Depleted Uranium Contamination in Iraq For 28 years

Abstract

Status of Depleted Uranium Contamination In Iraq After 28 Year.

Full text

Depleted Uranium
Contamination in
Iraq
For 28 years
Dr Souad N. Al-Azzawi
Associate professor in
Environmental Engineering
A Lecture presented for the
Campaign Against US/NATO
bases
Stockholm-Sweden
March 20/ 2019

Reference
Operation Desert Storm 1991 By The Numbers On Its 25th Anniversary
Tyler Rogoway 1/16/16 3:45pm
American Coalition sorties flown: 100,000+
Tons of bombs dropped: 88,500
Cruise missiles fired: 297 Tomahawks plus 35 CALCMs
30mm depleted uranium rounds fired by A-10 Warthogs: 782,514.
Number of air-to-air missiles fired by U.S. aircraft: 174.
Number of anti-radiation missiles fired at Iraqi radars: 2,039 .
Number of dumb bombs dropped: 210,004 of which 39.336 were cluster munitions.
Number of smart bombs (LGB/EO) dropped: 9,342 .
Number of air-to-ground missiles fired: 5,930 (excludes those fired by the U.S. Army).
Duration of air campaign before ground invasion: 39 days.
Ground war duration: 100 hours.

What is Depleted
Uranium (DU):
DU is a chemically toxic
and radioactive heavy
metal produced as waste
by the nuclear power
industry. It is used in
weapons because it is an
extremely hard material
capable of piercing
armor, but in reality DU
have been used in highly
populated civilian areas.
Since 1991, the US/UK and allies armed forces have been using
radioactive weapons in their (Democratic) wars, in form of missiles,
bullets and explosives made with depleted, undepleted, or slightly
enriched uranium.
Depleted Uranium(DU) is mainly a Uranium-238 ore depleted from
U235 isotope needed as spent fuel in nuclear reactors.
DU is the radioactive waste the American military industry arsenal
turned into weapons to get rid of by exporting to other countries
through wars, and as a military weapon investment .
DU radioactivity is initially about 60% of that of natural uranium,
increasing to around 80% a few months after it is produced; it is
variously labelled as Intermediate or Low Level Radioactive Waste
(LLRW)[1 ].

Amounts of
DU
expenditure
used since
1991
•Amounts of DU been used mainly by US/UK armies and allies
in wars are:
•In Gulf war 1 in Iraq 1991, and during Iraq invasion , during
occupation military operations(2003-2004), and later on
attacks on cities resisted the occupation.
•In Iraq more than 440,000 kilograms of DU were used by
tanks, armored vehicles and aircraft in 1991 and 2003 [1 ].
•Based on satellite imagery at the end of the 2003 war, UNEP
estimated that the total amount was around 1000 and 2000
metric tons.
•In Balkan war 1999, only 12,500 Kg of DU was used.
•Yet most false conclusions on DU( insignificant)health impacts
were driven from more than 100 researches on that amount
of DU exposure! and not on hundreds of tons been used in
Iraq???

In Gulf war 1, 1991, about million DU missile and projectiles were used mostly on what they called the
Highway of death between Kuwait city and Basra to Samawa in Iraq. About (80)% are within Iraqi territories.

Highway of
Death
between
Kuwait and
Basra City
•According to the BBC Channel
between 60,000 and 200,000 Iraqi soldiers are
thought to have been killed,
•25 - 30,000 during the ground war (the others
would have been killed by air and missile
strikes).
Civilian deaths resulting from the war are
estimated at between 100,000 and 200,000.

