Text Fwd: The Army’s persistent Depleted Uranium problem in Hawai’i

DMZ Hawai'i
The Army’s persistent Depleted Uranium problem in Hawai’i
February 22, 2011 by kyle

Joan Conrow has written an excellent synopsis of the military’s depleted uranium (DU) contamination issue in Hawai’i on the Civil Beat website. Here’s an excerpt of her article:

The Army prohibited all training with DU in 1996; however, munitions containing DU remain in wide use.

Although the Army for years denied that it had ever used DU munitions in Hawaii, contractors found 15 tail assemblies from the M101 spotting rounds while clearing a firing range at Schofield Barracks in 2005. Even then the Army did not publicly disclose the presence of DU in Hawaii. The issue came to light inadvertently in 2006, when Earthjustice discovered communication about DU in Army e-mails subpoenaed as part of the ongoing litigation over the use of Makua as a live fire training facility.

The Army subsequently acknowledged that it trained soldiers on the Davy Crockett weapon in Hawaii and at least seven other states during the 1960s.

As a result, some residents have developed a deep distrust of the Army’s statements regarding DU, even though the Army maintains it is committed to transparency on the issue.

Impacts

It’s unclear how much DU is located in the Islands, or exactly where. Some 29,318 M101 spotting rounds containing 12,232 pounds of DU remain unaccounted for on American installations, according to the Army’s permit application. In Hawaii, the Army’s initial surveys were conducted at just three installations — Schofield, PTA and Makua — and the effort was severely limited by dense vegetation, rugged terrain and what the military characterized as “safety considerations” due to unexploded ordnance.

It’s also unclear just how DU may be affecting human health and the environment in Hawaii, as well as other parts of the world where it was used in combat. Its potentially severe and long-lasting impacts are the core of a growing controversy over its use on the battlefield and its presence in the Islands.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Here’s a related article from August 2010 on the Army’s application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an after-the-fact license to “possess” DU at ranges in Hawai’i.

Text Fwd: Protest Against Depleted Uranium Weapons To Be Held In London 열화 우라늄을 금지하는 시위가 11월 12일 런던에서 있을 것임

* Image source: same as the link

* Text sent from Rick Rozoff on Nov. 9, 2010

Press TV
November 7, 2010
London protest against DU weapons

The UK Uranium Weapons Network has organised a lunchtime protest outside the US Embassy in London on November 12 to mark the Day of Action.

The protest was called by the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, the UK Uranium Weapons Network and the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW) to mark the International Day of Action Against Uranium Weapons on November 6th.

While the US has used at least 400 tons of depleted uranium munitions in Iraq during the conflicts between 1991 and 2003, they continue to refuse to release data on where the weapons were used, blocking research into their health impact and preventing decontamination and risk reduction programmes.

The US, along with France and the UK, voted against a UN resolution calling for states to release this data, earlier this month, regardless of the fact that the UK had already done so for the DU used in Iraq in 2003.

Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) submitted a motion, on November 4, calling on the UK government to abstain or vote in favour of the resolution.

Members of Parliament from the three largest UK political parties submitted an Early Day Motion (EDM), on October 14, calling on the UK government to support a resolution calling for transparency from DU users tabled at the UN.

The United Nations First Committee voted by an overwhelming margin, on October 29, for state users of depleted uranium weapons to release data on where the weapons were used to governments of states affected by their use.

The UK Uranium Weapons Network members consist of the Campaign Against Depleted Uranium, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Environmental Justice Foundation, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, MEDACT, the Muslim Council of Britain, Pax Christi, People & Planet, Quaker Peace & Social Witness and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
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Stop NATO
Blog site

Text Fwd: [famoksaiyanfriends] Army Official: We Never Meant to Clean Up DU-Depleted Uranium

* Text sent from Martha Duenas on July 2, 2010

from DMZ Hawai'i blog:

Big Island Weekly News

Army official: We never meant to clean up DU

By Alan D. Mcnarie

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 11:08 AM HST

According to a high Army official, the Army never intended to remove depleted uranium ammunition remnants from Pohakuloa Training Area and Shofield Barracks, and it has no plans to do so for as long as the firing ranges at those facilities are still in use.

"The Army requested a license for possession, not decommissioning, of the legacy DU at the affected Army installations," wrote Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Army Addison D. "Tad" Davis IV to Congresswoman Mazie Hirono on May 26 of this year. Davis added, "Currently the Army has no plans for the removal of the legacy DU. The ranges containing DU are still in use, and most, if not all, of these ranges also contain unexploded ordnance, which is significantly more hazardous than any DU that might be present on these ranges. Should those ranges be scheduled for closure at some future date, the Army will address the DU present as part of the range closure...."

