maybe it will help. You might want to google Depleted Uranium as well:
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Not my usual politically based missive, but it is one of my hot buttons.
Last year the Veterans Administration ran out of money and needed a massive infusion of cash to keep operating. Have you wondered why the VA is so short on cash? Initially it was blamed on the sudden need for about $14,000,000,000 in treatment and prosthetics for the wounded returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. That's a lot of arms and legs, but that may not be the only reason.
I ran across this:
http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml.Ever since the troops began returning from the first gulf war there have been rumors of strange maladies and birth defects. For the first ten years the VA denied any abnormalities and said that the occurrences of illness fell within the statistical norm. That's exactly what they said about Agent Orange. They stonewalled so long that most of those affected died before the VA admitted that Agent Orange was toxic. Now, fifteen years after Saddam's defeat in 1991, it seems that the gulf war soldiers were right and that something war related really is affecting their health and it's a lot worse than Agent Orange.
It's called Depleted Uranium. That's the leftovers after all the "good stuff" is refined out of nuclear fuel. It is extremely dense, heavy and hard. It makes excellent armor and armor piercing ammunition. The military has been using it for 30-40 years, but Gulf War I was the first massive use in a large theater. Hundreds of tons of the stuff was used. Most of it is still there, in the soil and water.
It isn't radioactive. In fact after all the refining it emits near background radiation. However it is a heavy metal like lead or mercury and like those it accumulates, deposits itself in organs and bones and it never leaves the body. It is much more toxic than lead or mercury.
When an armor piercing bullet penetrates several inches of steel armor the heat generated literally burns the bullet and melts the armor. The resulting smoke is micro pulverized Depleted Uranium dust. When breathed or absorbed into wounds it affects the nervous system and many organs with symptoms ranging from body ache to cancer. It has a half life of thousands of years and becomes a permanent part of the environment. Every time the dust is stirred up it can be breathed into the lungs. Iraq has a lot of sand storms.
So how toxic is this stuff? According to the article I found of 580,000 soldiers who served in Gulf War I eleven thousand are now dead. Fifty Six percent, or 320,000, are on permanent disability. Almost 520,000 have some level of disability related to the war. The rate of permanent disability for wars prior to Vietnam was 5% and for 'Nam it was 10%.
This stuff makes Agent Orange look like a vitamin supplement.
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