Health effects of
Depleted Uranium;
Dr Rosalie Bertell, a
radiology scientist
wrote in 2006
•when DU munitions hit the target, they ignite prophetically
and generate heat that reaches a temperature of (3000-6000).
•This heat causes a sublimation of DU and other metals to form a
gas or aerosol that is considered as (Nano-particles).
•The Nano-particles can cross the lung-blood barrier and gain
entrance to the cells and create free radicals.
•This is an effect of ionizing radiation.
•The other effect of DU comes from the fact that it is classified as
a toxic heavy metal.
•Heavy metal toxicity attacks the proteins in the cell which
normally fights the free radicals and creates additional free
radicals [9].
•This causes an oxidative stress that leads to failure of protective
enzymes, damaging the cellular communication system and the
mitochondria.
•Free radicals can also disrupt the proteins folding process of
(DNA), this misrouting of proteins causes certain diseases such
as cystic fibrosis, diabetes insipidus and cancer.
•Amassing and accumulation of misfolded proteins leads to
neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease.

Continue from Rosali Bertell
Gulf veterans have manifested many of the symptoms of these
neurodegenerative diseases. Other effects are:
•Immune and Hormonal systems’ damage
•Distribution of thyroid function
•Mycoplasmal Invasion to human body
•Tetrogenic Toxicity, where soluble DU
oxides crosses the placenta to the fetus.
•As a result, damages might range from behavioral problems to
mental retardation and congenital malformations.
•Studies proved that the Gulf War I male veterans were twice as
likely- and female veterans almost three times as likely- to
report children with birth defects than counterparts who did
not serve in the first Gulf War [10].

More recent studies/ an ICBUW article,
New report: evidence that depleted uranium can cause
cancer now overwhelming, Aug.2014.
•A new analysis of nearly 50 peer-reviewed studies has concluded
that the chemically toxic and radioactive weapons constituent
depleted uranium (DU) can damage DNA and cause cancer, the
report calls for urgent studies into the extent to which civilians
are being exposed to the substance.
•
•All radioactive substances that emit alpha radiation, including DU,
have already been classified by the WHO’s specialist International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as Group 1 carcinogens if they
get inside the human body. Studies show that DU can also damage
DNA and cellular processes in a number of different ways, such as by
triggering oxidative damage, breaking DNA strands and binding
directly to the DNA itself. Other papers have documented that DU
can cause mutations in DNA, change the structure of chromosomes,
make cells become cancerous and destabilise the genome.

While new weapons are supposed to be reviewed to ensure
their compliance with international law, the precise risks from
radioactive or toxic substances in weapons may take many years
of studies to fully emerge.
•This delay places civilians at risk.
•Studies into DU’s impact in the field have been severely
hampered in Iraq by the refusal of the United States to release
data on where the weapons were fired and in what quantity.
The chance release of a handful of
coordinates earlier this year indicated that
DU had been used against a far wider range of targets in Iraq than
was legal and in populated areas, increasing the risks that civilians
would be exposed

Radioactive and banned weapons used
in Iraq’s invasion and occupation
military operations 2003, such as:
•Depleted Uranium expenditure and missiles.
•Thermobaric bombs.
•neutron bombs.
•cluster bombs.
•Napalm bombs.
•white phosphorus bombs (Monbiot 2005; Shaft
2003;).
•The aircrafts flew 20,753 combat sorties and
used 18,467 smart bombs and missiles in
addition to 9251 dumb bombs.
•There were 153 air-launched cruise missiles, 98
EGBU-27 GPS/Laser-Guided bombs, 408 anti-
radar missiles and 908 guided cluster bombs
dropped.
•Other missiles fired include Hellfire (562),
Maverick (918), AGM-130 (4), AGM-84 SLAM
ER (3) and AGM-54 JSOW (253) (Dunnigan
2003).

Munitions Ground Weapons
AGM 88 Up-armored Humvee
AGM 154A M1A1 Abrams battle tank
SCUD C M2A3 Bradley fighting vehicle
Tomahawk M6 Bradley Linebacker
AGM 65 Humvee
MK-82 M109A6 Paladin Howitzer
AGM 84D Saxon Armored personnel carrier
GBU 12 Scimitar reconnaissance vehicle
MOAB SA-80 rifle
Hellfire air-to-surface missile A590 Braveheart
TOW anti-armor missile M270 multiple launch rocket system
Stinger anti-aircraft missile Patriot missile system
Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) Avenger Humvee
JDAM air-to-surface bomb Light armored vehicle
JSOW air-to-surface bomb M88A2 Hercules Recovery
GBU laser-guided bombs US infantry weapons
GBU –28/27 Bunker Buster Challenger II battle tank
Daisy Cutter 15,000 lb bomb Warrior combat vehicle
MK 82/ 500 lb bomb Striker anti-armor vehicle
MK 84/ 2000 lb bomb Sabre reconnaissance
Thermobonic weapon Land rover light truck
Tomahawk / AGM, cruise missile
Maverick air-to-surface missile
HARM anti-radar missile
AIM-120 air-to-air missile
Weapons used
during military
operations of Iraq’s
invasion and
occupation, 2003