The "legacy DU" referred to in the letter is believed to be fragments of spotting rounds from cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear artillery. In 2008, the Army submitted an application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a permit to "possess" the DU; its original permit had expired in 1964. The NRC's ruling on that application is still pending, though the NRC has criticized the Army's plan to monitor the DU in the area as ineffective. (See "NRC to Army: DU Monitoring Plan Won't Work" in the archives at http://www.bigislandweekly.com.) A sub-agency called the Federal and State Materials and Environmental Management Programs is entertaining a petition from Hawaiian activist Isaac Harp to discipline the army over the expired permit. Hirono had asked Davis what the army had done to address public concerns about "environmental, health and safety" hazards that the DU posed.

The Army has repeatedly contended that the DU does not present a significant hazard to the island's population. Davis's letter to Hirono continued to maintain the Army's position. He claimed that the soil concentration of DU at the Army ranges was estimated at 1-4 pCi/g (picocuries of DU per gram of soil), which averaged "much less than the NRC decommissioning levels of uranium in soil (14 pCi/g of Uranium 238, the major constituent of DU), and are not much above soil concentrations of naturally occurring uranium."

"The Army has collected numerous air and soil samples, none of which indicate that the DU at Hawaii's ranges has migrated off-range...," Davis contended.

Not so, says Dr. Lorrin Pang, a former Army doctor and frequent critic of the Army's handling of the DU issue.

"That's absolutely not true. Even their own tests at Waiki'i [on the Saddle Road near Pohakuloa] found it [DU] in dust at low levels. I think the correct scientific interpretation is, it was there," Pang told the Big Island Weekly.

Pang also challenged Davis's assertion that "Many independent scientific studies of depleted uranium in the environment show that DU presents no significant 'environmental, health and safety [hazard],' especially at the soil concentrations of the DU on Hawaii's ranges." Pang noted that the NRC itself had criticized the Army's monitoring protocols as inadequate; he maintained that the Army simply didn't know, yet, how much DU was located at Pohakuloa.

"You don't have a system in place to monitor and baseline, and then you're gonna tell me the risks?" he asked skeptically. "Tad Allen isn't a scientist. He's an MBA from Harvard. If he makes these statements, he'd better refer to scientists who will defend them...

First of all, if you say, we never intended to clean it up, how much is there? You don't even know."

The proper scientific approach, he maintained was, "First tell me, how much [DU] is there. Then you've got to tell, me, what is the risk? Then you've got to tell me the response: if you're going to clean it up or not."

And the army's own "friendly fire" studies on servicepeople exposed to DU were so badly flawed, he maintained, that the researchers hadn't even recorded tumors, so the health risks were also not known. Without knowing either the quantity of DU or the health risk, the proper course of action was impossible to determine.

He added that that appropriate course of action might turn out to be something other than cleaning up the DU.

"Maybe they don't have to clean it up," he said. "Maybe they just promise never to use it again. Maybe they keep the dust down."

Davis's letter also provoked a response from Cory Harden, who has been monitoring the DU controversy for the Sierra Club. Harden noted that when Davis wrote , "the Army has collected numerous soil and air samples, none of which indicate that the DU...has migrated off range," he didn't mention testimony by geologist and radiation expert Dr. Mike Reimer, who had reviewed the Army's proposed DU monitoring system and found that the holes in the filters on the Army's detection devices were "ten times too large."

She also questioned Davis' statement that the DU disposal problem would be addressed when the firing ranges were finally decommissioned. She noted that after the military took over Kaho'olawe for a bombing range, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had promised to return the island in habitable condition - but when it was finally returned 50 years later, massive bombing had cracked the caprock, draining the island's freshwater supply, and most of the island's land still had not been entirely cleared of ordnance.

What the Army actually does with the DU, however, may depend not on what it intended or intends to do, but on what the NRC tells it to do. Few expect the NRC not to grant the Army a permit to possess the DU - after all, the stuff is already in the ground - but it may well impose conditions on the Army, including a more viable monitoring program and possibly a cleanup strategy.

[국문 번역] PROTECT HAWAI'I 하와이를 보호하라

_______________________________________________________________
*The below source was thankfully informed by Jean Downy 0n March 23, 2010. Ms. Gil Seo-Young thankfully forwarded the translation on April 17.
* 진 다우니가 감사하게 자료를 알려 주었읍니다(2010년 3월 23일) 길서영님께서 번역을 감사하게 포워드해주셨읍니다 (2010년 4월 17일)

Translator: Kim Na-Kyung (alicekim48(at)gmail.com)
번역자: 김나경 (alicekim48(at)gmail.com)
_______________________________________________________________

PROTECT HAWAI'I

http://www.protecthawaii.ws/

This web site is dedicated to the protection of the land and residents of the Hawaiian Islands. For decades the United States military has used these islands for live-fire artillery training exposing the environment and residents to toxins, including the use of ballistic radioactive depleted uranium (DU) munitions. The Hawaiian Islands are the most militarized islands in the world. Every branch of the United States Armed Forces are stationed in Hawai'i.

