapons developments globally, pointed out that DU weaponry is being used to study the radiobiological effects of the new nuclear weapons now under development.�
Moret also informs us:
�The use of weapons in war are most effective when the weapons do not kill, but create long-term health and environmental consequences such as lingering illnesses which slowly destroy the health of the environment and productivity of a nation and the economy�. DU is a permanent terrain contaminant with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, forms immense volumes of nano-sized particles (smaller than bacteria or viruses) which are lofted permanently as components of atmospheric dust traveling around the world until they are rained or snowed out of the air�Even worse, uranium targets the DNA� and slowly destroys the genetic future of exposed populations.�
Site 300, where these radioactive explosions occur, is only about 40 miles from
Dr. Janette Sherman, after hearing about the DU explosions at site 300 at
It would certainly appear that those in power are cooking up some �hot� treat for the liberal Greater San Francisco Bay area. In fact,
As was noted by a recent report, �Lack of transparency is cause for concern if only because of the history of secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pentagon experiments in germ warfare that used the American people as guinea pigs. In his book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, Common Courage Press reporter William Blum noted that both agencies �conducted tests [over two decades] in the open air in the United States, exposing millions of Americans to large clouds of possibly dangerous bacteria and chemical particles.�
From 1949-69, the US Army tested the spread of dangerous chemical and bacterial organisms at over 239 US populated areas including San Francisco, New York, and Chicago with no warnings to the public or regard for the health consequences, Blum wrote. The Pentagon even sprayed navy warships to test the impact of germ warfare on US sailors.�
AND WHAT ABOUT TRITIUM ?
The United States government fully admitsthat it has done radiation experiments on Americans before. And with the long history of such chemical, biological, and radiological exposures upon the people of the
One can�t help but wonder if anyone gets rewarded for keeping things so quiet for so long? Take for example, how happy you would be if you were the head of a major nuclear weapons lab and your staff was able to keep explosions of radioactive materials so damaging to human health and the environment a really big secret from the nation for fifty years! Undoubtedly, the ability to keep such a major deal under wraps from the 7 million people living and working in the
STARTING AT
So going back to the people in the Tracy/Livermore area, any way you look at it, they�ve been dealt a really bum deal. According to Steve Sarvey, �It�s like a triple whammy. There�s three things going on.� First, there�s the issue of radioactive outdoor explosive �testing�. It is not known exactly how much radiation has been released out into the atmosphere at
Want to make your head spin? Just do the math. If
Site 300 is a contaminated Toxic site on the Superfund National Priorities Listdue to contamination of groundwater and tonnage of materials deposited there, such as Depleted Uranium, beryllium, and tritium. Some of these radioactive substances sit in unlined pits. There are extensive plumes of various substances with fifty-seven separate contaminant release areas that exist including soil and water both above and below the ground.
According to Bob Sarvey, the Tracy City Council voted in April to have Livermore Laboratory remove the piles of highly enriched uranium as well as plutonium and tritium that are sitting in unlined pits, but Livermore Lab has failed to do so. And to add insult to injury? Livermore Lab, which is run and staffed by the
Last but certainly not least, Site 300is one of the sites that the Department of Homeland Security is considering to run a Bio-Safety Level 4, anti-biological laboratory. Level 4 labs test and store incurable fatal diseases such as the Ebola virus and mad cow disease.
Again, the question must be asked, why in the world would anyone want to even consider doing work on fatal and incurable diseases so close to seven million people?
As far as health affects caused by DU radiation �testing� goes, anecdotal reports from
Not surprisingly, looking at the health of the overall San Francisco Greater Bay area, one notes that the incidences of cancer are higher when compared to the state average. From the years 1988 to 2002, the Greater San Francisco Bay area experienced an annual rate of 468.9 cancers per 100,000 people, which is substantially higher than the state of
Here in the
Another disorder linked to Depleted Uranium poisoning in soldiers from both Gulf Wars is asthma. A chronic lung disease characterized by persistent cough and wheeze, incidences of asthma have been steadily increasing. The most common serious chronic disease of
If you are not living in
According to research released in February, 2006 out of England, nine days after the March, 2003 �Shock and Awe� bombing of Baghdad in which bombs containing Depleted Uranium were exploded, radioactivity was found in air filters within the United Kingdom, up to 2,500 miles away.
