Depleted Uranium

Here is some more info for those of you interested in depleted uranium (DU) and the Fallon cancer cluster. My close friends Bob and Juanita testified before the board investigating the Fallon cluster in Carson City a few weeks ago. Also there to testify was Leuren Moret, Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists. She dropped me a note after meeting Bob and Juanita. I responded and this is her response... I think you might find it of considerable interest.

(She mentions the Sierra Army Depot (SAD). In a straight line it is about 45 miles north of Reno. When she speaks of "HAARP" being used on activists I think she is referring to technologies like the Vehicle-Mounted Active Denial System the Marines revealed a few weeks ago, which I hope to feature in this newsletter soon. And in case you don't know, NTS is the Nevada Test Site where we used to test nukes.:
---------------------------

Leuren Moret leurenmoret@yahoo.com

Hi Jerry - thanks for your email and warm message. I have a Japanese journalist friend who did a 40 article series on depleted uranium in the US/UK/Iraq: http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/abom/uran/index_e.html  One of the articles is on the Sierra Army depot and the DU they're burning there. Of course this is floating out over the Pyramid Lake Paiute reservation and other parts giving more people cancer.

He (Akira) spent 40 days here in Nov. and Dec. doing a series of interviews on rad contaminated sites in the US. I set up interviews for him and advised him on sites to visit. He will be back here on March 7-8 before he returns to Japan. He is interested in the leukemia cluster in Fallon. It seems to me that DU could be the agent of exposure. I contacted the Low Level Radiation Campaign ( http://www.llrc.org ) in England and they sent info on how to identify DU in the children. There is no evidence that I have of DU being used on the bombing ranges around Fallon, but no doubt the possibility is there since Navy pilots trained for the Gulf War at Fallon Naval Air Station. The heavy presence of 4 Navy officers during the hearings in Carson City a few weeks ago may indicate that they know something we don't know (yet). If you have any info on DU used at any bases in the vicinity, I would appreciate that documentation. I want to keep this case highly visible, and tie it to the Sierra Army depot and the BLM plan to burn millions of acres of pinion pine over the next twenty years - which will mix chemicals used to kill the pines with fallout in the upper dust level from the NTS during the 50-60's which will all be remobilized in the burning and smoke plumes. Actually, I think DU could have been mobilized from the bombing ranges near Fallon a few years ago if there were burns or forest fires in the area near Fallon. Do you know of any fires from 1996-2000? Breathing the same air and living in the Fallon area during that time period is the only thing 11 children with leukemia have in common. Anything you have would be welcome.

Also, my friend Akira TASHIRO, who is a journalist in Hiroshima, may be very interested in your HARP book. I will be sure he gets a copy and will give him your contact info. The Oakland Police Dept. has a Domestic Surveillance Unit and spies on 2-300 activist groups here. Judi Bari's (EarthFirst!) lawyer told me that. Judi was pipe-bombed in Oakland by the FBI and the Oakland PD in about 1993. The trial is going to federal court in September. I am certain HAARP is being used on activists.

A commissioner from the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission told me he was involved with the 100 monkeys project at the test site when Regan got bonked on the head with a trophy. Right after that happened in Las Vegas a car with three activists on the way to the NTS went off the road and one was killed - the commissioner told me that they described HAARP/elf-like phenomena when that happened. The Nevada cops don't have much experience with civil disobedience and lost their cool. I want international media to investigate the use of this horrible technology on activists and ordinary citizens... I suspect Livermore Lab and Los Alamos are using it on employees - and former employees.

Thanks Leuren

---------------------------

[I told her: "I am a little concerned about SAD as Bob's property north of Reno is downwind of it too! I check into fires for you, but off the top of my head, not just yes by hell yes. In 1998 or 99 most of this portion of the state went up in smoke! Fires burned vast tracts all around Reno for many miles north and east. Juanita's house in the Truckee River Canyon east of Reno was repeatedly threatened. I don't know how close they got to Fallon, or to gunnery ranges where DU ammo might have been used. But a lot of the fires burned in the area downwind of SAD." -JS]

---------------------------

Leuren also wrote:

I wrote this letter to a class action attorney representing people on an island off of Puerto Rico who have been poisoned with depleted uranium and heavy metals by the Navy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1152000/1152449.stm

Bonnie Bobb [bonnie@austin.igate.com ] and I both testified at the hearings in Carson City on Fallon leukemia. These are very serious health and environmental issues and I would like to bring this to the attention of the international media. Bonnie told me one child on the reservation has leukemia as well as children in town and on the Navy base. There is a firestorm in Europe now over DU and it has created a global campaign to ban it forever.