During the invasion and occupation of Iraq military
operations, the American troops launched bunker-busting
guided bombs, cruise missiles, and TOW anti-tank missiles. It
also fired new thermobaric warheads—much stronger
explosives with stunningly large blasts.
•Many of these, says Scott Ritter,
contained some type of uranium,
whether depleted, undepleted, or
slightly enriched Uranium.
•Williams says thermobaric weapons
explode at extremely high
temperatures and “the only
material that can do that is
uranium.”
•He adds that while today’s nuclear
weapons are nominally subject to
international regulations, no
existing arms protocol addresses
uranium in a non-nuclear context.
Barbara Koeppel,2016. Irradiated Iraq: The Nuclear
Nightmare We Left Behind. The Washington Spectator
_ Washington Spectator. March 30, 2016

New areas contaminated with DU during the invasion and occupation
of Iraq military operations 2003-2004.
•The American armed forces kept denying reusing DU
in 2003 and the coordinates of new contaminated areas
for many years as they did in 1991.
•Not revealing the information about locations and
amounts have exposed the civilians in these populated
areas to higher radioactive doses, and this is a war
crime.
•until the findings of a DU related research published by
the European organization PAX in collaboration with
the ICBDUW and George Mason University in
America,2016, called ( Targets of opportunity).
•The research confirmed the locations of about 181000
DU shells (Wim Zwijnenburg and Doug Weir, 2016).
•Maps and illustrations showed that US forces fired DU
projectiles in most densely populated cities, including
Basra, Baghdad, Najaf, Amarah, Tikrit, Karbala, Falluja
and Baquba, as shown in the Figure.

More DU contaminated sites after 2003-2004
occupation forces attacks on Iraqi cities including
Basra which is highly contaminated from 1991
extensive use of DU weapons.
•data contained in (Targets of Opportunity),
ICBUW report of 2016 show the increase in the
number of sites known to have been
contaminated with DU after 2003 Iraq invasion
from 350 site (according to the Iraqi authorities )
to around 1,133 site.
•However, the data only relates to rounds fired by
A-10s, and not to the other two US land platforms
and one other air platform that used DU in the
conflict.

Sunday Herald
- 22 February 2004
WHO ‘suppressed’ scientific study into depleted uranium cancer fears in Iraq
Radiation experts warn in unpublished report that DU weapons used by Allies in Gulf war pose long
-term health
risk
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor
http://www.sundayherald.com/40096
Karol Sikora
, a British oncologist who headed WHO’s cancer program in the 1990s, told me his supervisor (who
focuses on non
-communicable diseases) warned him that they shouldn’t speak publicly about the cancers and birth
defects “because this would offend member states”
Hagopian says researchers can’t study the uranium weapons’ effects because “the U.S. won’t fund the work.”
Reference
Barbara Koeppel
,2016. Irradiated Iraq: The Nuclear Nightmare We Left Behind.
The Washington Spectator _ Washington Spectator.
March 30, 2016

Since 1991 Related
INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS TURNED
BLINED EYE ON Depleted
Uranium contamination and
its sever health impacts on
Iraqi population.
•Under the pressure of the American Administration , the
related international organizations (UNDP, UNEP, WHO,
etc.) turned a blind eye to these problems in Iraq [9].
•Unlike Europe, where they rushed to conduct real
environmental assessments right after the use of only
12.6 tons of the DU in Kosovo and Serbia in 1999 [10],
which represents only 2.5% of the amount of DU
expenditure spent in Iraq.
•That assessment included an intensive exploration
program with radiological detection, samples collection,
laboratory tests, and facts finding.
•With all of this, epidemiological studies among armed
forces and civilians who were exposed were all done,
and follow up studies are still going on.