This was proof positive that this radioactive poison travels great distances. In other words, the explosive fire of tanks, guns, missiles launched and bombs dropped does not stay in a contained little cloud over the so-called �enemy� target borders. According to Moret, �After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere.�
Who would have ever thought that radioactive weaponry that we believed was intended for use on the battlefield upon
In testimonyprovided to the UN, International Humanitarian Lawyer Karen Parker, J.D., stated, �there is evidence that the ceramic form of uranium dioxide, made during weapons explosions or fires, could stay in the body as long as 20 years. Depleted uranium was detected eight years after the end of the war in the urine of US,
Proof abounds, however, dating back all the way back from 1943 that shows our military leaders knew about the �advantages� - and their capability - of conducting radioactive gas warfare upon citizens.
In a memodeclassified in 1974 written to James B. Conant and Brigadier General L. R. Groves from: Drs. Conant, Compton, and Urey, War Department United States Engineer Office Manhattan District, Oak Ridge Tennessee on October 30, 1943, that proves that they knew that uranium could be used �As a gas warfare instrument the material would be ground into particles of microscopic size to form dust and smoke and distributed by a ground-fired projectile, land vehicles, or aerial bombs. In this form it would be inhaled by personnel. The amount necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely small. It has been estimated that one millionth of a gram accumulating in a person's body would be fatal. There are no known methods of treatment for such a casualty.�
The report states that two factors appear to increase the effectiveness of radioactive dust or smoke as a weapon. These are: (1) It cannot be detected by the senses; (2) It can be distributed in a dust or smoke form so finely powdered that it will permeate a standard gas mask filter in quantities large enough to be extremely damaging.
The 1943 memo also stated that it could be used as radioactive warfare to make evacuated areas uninhabitable, to contaminate small critical areas, and as a radioactive poison gas to create casualties among troops, and to create casualties among civilian populations. It also mentions that �These materials may also be so disposed as to be taken into the body by ingestion instead of inhalation. Reservoirs or wells would be contaminated or food poisoned with an effect similar to that resulting from inhalation of dust or smoke, � and in the respiratory tract, �articles smaller than 1� [micron] are more likely to be deposited in the alveoli where they will either remain indefinitely or be absorbed into the lymphatics or blood� It would seem that chemical gases could accomplish more and do it more quickly so far as the skin surfaces and lungs are concerned.�
In other words, the US Military has known since 1943 precisely what it was doing with regard to the life-destroying use of aerosolized uranium.
In the words of award-winning Robert C. Koehler in his piece on Depleted Uranium, �Silent Genocide�: �Before the damage we inflict grows greater, before history's judgment gets worse, before we contaminate the whole world -- even before we vote in the next election -- we must stop what we're doing. We must stop now. �
If Americans don�t like the idea of breathing in, eating, and drinking this weaponized nuclear waste product gas, how do we follow Koehler�s advice and stop what we�re doing now? It is imperative that we start somewhere - and halting the large radioactive �tests� now permitted in
This affects us all. What is going on in the backyard of the vastly populated
So this issue is in fact not at all a problem merely for the city of
From a February, 2006 report by Busby and Morgan, measurements were examined on air sampler filters deployed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Aldermaston, in
In the conclusion of the report: �Despite much evidence that uranium aerosols are long lived in the environment and are able to travel considerable distances, this is the first evidence as far as we know, that they are able to travel thousands of miles. The distance traveled from
We never know when you or I or someone we love may be breathing in an invisible particle of radiation in the air from Site 300 or from another of the
Roughly speaking, using approximate distances from
One can�t help but wonder if by virtue of having radioactive materials in the form of both hydrogen bombs and Uranium-238 munitions exploded around us within the
In an interview with Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki, author of the compelling book, �Afghanistan After Democracy� which chronicles the health effects suffered by the people in Afghanistan as a result of DU weaponry, I asked Dr Miraki to tell me about the health effects of DU upon the people in Afghanistan and Iraq compared to the citizens of the US with regard to open air Uranium-238 �testing�.