This is just a cheap way for DOE to dump spent nuclear fuel besides - stuffing it in Yucca Mtn. Here is my open letter which I read to the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board in January at the DOE meeting in Amargosa - I went there with Corbin Harney to speak against the project.

http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/moret.html

What I need to find out is when each case of leukemia was diagnosed, and when the brush fires burned on any bombing sites around Fallon. The BLM must have a record for 1995-2000. It takes 2 years for leukemia to develop. You can expect more cases now and other illnesses related to radiation exposure. I'm working with the best of the best of the best on this issue.

She also sent me a copy of this letter:

---------------------------

Dear Mr. Eaves - I am a scientist and former employee of the Lawrence Livermore Lab in California. I have formed my own organization called Scientists for Indigenous People after working in mainstream science for 35 years as an earth scientist. I worked on the WIPP Project, Yucca Mtn. Project, and the Superfund Project at the Lawrence Livermore Lab where I ran the entire sampling program and tracking database. I now work with a retired Manhattan Project and Star Wars Project scientist, Marion Fulk, helping communities and citizens deal with exposures to radiation and toxic chemicals in their communities. I have worked in 40 countries during my career.

In early February, I attended the hearings in the Nevada Legislature in Carson City and testified before the joint committee investigating the leukemia cluster in Fallon. It is obvious to me that it is very likely that this cluster is due to depleted uranium off of the three bombing and munitions ranges around Fallon. I believe it was mobilized during extensive brush fires in western Nevada during 1998-1999 which would be about the right time for leukemia to develop in children - Dr. Helen Caldicott says 2 years for leukemia in studies of the Gulf War and Balkans. The investigation by state agencies addressed arsenic in the water almost exclusively. Since the children drank water from various sources, it could not be that. An air pathway is about the only thing they all had in common - 12 cases in a town of 8,000 within about 1 year. I advised the committee to test the children and the upper dust level in the surrounding environment as well as consider air as the pathway.

I saw your name in the article on Vieques Island in the Feb 4 BBC article, and decided to contact you. The Sierra Army Depot north of Reno near Honey Lake is also burning DU munitions, and the smoke plume is drifting out over the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation but that is further north.

Activists at the Carson City hearings informed me that 30 tons of DU munitions were used on the Nellis Air Force base bombing ranges probably starting in about 1991 in preparation for the Gulf War. I know from a recent excellent health research paper by Dr. Chris Busby in England http://www.llrc.org/durs.htm  that extensive testing on DU aerosol particles, sizes with distance, and distance of transport was done at the Nevada Test site. Since Fallon Naval Air station has the elite pilot training program, Top Gun, where they trained pilots for the Gulf War, it is likely they used DU munitions on the bombing ranges. My father was a highly decorated Marine test pilot so I am intimately familiar with that culture.

I would like to get someone involved in this case to publicize this assault on the environment and innocent and unknowing people. The DU furor in the media in Europe is bringing this issue to a global audience, and hopefully to a climax to outlaw this radiation energy from hell. Marion Fulk did research for the nuclear weapons group at Livermore Lab on aerosol particle sizes and populations on radionuclide materials (plutonium and uranium) and is one of the most knowledgeable scientists in the world on these issues as well as the health effects of radiation.

He is NOT a health physicist, mainstream scientist, but a REAL scientist concerned about the global contamination from rad materials and the health effects. We have spent nearly a year working together, and doing research on these issues so that I can be more effective with the indigenous and community people I am working with.

Please let me know if you are interested in more details. I have very good ties and relations with the Western Shoshone and Paiute people of Nevada. The BLM is planning to burn over 2 million acres of pinion pines in Nevada over the next 20 years after killing the trees with components of agent orange. Burning the dead trees will mobilize the radionuclides from fallout from the above ground tests in the 50-60's which are in the upper dust level all over Nevada.

Combined with the toxic agent orange chemicals, they should kill a lot of people in Nevada and states east which seems to be govt policy. The Nevada BLM seems to be the "gulag" for the BLM where they send the worst (high school graduates) they have employed - it's the last stop for screwups.

Thank you, Leuren Moret Past President, Association for Women Geoscientists

---------------------

Check out this article from the BBC Feb. 4 - is this why the Navy was so visible at the state hearings in Feb. on Fallon? It is highly likely the Navy used DU munitions on the bombing ranges surrounding Fallon, probably starting in 1991... http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1152000/1152449.stm

--------------------------

A few days later I wrote Leuren that I had just heard on the local news that the State Medical board has released its tentative findings on the Fallon Cluster -- Population Mixing! Their theory is that new populations coming in brought with 'em viruses and bacteria that the local population were not genetically wired to ward off!