이 웹사이트는 하와이 섬 영토와 여기 거주하는 주민들을 보호하기 위한 목적으로 만들어졌다. 수십 년 동안 미군은 하와이 섬을 실탄 대포 훈련장으로 이용 하면서 이곳의 환경과 주민들을 탄도 방사성 열화우라늄 군수품 사용 등 유해물질에 노출시켜왔다. 하와이섬은 전 세계에서 무장도가 가장 높은 섬이다. 미군의 모든 부서가 하와이에 주둔하고 있다.

In August 2005 depleted uranium spotting rounds were disovered on Schofield Barracks, Oahu despite the military's claims that they NEVER used depleted uranium in Hawai'i. In April 2007 HB 1452 (which was to test Hawai'i for DU) had passed in both State of Hawai'i Houses yet, failed to pass into law. Despite strong testimony and serious public concerns the Bill was tabled to the 2008 legislative session. This action convinces many that our islands are grossly contaminated with depleted uranium and the Hawai'i State legislature does not want to deal with it. (at least not this year) Meanwhile, military live-fire training continues. Two other military toxins of concern are lead and RDX (the Royal Demolition Explosive) both had recorded high levels in the U.S. Army's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) published in May 2004.

미군은 하와이에서 열화우라늄을 사용한 적이 전혀 없다고 주장해 왔지만 2005년 8월에 오하우섬의 쇼필드 막사에서 열화우라늄 탄착 실탄이 (deleted uranium spotting rounds) 발견되었다. 2007년 4월에는 (하와이에서 열화우라늄을 테스트하기 위한) HB 1452가 상원, 하원에서 모두 의결되었지만 법제화되는데 실패했다. 이 법안에 대한 적극적인 증언과 진중한 여론의 반응에도 불구하고 이 법안은 2008년 의회기간으로 미루어졌다. 이러한 사건은 우리 섬이 열화 우라늄으로 극도로 오염되어 있고 하와이 주정부 의회가 이 사안을 기피하고 있다는 것을 말해준다고 본다. (적어도 올해는) 이러는 사이 군대의 실탄훈련은 계속되고 있다. 또한, 납과 Royal Demolition Explosive도 심각성을 주는 군사적 독소로서 2004년 5월 발간된 미군부 환경영향진술서에서 높은 수치를 나타내었다.

Hawai'i is a sacred place on the planet which is loved, enjoyed and visited by millions of people every year from all over the world. Residents and visitors alike are "kept in the dark" about military contamination in Hawai'i.

하와이는 전세계 수백만명의 인구가 매년 방문하여 즐기는 지구상에서 성스러운 곳이다. 그러나 하와이의 오염에 대한 사실은 주민이나 방문자에게 숨겨져 왔다.

The Hawaiian Islands are beautiful and majestic with a very fragile ecosystem. There are more endangered plants and animals in Hawai'i than in any other U.S. military base.

하와이섬은 섬세한 생태계를 보유하고 있는 아름답고 장엄한 곳이다. 미국의 여느 군기지와 비교 했을 때 하와이에는 다른데 보다 많은 멸종위기 동식물이 있다.

Hawai'i has over one million residents who live, work and play in our paradise. Yet, government and public health officials refuse to look at military toxins as a cause of high incidence of health problems among local residents.

하와이는 백만명 이상의 주민이 거주하고 일하며 즐기는 낙원이다. 그러나 정부와 보건 관료들은 군사적 독소들을 지역 주민 건강문제의 높은 발생률의 원인으로 검토하기를 거부하고 있다.

Military Pollution

군사적 오염

For over sixty years, the land and residents of Hawai'i have endured tremendous toxic pollution exposure from military use and munitions' training in the islands. The 2004 Defense Environmental Restoration Program report to Congress listed 798 military contamination sites at 108 installations in Hawai'i, 96 of which were contaminated with unexploded ordnance, seven of the military contamination sites were considered "Superfund" sites. These sites have not been cleaned up. Meanwhile, the toxic components of this pollution leach into our environment.