The most important
consequences of exposure
to DU surely concerns
people living in the war
regions. Some data reported
in this review should be
stressed are:
1. The 3.5 times increased incidence rate for
testicular tumors in Croatians from the prewar
period to the postwar period;
2. The fivefold increased incidence of bladder
cancer among Norwegian soldiers who served in
Kosovo
3. The increased incidence rate of breast
cancer in Iraqi women, from 26.6 in the pre-
war period up to 31.5/ 100,000 in 2009,
33.8% of all breast cancers being diagnosed in
young girls aged less than 15 years;
4. lung cancer showed a statistically significant
excess among Gulf War veterans compared
with non-Gulf War veterans
Reference:
Depleted Uranium and Human Health. Available
from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/3166563
24_Depleted_Uranium_and_Human_Health

The most important
consequences of exposure
to DU surely concerns
people living in the war
regions. Some data reported
in this review should be
stressed are:
5. Gulf War veterans exposed to DU show increased
urinary β(2)-macroglobulin and retinol binding protein
levels, indicative for an impaired renal function;
6.The monitoring of Gulf War I US veterans wounded in
DU fire incidents, reported the persisting high uranium
urinary levels20 years after the first contact to DU;
7. Iraqi patients presenting with leukemia after the
Gulf war evidenced higher uranium serum levels
compared to healthy Iraqi subjects;
8. Among several hundred thousand veterans deployed in
the Operation Desert Storm, 15-20% have been
affected by the Persian Gulf syndrome, and about
25,000 died;
Reference:
Depleted Uranium and Human Health. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316656324_Depl
eted_Uranium_and_Human_Health

Health impacts of contaminating civilian areas
with Depleted Uranium
•According to a 2005 article in Environmental
Health:
At one Basra hospital, leukemia
cases in children up to age 14 doubled from 1992 to
1999, says Amy Hagopian, a University of
Washington School of Public Health professor.
Birth defects also surged, from 37 in 1990
to 254 in 2001.
Barbara Koeppel,2016. Irradiated Iraq: The Nuclear Nightmare We Left Behind. The Washington
Spectator _ Washington Spectator. March 30, 2016

After 15 years of DU
contamination in Iraq:
Iraqi Radiation Protection
Center (IRPC) –UNEP-IAEA in
2006-2007 conducted what is
supposed to be (Radiation risk
assessment in Iraq)
Danesi1, P.R., and Telleria2, D.M ,2006. “Radiological
Conditions at Four Selected Sites in South Iraq with
Residues of Depleted Uranium”. 1, International Atomic
Energy Agency Consultant, Vienna, Austria.
2International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria
•A total of 520 samples of soil, water, vegetation,
and smear tests, were taken from: Rumiala oil Fields,
Zubair, Samawa, and Nasirya cities
•Collected samples were shipped from Iraq to the
Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland, which, on behalf of
UNEP, analyzed them using Inductively Coupled
Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
•The radioanalytical results were then made available
to the IAEA to make a prospective estimation of the
radiation doses to the Iraqi population living in the
above-mentioned four locations and the associated
radiological risks [49].
•The results of that very limited investigation
program and IAEA misleading assessment stated that:
•“annual radiation doses to the public that could arise
from the various types of exposure scenarios were
calculated. based on the measurements carried out on
the samples collected in this study. The radiation doses
from DU were found sufficiently low not pose a
radiological hazard to the population living at the four
studied locations” [49].

Why UNEP-IAEA
Depleted Uranium
radiological assessment
in Iraq came with this
misleading conclusion in
2007??
•Because IAEA built their dose calculations
on very limited scattered poor sampling
program.
•They measured radioactivity in 2006,
while contamination in these areas existed
and continued since Gulf war 1, 1991.
•The risk assessment should have included
cumulative radiation doses of all paths in
human body for the period (1991-2006) and
not as they calculated from the instant they
measured in 2006 (as an isolated event).
•DU Concentration and activity values of
the contaminants in these areas also should
have been calculated back to their 1991
values and not 2006 values.

