Toxic Souvenirs of modern warfare
By Michael Maser
(The Vancouver Sun; August 17th, 2000)
In the spring of 1998, Teresa Cuomo, a vivacious, single mother traveled
from her home in Sechelt to join an international group traveling by bus
into war-torn Croatia and Bosnia.
A spiritual healer by training, Cuomo, 41, had been invited to help spread
peace and to visit a renowned holy site in Medugorje, Bosnia, where it is
believed an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981.
On the trip, Cuomo met traumatized peacekeepers and people trying to
re-inhabit a landscape pockmarked with bomb craters, blackened houses and
gnarled tanks. Just as the lives of thousands of Croats, Bosnians and Serbs
would never be the same again after years of incendiary, inter-generational
conflict, neither would Cuomoıs.
Several months after she returned to Sechelt, she began to suffer
head-splitting migraines and numbness in her joints. She had insomnia and
fatigue and she began forgetting things like what her 12-year old son just
told her. She developed an inflammatory rash on one foot and her tears
seemed to burn as they rolled down her cheeks.
She thought she was dying though blood tests and clinical exams by doctors
detected nothing wrong. Then one night on tv she learned that many Canadian
peacekeepers who had served in Croatia and Bosnia were suffering from
symptoms similar to hers.
She began investigating the possibility that her illness was linked to
toxic chemicals that had she had been exposed to while in the former Yugoslavia.
It was possible. She had walked barefoot on holy soil in Medugorje, she had
drank local water and she had eaten fish caught in local rivers.
Another medical test confirmed the presence of toxins in her central
nervous system, but she yearned to know exactly what was causing her illness.
Last March Cuomo dispatched a urine sample back to Ontario. She expects the
test results, due in mid-September, will confirm the presence of depleted
uranium in her body, which she suspects as the main cause of her illness.
Depleted uranium was first used in ammunition during the Gulf War and
subsequently in the Serbian-Croatian conflicts and in last year's NATO
bombardment of Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
Now health experts and military veterans are increasingly pointing fingers
at depleted uranium as the cause of massive civilian and military illnesses
in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia.
As well, health problems attributed to depleted uranium have come home to
each NATO country that sent troops to the Gulf and the Balkans, including
many Canadian Forces veterans and upwards of 100,000 US Gulf War veterans.
Depleted uranium arises as a byproduct of nuclear enrichment in the nuclear
weapons and nuclear reactor industry. A heavy, dense metal, depleted
uranium bullets and missiles were designed by the US military in the 1970s to
penetrate Soviet tanks.
Depleted uranium munitions are relatively innocuous when handled on their
own. On a battlefield, however, the depleted uranium bursts into flame when
it hits a target. During Operation Desert Storm depleted uranium munitions
proved to be highly effective in stopping Iraqui tank battalions.
Unfortunately, the problems in its use were just beginning.
After it ignites, depleted uranium forms a micron-sized, radioactive
uranium oxide aerosol that can travel on a breeze tens of kilometres from its point
of release. It is easily breathed in or ingested through contaminated
water. The aerosol microns - known to emit radiation in the form of alpha
particles - and thousands of tons of depleted uranium-contaminated debris littering
the Iraqui desert and the former Yugoslavia, are thought to be sources of
toxic contamination.
"Depleted uranium, when ingested, is highly toxic to humans, both
chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter," says Dr.
Rosalie Bertell, a Canadian specialist in nuclear physics.
Bertell says depleted uranium particles can and do remain in the human body
for years, interrupting normal cellular growth and impairing the lungs,
kidneys, reproductive organs and bones. Radiogenic particles are also
transmitted in male semen, contaminating sexual partners.
"Itıs use in warfare is odious and it should be banned immediately,"
Bertell asserts.
A resolution calling for the ban of depleted uranium was passed at the
United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities in August 1996.
The Department of National Defense says Canadian Forces stationed in the
Balkan republics have been advised to minimize risk of exposure when
handling debris contaminated by depleted uranium but they believe risk of
contamination is small. Balkan-based German, Dutch and Belgian troops - all
reporting mysterious health ailments - have been issued disposable clothing
and respiratory masks to minimize risk of exposure since last fall.
Bertell, who has met with NATO authorities to discuss depleted uranium
contamination, says that civilian populations in Iraq or Europe have not
been told about its potential toxicity and are at great risk.
According to the Military Toxics Project, a US-based advocacy organization
representing thousands of US veterans ill with Gulf War Syndrome,
investigations into the use of depleted uranium in the Gulf War revealed
that American forces and, to a smaller degree, British troops, fired
approximately 340 tons of DU across the deserts of Kuwait and southern
Iraq.
DND says Canadian troops stopped using depleted uranium munitions after
45,000 rounds were test-fired off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in 1998.
It is believed that depleted uranium weapons are now included in the
arsenals of at least 20 other countries.
In a report released in March by the Military Toxics Project entitled
"Donıt Look, Donıt Find", the reportıs author and Gulf War veteran Dan Fahey says
that five consecutive Gulf War illness investigations by the Pentagon
"barely scratched the surface of depleted uranium exposures by US forces in
the Gulf."
Fahey asserts that there is ample and growing evidence that depleted
uranium exposures during and after the Gulf War are the main cause of health
problems among veterans and civilians.
In the report, Fahey also says the United States Department of Defense was
well aware of the health risks of depleted uranium at least six months
before the Gulf War but did not warn US troops about minimizing risk of
contamination until 10 days after hostilities ceased.
Among its recommendations, Donıt Look, Donıt Find says the United States
"should accept responsibility for identifying, delimiting, and cleaning up
all domestic and foreign lands where depleted uranium has been released."
