Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by paigetheoracle

Don't be confused - totally separate point, not directly related to Schauberger and I'm sorry you didn't get it.

I’m just thinking the subject has swerved far from Schauberger and his possibly a flying saucer, possibly a prophylactic air conditioner, but I do follow the theme of ying vs. yang/dominance vs. cooperation/war/rockets/weapons etc. It’s all good, as this is after all the strange claims forum.

Originally Posted by paigetheoracle

As for DU - are you saying that the cases of deformed babies reported after the actual attack stage of the war, were not to do with the shells but some other cause?

Yes, that is what I’m saying.

The health risks associated with depleted uranium are well studied and understood. There is, to the best of my knowledge and that of a number of specialists in military and environmental medicine with whom I’ve talked, no evidence whatever of them causing birth defects. In the most severe cases of contamination, involving the occupants of vehicles stuck by DU munitions, the major risks are kidney damage, and about a 1% increase in lifetime risk of fatal cancer.

Even in areas heavily contaminated with DU, such as sites where DU-armored vehicles have been repeatedly holed by DU projectiles, or crash sites where large aircraft have burned at high temperatures (many commercial aircraft, such as Boeing 747s, use DU as a counterweight material for their hinged control surfaces), tests of human urine and feces show only short-lasting increases in uranium over usual background levels. Uranium is a fairly common element which we all ingest in small amounts throughout our lifetimes, with little risk to our health. Because it does not compound readily with other molecules in our body, but passes unaltered through our gut, or, if taken into the blood stream, is quickly removed and excreted in urine, short-term exposure to DU in the concentrations associated with warfare and accidents is not a serious health risk.

As with many other materials found in weapons and vehicles, it’s important that wreckage and spent munitions be cleaned up, to assure that exposure to DU and the many other dangerous substances in them is short-term. Fortunately, DU when reduced to a power is readily washed away, and when intact in metal, is not, so even if inadequately cleaned up, is eventually removed from the environment by natural processes.

This WHO factsheet is a good source of information from a trustworthy organization. This news article has a good description of and a link to a Sandia National Lab study of US Gulf War veterans exposed to DU.