Why UNEP-IAEA Depleted Uranium radiological assessment in Iraq
came with this misleading conclusion in 2007??
IAEA risk assessment missed to calculate the following important
pathways:
1. Inhaling DU oxides during military operations periods in 1991 and
2003 which represents the most critical Path affected the civilian
population in southern Iraq. Doses from this path represents about
80% Of total collective dose people exposed to in these areas.
2. Ingestion of contaminated meat, milk, and other related items in food
chain.
3. Absorption of DU oxides through skin and immersion in emitted
Radon cloud during military operations periods and six months after.
4. The IAEA risk assessment calculations considered the exposed
population live above ( North) the contaminated areas??, while
dominant wind direction in Iraq and during dust storms is NW-SE
That means they should have calculated additional doses from
contaminated areas blowing downward from Samawa city on
Nasiriya, Basra, and Zubair cities from 1991-2006, and so on of all
other cities.
No human blood or other type of sampling to check levels of DU in
the bodies of close by residents of these areas.

One Sand storms in western Iraqi desert, such a storm move all DU contaminants hundreds of
miles away from contaminated areas.
Each one of these DU oxides contaminated sand storm expose population in close by cities to
extra radiation doses repeatedly.
Existence of radioactive DU oxides,
fragments, contaminated destroyed
tanks and artilleries, and
contaminated soil and/ or sand in the
surrounding environment is a
continuous source of exposure to both
toxic and radioactive effects.
•It also represents continuous
systematic attacks on civilians
each time DU contaminated dust
storm blows on the city of Basra
and all surrounding area tens of
years to come.

Left behind in Fallujah
The U.S. military attacked Fallujah twice in 2004, and in the
November siege, troops fired thermobaric weapons, including a
shoulder-launched missile called the SMAW-NE. (NE means “novel
explosive.”
•Cancers in Fallujah catapulted
from 40 cases among 100,000
people in 1991 to at least 1,600 by
2005.
•In a 2010 International Journal
of Environmental Research and
Public Health article, Busby and
two colleagues, Malak Hamden,
and Entesar Ariabi, reported a 38-
fold increase
in leukemia, a 10-fold increase
in breast cancer, and infant
mortality rates eight times higher
than in neighboring Kuwait.
Reference
Barbara Koeppel,2016. Irradiated Iraq: The Nuclear Nightmare We
Left Behind. The Washington Spectator _ Washington Spectator. March 30,
2016

The Telegraph, 2:22PM BST 10 Sep 2009
“Soldier died from exposure depleted uranium
during Gulf War
•The death of a former soldier from colon
cancer was "more likely than not" caused by
his exposure to depleted uranium during the
first Gulf War, an inquest has heard.”
•The hearing in Smethwick, West Midlands, was
told that Stuart Dyson died 17 years after being
exposed to particles of the substance used in
munitions during the 1991 conflict.
•Mr Dyson, who served in the Royal Pioneer
Corps, died aged 39 in June last year after a
battle against colon cancer which spread to his
liver and spleen.

Conclusions of radiation risk assessment in Basra
conducted by environmental engineering
department in Baghdad university in 2000, with site
and laboratory measurements and environmental
sampling are:

Conclusions of radiation risk
assessment in Basra
conducted by environmental
engineering department in
Baghdad university in 2000,
with site and laboratory
measurements and
environmental sampling are:
Al-Azzawi S.N. and Alnuaimi , A.N., 2002
Calculated total whole body dose from inhalation
of DU oxides for the period 1991-1996, for an
adult person in both normal and active duty in
Al-Basrah war zone is 0.1768 Sv and 0.2309 Sv
respectively, while in the highway war zone it is
0.4425 Sv and0.577 Sv respectively, compared to
normal background annual effective dose people
usually receive of 0.024Sv only.
It was found that DU oxides inhalation dose
represents more than 89% of the total whole
body dose people in Basra and surrounding
areas exposed to first few months of the
military operations.
This exposure mechanism should be the
most important path when conducting
and assessing the risks in DU
contaminated areas.
This fact indicates that the highest
whole body radioactive dose occurred
during the military operations and few
months after that.