Fahey says the US DOD should also "issue immediate warnings to civilian
populations, relief agencies, and the United Nations when American armed
forces use depleted uranium in training or combat operations on foreign
soil."
In Canada, the specter of toxic contamination from military activities in
the Gulf War and the former Yugoslavia gained momentum last February when
an autopsy on Gulf war veteran Capt. Terry Riordon confirmed the presence of
depleted uranium in his bones.
Sick with an undiagnosed, debilitating illness soon after returning from
the Gulf, Capt. Riordon received little assistance or support from the
Department of National Defense, according to his widow Sue Riordon.
"Terry was incredibly ill and DND did nothing to help us. I had to arrange
for the analysis of his body without their knowledge," Sue Riordon says.
Last March, DND began testing urine samples submitted by concerned veterans
for the presence of depleted uranium. By mid-July, 69 samples had been
tested by two Ontario laboratories and analyzed by a consultant at Royal
Military College in Kingston.
A spokesman for DND said the tests showed lower total uranium levels in
those tested than the average Canadian. He added that there have been some
testing problems, however, and now those veterans who had been previously
tested are being asked to submit hair samples for additional testing.
Mary Ripley-Guzman, a director for the Uranium Medical Project, a
non-profit affiliation of scientists and doctors that has tested around 80 British,
American and Canadian servicemen, including Terry Riordon for depleted
uranium, says, to her knowledge, the UMP has developed the most
scientifically credible protocol for detecting low levels of depleted
uranium at Memorial University, St. Johns.
The UMP, Ripley-Guzman says, has been relying on the pro bono services of
US-based doctor Asaf Durakovic and Len Dietz, both
internationally-acclaimed experts in the field of depleted uranium.
Durakovic will present a scientific paper entitled "Quantitative Analysis
of Uranium Isotopes in Canadian, U.S. and British Gulf War Veterans,"
September 3rd in Paris, at a conference of the European Association of Nuclear
Medicine.
The paper profiles the DU testing of 15 service personnel, most of whom
show DU contamination.
"This is the first peer-reviewed study that shows significant levels of
depleted uranium in people exposed to inhaled depleted uranium," the UMP
said in a news release.
"The laboratory findings correlate with clinical symptoms presented by many
personnel complaining of Gulf War Illness."
In another statement released in early August by the UMP, Durakovic
discounts the testing results carried out on veterans by the Department of
National Defense as "complete nonsense."
The UMP is advising those veterans tested by the DND to find another
independent lab to carry out testing.
Sue Riordon, who is acting chair of the Atlantic Chapter of the Canadian
Peacekeeping Veterans Association, says she has shipped several dozen urine
samples from veterans for analysis of depleted uranium to the UMP, the same
organization that autopsied her husbandıs body.
"Some of these people are incredibly sick," Riordon said, "and they have no
faith that DND is acting with their best interests in mind."
A spokesman for DND says DND "didnıt expect to detect depleted uranium"
because they donıt believe Canadian troops have been exposed to
contamination.
The scope of contamination problems related to depleted uranium among
active and veteran Canadian Forces is impossible to predict, says Harold Leduc, a
20-year Canadian Forces veteran and advisor to the DND and Veteranıs
Affairs living in Victoria.
Leduc believes depleted uranium is the leading contender among heavy
metals, PCBs, asbestos, and other substances for contributing to health problems
among Canadian Forces who served in the Gulf War and throughout the former
Yugoslavia. He has advised the Canadian Senate that Veterans Affairs should
be coordinating medical care and the testing of veterans for depleted
uranium, instead of DND.
"DND is in denial about depleted uranium," Leduc says. "As a result, many
active Canadian Forces are reluctant to come forward with claims of
illness".
In the meantime, the collateral damage attributed to depleted uranium is
mounting in Iraq and the Balkans.
Several missions to Iraq have reported increases in incidences of cancers,
birth defects and symptoms similar to Gulf-War syndrome throughout the
general population and among veterans. The same is being reported by
Yugoslavian scientists among veterans of the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian
conflicts.
Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Alan Conolly, who traveled to Iraq in 1998 and
1999, says he has seen and heard much evidence that Iraqui Gulf War vets
and civilians are suffering from widespread toxicity. He would like to see a
well-funded scientific investigation look into depleted uranium
contamination.
"The issue of depleted uranium is a major medical concern in Iraq," Conolly
says. "Research needs to be supported and substantiated. I suspect that
contamination in Iraq could make Agent Orange look like a bad cold" (Agent
Orange, a defoliant used by US forces in the Vietnam war, was subsequently
linked to multiple health problems).
Dr. Joan Russow, federal leader of the Canadian Green Party, says
the DND is "criminally negligent" in supporting the use of depleted uranium
by NATO forces.
"They were sufficiently aware of toxicity problems linked to use of deplete
uranium to have protested its use but they didnıt. That makes us complicit
in genocide," she says.
Russow also says that because Canadian uranium has been used to help
produce depleted uranium munitions, we are bound to help clean up the consequences
of using the armaments.
Teresa Cuomo met with Sue Riordon in Vancouver in February. In their
meeting, Riordon told Cuomo that her symptoms sounded identical to her
husband Terry's. She advised Cuomo to get tested for depleted uranium and
she has since contributed funding on behalf of the Capt. Terry Riordon
Memorial Fund to help Cuomo offset the $500-US test cost.
Back in Sechelt, Cuomo is struggling to make ends meet on a modest
disability allowance. Medical testing has depleted her modest life savings
and she is working hard to pursue acting, music and writing opportunities
despite feeling ill. She feels her health has improved slightly since she
started taking homeopathic medicine last fall.
Cuomo believes now that her illness carries a message for her to share with
others.
"The world needs to know what is really going on in the Balkans and Iraq,"
she says.