In These Times

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• • 27 Aug 05
  • 12:14 am

  The chemical toxicity of inhaled uranium trioxide (uranyl oxide) gas vapor fumes is much worse -- about a million times worse -- than the radiation from inhalation of any of the other oxides. The armed forces sadly missed the fact that about 1/5th of uranium which burns in air produces UO3 gas vapor instead of the dusts from the other oxides which are obvious. The UO3(g) vapor does not settle out of the atmosphere; instead, it disperses as an invisible, odorless cloud, and is absorbed into the bloodstream almost immedately when it is inhaled. The details are in one of my …

  Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War

• • 27 Aug 05
  • 6:30 am

  Roger wrote, "If I thought that another country had deliberately spread a terrible poison on my country, I would give my life to fight that other country." What would you do if your country did it and you couldn't figure out whether it was accidental or deliberate?

  Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War

• • 27 Aug 05
  • 6:31 pm

  Well, Natalie, I'm sorry that others here have been rude to you, but before you make up your mind about DU, please read this article from the U.S. Armed Forces Radiobiology Institute published in the peer-reviewed medical literature: A.C. Miller, et al., "Depleted uranium-catalyzed oxidative DNA damage: absence of significant alpha particle decay," Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, vol. 91 (2002), pp. 246–252: http://www.bovik.org/du/Miller-DNA-damage.pdf In particular, please not this statement in the abstract: "we demonstrate that DU can generate oxidative DNA damage and can also catalyze reactions that induce hydroxyl radicals in the absence of significant alpha particle decay. Experiments were conducted …

  Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War

• • 28 Aug 05
  • 2:29 pm

  Vapor (of uranyl oxide gas fumes) is, contrary to Roger Helbig's claim, the most important issue. And in fact the Army has admitted as much, in their reply to my NRC 10 CFR 2.206 petition, they note the need to determine whether UO3(g) vapor disperses or forms clouds. They have not disputed the fact that the UO3(g) gas vapor is produced, and that fact is noted in about a dozen peer-reviewed scientific publications, such as those here: http://www.bovik.org/du/2bibs.html Also, the Health Physics Society is a group of radiation professionals with strong ecomonic ties to the nuclear industry -- they have no …

  Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War

• • 28 Aug 05
  • 2:34 pm

  Oh, and as for the recent Sandia report -- what a piece of work that was. People should keep in mind that Sandia National Laboratories is administered by Lockheed-Martin, which makes the Apache and A-10 30 mm guns which fire DU ordnance. Here are my comments on the recent Sandia report: http://www.bovik.org/du/snl-dusand.pdf Most telling is perhaps the quote, "This assessment should not be interpreted to be a general validation of the SNL National Securities Studies Department methodology for studying the consequences of terrorist use of radiological dispersal devices." In other words, it's not good enough to correctly predict the effects of …

  Posted to Radioactive Wounds of War