The national board of the Military Toxics Project (MTP) met by teleconference at 9:00 PM Eastern Time on December 17 to discuss concern for the health of U.S. and British troops, as well as innocent Iraqi children and adults who will again be unknowingly exposed to debris from depleted uranium (DU) weapons being used by the U.S. military. While the more than 1400 individuals and organizations that comprise MTP have strong and diverse opinions on the invasion itself, all agree that the Department of Defense has not yet addressed the issue of Persian Gulf Illness adequately. While thousands of veterans remain ill and too many have died since the Persian Gulf War began in 1991, the U.S. military has not yet alerted troops to the dangers of exposure to depleted uranium, a toxic metal, which also is radioactive. Furthermore, the VA has not been treating veterans who suffer from the "mysterious illness", but rather continue to maintain that the illness is stress related.

MTP has been researching and organizing around the DU issue for seven years after the U.S. used DU weapons for the first time in ground war during Desert Storm. Three hundred fifteen tons were fired in the Gulf in 1991 contaminating the area for 4 ½ billion years. U.S. military forces are using them again in this most recent attack against Iraq, for example the tomahawk cruise missiles contain DU. Upon impact, DU burns like molten lava and disperses tiny radioactive particles via smoke, which re-disperses and travels through the air contaminating equipment, food, soil and water.

Although DU weaponry is classified as a "conventional weapon", MTP considers depleted uranium weapons to be a weapon of mass destruction. Since the Gulf War battlefields remain contaminated with depleted uranium, the health of today's citizens, as well as that of future generations is at risk. The United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva has taken up the issue of depleted uranium through its Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. The Sub-Commission adopted resolutions that include depleted uranium weapons among "weapons of mass or indiscriminate destruction", incompatible with international humanitarian or human rights law. MTP has supplied information and testimony to the Delegations to the 1998 Non Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee regarding depleted uranium. Some of the MTP board members pointed out the irony in that the U.S. is using weapons of mass destruction to attack a country because they refuse to let weapons inspectors look for their weapons of mass destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended a study of the link between the high incidence of cancer in Iraqi civilians and the use of depleted uranium weapons during Desert Storm.

The Department of Defense admitted in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses - ANNUAL REPORT - November 1996-1997 that, "Our investigations into potential health hazards of depleted uranium (DU) point to serious deficiencies in what our troops understood about the health effects DU poses on the battlefield. These hazards were well documented as a result of the Army's exhaustive developmental process for fielding DU munitions. Unfortunately, this information was generally known only by technical specialists in nuclear-biological-chemical health and safety fields. Combat troops or those carrying out support functions generally did not know that DU contaminated equipment, such as enemy vehicles struck by DU rounds, required special handling. Similarly, few troops were told of the more serious threat of radium contamination from broken gauges on Iraq's Soviet-built tanks. The failure to properly disseminate such information to troops at all levels may have resulted in thousands of unnecessary exposures."

A couple of months ago, MTP released the results of a pilot study which revealed high levels of DU in the urine of several Persian Gulf veterans who were sampled. MTP is working with Dr. Rosalie Bertell and Dr. Hari Sharma in the effort to study whether DU is present in veterans who were exposed to it during the Persian Gulf War. The experts hope to develop a protocol for a larger medical study involving some 500 veterans who will be randomly chosen.

More information regarding the Military Toxics Project and the issue of DEPLETED URANIUM WEAPONS can be found at MTP's web site at www.miltoxproj.org. The site contains the most recent DU Case Narrative authored by former MTP board member Dan Fahey and released by the Military Toxics Project, Gulf War Veterans Resource Center, and Swords to Plowshares.

The Military Toxics Project is a national grassroots network of community groups, environmental justice groups, workers, veterans and active military personnel working together to find preventative solutions to the Department of Defense's environmental problems.