This is how the local ABC affiliate covered the story:

---------------------------

3/9/01 Reno Nevada 6:00 PM TV News on Fallon leukemia cluster -

http://www.kolotv.com

Panel reports on small town's strange leukemia epidemic

Experts have put viral or bacterial infection at the top of a list of possible reasons for a childhood leukemia epidemic tied to the small Navy and farming town of Fallon.

But the experts, in a report to the Nevada Health Division, say their theory requires more examination at both state and national levels.

Twelve cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia, or ALL, involving Fallon have been confirmed by state health authorities.

None of the victims, ranging from toddlers to teen-agers, have died, although ALL is life-threatening.

The experts' panel, formed by state Health Officer Mary Guinan, said the infectious agent theory is based on ``population mixing'', an ``unusual mixing of people, often in relatively isolated rural areas.''

In such cases, the report says exposure to infection could ``trigger an unusual and rare reaction that affects a very small number of children.''

Guinan says the complex theory assumes chromosome damage resulting from infection, and the chromosome damage in turn could lead to cell abnormalities such as ALL.

---------------------------

Leuren replied:

Ha ha ha - that's the bullshit theory that came from England - to explain leukemia and cancers all over England from their reprocessing plants for spent power plant fuel. However, the plutonium present in practically everyone in England was never an issue... from tissue samples and children's teeth.

This is a DOE/DOD coverup - I knew it from the first hour in the hearings.

It's a "virus" because the Navy never got a license to use DU there. It's contaminated all the military ranges in Nevada why would they leave out Fallon?

Take a look at this website: http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/ud_main.html

Check out BURNING 'DEPLETED' URANIUM: A MEDICAL DISASTER Homepage: http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/ud_main.html

Leuren also sent me a CC of her letter to Richard Bramhall bramhall@llrc.org  and his response, which I will give a few excerpts from here.

---------------------------

First, Leuren's letter:

Thanks - that was very interesting. Before I make any public statements, in two places on your website I have seen statements that say "there is no known cause of leukemia other than radiation". Is that what your research indicates? The woman from the Nevada Dept. of Health testified over and over again in February to the legislature that the cause of 109 leukemia clusters in the US and in other countries (and she specifically mentioned La Hague, France) had never been identified. She also repeatedly predicted that the cause in Fallon would not be identified. When I heard "La Hague" I immediately suspected a global whitewash by health investigators since they do reprocessing there (or is it a nuclear power plant?).

Now of course she is using "population mixing" as the cause.

(See: Elizabeth Whalen "Environment News" Nov. 1999 http://www.heartland.org/environment/nov99/acsh.htm)

So there have been no links that you know of between bacterial agents or viruses and leukemia? I am going to send information to the media in Nevada but I want to wait until the "panel of experts" has made more outrageous statements. Your information will give me substantive evidence to challenge them but it has to be airtight. I've noticed that when I have challenged them with real evidence in conferences and meetings, they don't respond and never mention me in their attacks in the media - it is always character assassinations on other more vulnerable people.

The NV health dept. woman almost took Richard Bramhall's paper word for word... population mixing... why isn't Seattle or NY or Las Vegas or LA full of leukemia? He's part of the Low Level Radiation Campaign in England.

Leuren

---------------------------

Richard Bramhall wrote:

well, I have been very authoritatively pulled up over this statement, by no less than the Chairman of the UK government's Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, COMARE. Benzene is associated with leukemia. Apart from that, we're safe in the assertion. No virus or bacterium has been found that causes leukemia in human beings - only in animals. The claim that no cause has been identified rests on the supposed relationship between radiation dose and leukemia response, which as our web site says, depends on the Hiroshima studies of acute external gamma irradiation, not chronic internal alpha and beta emitting fallout. La Hague is a reprocessing plant, and like both the other reprocessing plants has its associated leukemia cluster. Population mixing is just an exculpatory guess, with a little epidemiological support; just think - population mixing is usually associated not with crowds of people mingling, but with other factors such as engineering works, new building, digging and building materials, many of which are weakly radioactive, on account of their granitic content. Lots of dust, and a certain amount of radioactivity physically bound to the dust. Then there's the stress associated with new jobs, new homes, new spouses, new schools etc etc. These are confounding factors Kinlen has not thought of. To the extent that uranium was dumped into the environment at Fallon there is a chance to establish a link to the leukemia - all we have to do is destroy the credibility of ICRP's dose:response curve, which is just a guess. See www.llrc.org/average.htm , www.llrc.org/muirhead.htm , www.llrc.htm/infant_leukaemia_post_chernobyl.htm  and www.llrc.org.rat421.htm  www.llrc.org.rat4211.htm  Doll's article from the British Journal of Cancer "Quantifying the effect of population mixing on childhood leukemia risk" - I do not have this. Sorry. I'll try a literature search when I have time. Nag me if you hear nothing and still need it.