Continue
Conclusions of radiation risk
assessment in Basra
conducted by environmental
engineering department in
Conclusions of radiation risk
assessment in Basra
conducted by environmental
engineering department in
Baghdad university in 2000,
Al-Azzawi S.N. and Alnuaimi ,
A.N., 2002
The assessment of the expected overall detriment cases (fatal and
non-fatal cancer, genetic, and other health effects) due to
resuspension –emanation mechanism only for the period 1991-1996
based on ICRP risk coefficients as a percentage ratio from the total
population in the study area ( Basra) is found to be 10.2% , and the
total expected fatal cancer cases is 7.29% of total population.
At that time population of Basra was about 1.5 Million. The risk
assessment indicated that about 150000 of Basra population will suffer
health problems related to level of radioactive doses they have
received.
After 18 years and if we get real health problems data, it seems like
what the people of Al-Basra are suffering today probably more
thanwhat the risk assessment predicted.

Some Legal aspects of using DU in
Karen Parker 2007, an international lawyer stated that:
UN and other experts argue, DU weapons
can be considered illegal because of the
prohibitions in The Hague Convention of
1907 on poisons, the 1925 Protocol on
Gases, Protocol I of the 1983 Convention
on “Conventional” weapons that prohibits
non-detectible fragments, and because
they are indiscriminate.
DU particles cannot be contained to the
legal field of battle, cannot be
“disengaged” when the war is over, cause
medical catastrophes (cancer, birth
defects, genetic damage, and the like)
long after the cessation of hostilities and
are therefore inhumane, and pollute the
environment.

Other pollutants : Burn pits
and toxic clouds
•Burning pits in all occupation military
bases. Some bases have more than one pit.
•Two burn pits were near Fallujah. Caputi
says,“We dumped everything there. Our
plastic bottles, tires, human waste, and
batteries.”
•Rubber, oil, solvents, unexploded
weapons, and even medical waste were
also tossed into the pits.
•As a 2008 Army Times article noted, Balad
Air Base burned around 90,000 plastic
bottles a day.
•When plastic burns, it gives off dioxin—
the key ingredient in Agent Orange, which
caused malformations and cancer in
Vietnam. Burn pits also produce hydrogen
cyanide gas, Ritter says, which U.S. prisons
used in their execution chambers from the
mid-1920s until 2010,
Barbara Koeppel,2016. Irradiated Iraq:
The Nuclear Nightmare We Left Behind. The
Washington Spectator _ Washington
Spectator. March 30, 2016

Why the DU
contamination
problem in Iraq not
being solved and
so complicated??
The lack of
transparency from
American Coalition
Forces over admitting
where and amounts
of DU they have been
using.
The use of DU in
populated areas.
American armed forces make
it difficult to assess and
manage DU contamination
intentionally to let natural
environment processes spread
and dissipate these
contaminant and become
hard to detect.
Discredit
researchers who
prove the existing
of DU problem
and its Impact on
civilian health and
environment.

Why the DU contamination problem in Iraq not being solved and so
complicated??
•Other factor that explain the acceleration of health problems in DU exposed
areas is the joined impact of the sanction and the DU contamination.
Malnutrition during the economical sanctions(1991-2003) and the intensive
exposure to DU contaminants caused serious damages to their immune system.
Damages of the body immune system disabled the body to fight the initiation of
cancer and other previously mentioned DU related health damages. The synergic
effects of both the sanction and DU contamination have resulted in the
previously mentioned multifold health problems in contaminated areas.
•American military industry cartel would never let proper scientific research or
assessments that can prove or link DU radiotoxicological effects to the increase of
related diseases in Iraq.
•This is a multi-billions dollars business that convert millions of tons of their
radioactive waste into a fortune by getting rid of it out of their land to other
countries.