Dr. Miraki replied, �I can use
As this is documented by many scientists as being true with regard to the devastating health effects of the victims of uranium poisoning in the Middle East, can one assume that these same uranium munitions are having a similar effect on our own citizens here in the
Miraki continued, �For example, I heard in Indiana, Jefferson Testing Grounds, there people have certain health problems that are unexplained, cancer rates and so forth that are up, so on a large scale, what they have done overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan and Kosovo and Yugoslavia, and, using that as a benchmark? Logic dictates that it will result in similar conditions here as well� a high upsurge in diabetes in various areas among young people - as well as older - could very well be one effect of DU dust. Then you know we are talking about DU dust, we are talking about intercellular radiation. So it could affect anything. It could create any kind of problem, from the conventional as well as bizarre and unexplained, unconventional problems.�
With each passing day, our air, our streams, our lakes, our rivers, our oceans, our farms, our forests, our fields, our meadows, our schoolyards, our wildlife, our farm animals and our produce and grains are being contaminated with this invisible radioactive poison dust and gas. These explosions do not - must not - be fired within our country where it is inhaled in our air, ingested in our food, and can readily enter the body through even a small cut on a child�s scraped knee.
Radiation from US Military weapons is not something that happens overseas �somewhere�. It is a personal affair that affects Americans right here at home. As Michael Ignatieff said, �We can't achieve the humanitarian goals we set out to because achieving humanitarian goals means getting up close and personal.�
The clock is ticking. With each new detonation of yet another radioactive �test�, increased amounts of radiation remain here with us inside the
Bob Sarvey, one of the leading voices against the continued testing of radioactive substances at Site 300, summed up what appears to be the sentiment of many residents in the
Unfortunately, no matter where that �somewhere else� is? Depleted Uranium and other radioactive substances are �tested�, it will wipe out people. So the solution actually is not to move the weapons �testing� to a less populated area, but rather, to stop the use of radioactive materials, period. As long as radioactive weapons are used, those who manufacture and use them will continue to maintain that they must be �tested� - somewhere. And with such a tremendously far atmospheric �reach�? These invisible aerosol particles will be carried through the wind and precipitation thousands of miles away - somewhere - wherever people live.
All points within 2,500 miles of Site 300 at
The question we must now ponder in our heart of hearts is this one: What have the use of these radioactive and nuclear weapons truly cost us in collective terms of Americans� lost moments of healthy, happy, productive living? What do we say to future children who are born with genetic mutations and birth defect deformities who want to know why they are missing a limb or an ear?
What will the use of these weapons mean to us in terms of green spaces and fields, native wildflowers and forests lost? How will this permanent radiation in our atmosphere and environment play out for our children�s grandchildren�s future in terms of being subject to a nation with permanently contaminated brooks and streams, lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans? How can we ever even begin to calculate what our great grandchildren will miss in terms of healthy fish swimming in our streams and frogs, chipmunks, and endangered birds?
In the words of Dr. Keith Baverstock, formerly of the World Health Organization, "Politics has poisoned the well from which democracy must drink."
It is incumbent upon American citizens to take personal responsibility now, once and for all. We must work together at once to put an end to this poisoning forever of our nation - and our world.
Like never before, we need to rise to the occasion and step up to the plate. Together we must work to stop these purposeful explosions of radioactive poison dust right here in our country, inside
Can there be any doubt that Americans need to put a stop to this insane Uranium Madness being exploded into our air - once and for all? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. And the question is, what are you willing to do about it?
Learn how you can participate in the growing effort to halt radioactive weapons �testing�. To take action or to receive more information, please visit: http://haltdutesting.blogspot.com.
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, antiwar activist, and a certified personal coach. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation�s capital during the