In addition to "Richard Doll Falls into Plutonium Trap" (The Ecologist Nov. 1999) you should see our crit. of Doll's endorsement of the Kinlen virus hypothesis at www.llrc.org/rat323.htm  and our comments Doll's most recent statement about nuclear fallout and leukemia at www.llrc.org/compenium3.htm#doll

Richard Bramhall

-------------------------------

Leuren made her "public statement" with:

I guess the Nevada Health Division "experts" have been talking to Professor Leo Kinlen (England):

[This concerns outbreaks of leukemia in England in proximity to nuclear power plants, and nuclear spent fuel reprocessing plants]

"In order to retain credibility, the nuclear industry needs to find another explanation for the leukemia." Professor Leo Kinlen thinks he has found one.

Kinlen's hypothesis is that leukemia is caused by a 'virus', and that its awkward tendency to cluster near nuclear sites is due to migrant workers transmitting the virus to isolated rural communities to whom it is new and who therefore have no natural immunity. Doll [Professor Sir Richard Doll] supports Kinlen's 'population mixing' idea. He argues that: "[although] Kinlen's hypothesis awaits laboratory proof... meanwhile it should, I suggest, be accepted as a reasonable explanation of the Seascale findings... [Professor Sir Richard Doll is well known for using his considerable reputation as an epidemiologist to promote entrenched industrial and political interests]

---------------------------

I want to offer some balance to the above by quoting from two pages that are based in peer-reviewed studies.

http://www.umproj.org/conference.html

The tests were carried out in a Canadian research lab that used Mass Spectrometry to analyze the depleted uranium content in the urine of British, Canadian, and US veterans and the bones of a deceased Canadian veteran. This is the first peer reviewed study that shows significant levels of depleted uranium in people exposed to inhaled depleted uranium. It demonstrates the internal contamination of Gulf War Veterans with depleted uranium.

Laboratory findings correlate with the clinical presentation of multiple somatic complaints that fit a consistent clinical pattern commonly associated with the term of Gulf War Illness. Conclusive evidence of the presence of depleted uranium in the urine samples and internal organs of the contaminated Gulf War Veterans indicates a possibility of depleted uranium as one of the causative factors in the complex symptomatology of the Gulf War patients and warrants further clinical and laboratory investigations.

---------------------------

And:

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/faq_17apr.htm
 
Q. What makes depleted uranium a potential hazard?

A. Depleted uranium is a heavy metal that is also slightly radioactive. Heavy metals (uranium, lead, tungsten, etc.) have chemical toxicity properties that, in high doses, can cause poisoning and health effects.

A common misconception is that depleted uranium's primary hazard is radiological. This is not the case under most battlefield exposure scenarios. Depleted uranium emits alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays. Alpha particles, the primary radiation type produced by depleted uranium, are blocked by skin; while beta particles are blocked by the boots and battle dress utility uniform (BDUs) typically worn by service members. While gamma rays are pure energy and are highly penetrating, the amount of gamma radiation emitted by depleted uranium is extremely low.

The 120mm sabot rounds fired from the main guns of U.S. Abrams series tanks figure prominently in most of the depleted uranium exposure scenarios and incidents investigated to date. The round uses a 10.7 lb. depleted uranium penetrator that is approximately 18 inches long and 1.5 inches thick. When fired, or after "cooking off" in fires or explosions, the depleted uranium rod, now unshielded, or exposed, poses an extremely low radiological threat as long as it remains outside the body.

Internalized in sufficient quantity, however, via metal fragments or dust-like particles and oxides, depleted uranium may pose a long-term health hazard to personnel. However, the medical significance of a specific exposure scenario is dependent on a number of factors, including particle size distribution and solubility as well as the amount of depleted uranium taken into the body.

---------------------------

And from Times Wire Reports:

Depleted uranium used by NATO in armor-piercing weapons in Kosovo had no detectable effect on health, a European Union panel of experts concluded. The findings concurred with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's own studies, which said there was no link between depleted uranium, a substance used for its penetrating power, and cancer among peacekeeping troops.

---------------------------

For a last word on Fallon: Check out:

Nevada Town's Residents Unperturbed About Arsenic in Its Drinking Water By TOM GORMAN, Times Staff Writer, which begins: This is how tough the folks are who live here: They make jokes about the arsenic they drink. Arsenic? It only bothers you if you're not used to it. Fallon, population 8,300, calls itself "the Oasis of the Desert." But it's also the arsenic capital of America. . see the article in full at: http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20010409/t000030348.html

---------------------------

Jerry E. Smith website
 

http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/health/conspiracy/uranium.html