지난 60여년 동안 하와이 주민과 땅은 섬에서 행해지고 있는 군용 및 군수용 훈련때문에 엄청난 독소오염에 노출되어 왔다. 2004년도 의회에 보고된 방위환경복구프로그램 (defense environmental restoration program)보고서에 따르면 108 개 시설의 798 군사적 오염 현장이 하와이에 위치하고 있으면, 이 중에 96개 시설에는 불발탄의 대포로 오염되었 있으며 군사적 오염 현장중 7개 곳은 “슈퍼 펀드 (공해 방지 사업을 위한 대형 자금)” 현장으로 고려되고 있었다. 이 지역은 아직 정리되지 않았다. 그러는 동안 오염의 독소물질이 우리의 환경에 스며들고 있다.

The U.S. Military has practiced making war in Hawai'i since before WWII with live-fire artillery training. Everything having to do with modern warfare is toxic to the environment and communities downwind.

미국 군부는 세계2차대전 이전 부터 실탄대포 훈련을 하며 하와이에서의 전쟁발발을 연습해왔다. 현대 전투에 투입되는 의 모든 요소는 바람부는 방향에 있는 환경과 지역에 유독성을 발휘한다.

The U.S Army is building up on Oahu and Hawai'i Island with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) and over 300 Stryker Vehicles. A Stryker is 43,000 pounds (fully loaded) urban assault vehicle. It is equipped to fire anti-armor rounds.

미국국방부는 오아후와 하와의 섬에서 스트라이커 여단 전투팀 (Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT))과 300개 이상의 스트라이커 수단을 구축하고 있다. 스트라이커는 (완전히 장전된) 약 20톤 무게의 도시공격수단이다. 대(對)전차용 탄환으로 갖춰져 있다.

Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) is located in the center of Hawai'i Island. PTA is an anti-armor live-fire training range. Live-fire is using real and lethal ammunition. Anti-armor penatrators are made with radioactive depleted uranium.

포하쿨로아훈련장은 하와이섬의 중심에 위치해 있다. 포하쿨로아훈련장은 대(對)전차용 실탄은 실제로 치명적인 탄약을 사용한다. 대(對)전차용 침투기는 방사성 열화우라늄으로 만들어졌다.


The Harsh Reality of the United States Military Presence in Hawai'i

미국군대의 하와이 주둔에 대한 냉혹한 현실


The six decades of U.S. States military artillery practice has taken a toll on the health of the residents of Hawai'i. The present military build up will increase live-fire training from 16 million rounds to 20 million rounds a year according to the U.S. Army's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In the military's Transformation of the 25th Infantry to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team, over 300 Strykers vehicles will be introduced to Hawai'i for anti-armor live-fire training. Toxic pollution from this activity drifts on the trade winds over our communities. It can also contaminate our water and soil. The most hazardous conditions created by live-fire training are considered in the EIS as "mitigable to less than significant."

지난 60여년 동안 미국군대의 실탄훈련은 하와이 주민의 건강에 큰 피해를 주었다. 미국방부환경영황진술서에 의하면 현재의 군사적 강화는 실탄훈련을 연간 1600만개의 탄환에서 2천만개로 증가시킨다고 한다. 군대의 25 보병대를 스트라이커 여단 전투팀으로 변경시키면서 300개 이상의 스트라이커를 하와이에서 실시하는 대 전차용 실탄훈련에 사용할 것이다. 이 훈련의 유독성 오염물질은 우리가 살고 있는 지역으로 날라오게 된다. 또한 물과 토양도 오염시킬 수 있다. 위 진술서에 의하면 실탄훈련에서 발생하는 가장 해로운 상황이 영향력을 미치는 정도 이하로 경감시킬 수 있는 것으로 되어 있다. (The most hazardous conditions created by live-fire training are considered in the EIS as "mitigable to less than significant.")

Hawai'i residents have a right to live in an environment without toxic pollution and contamination of our air, water and soil. The quality of air that we breathe will NEVER be less than significant to us! Since the discovery of depleted uranium spotting rounds on Schofield Barracks, many residents are seriously concerned about DU contamination and being exposed to high levels of radiation. HB 1452 (to test for DU is tabled for another year) Sadly for the islands, the biggest polluter of Hawai'i today is the biggest unregulated dirty industry polluting our planet: The United States Military. Presently, the best that we can hope for is that next year (2008) the Hawai'i State legislaure will take our concerns seriously and Test Hawai'i for Depleted Uranium. DU has an extremely long half life and vaporized DU dust can not be cleaned up. Our goal at Protect Hawaii is for the military to stop disrupting the artillery ranges with more live-fire training and remediate land contaminated by their activity.

하와이 주민은 유독성 오염물질로 부터 자유로운 공기와 물과 토양의 환경에 살 권리가 있다. 우리가 숨쉬는 공기의 질은 결코 위험성 이하로 (less than significant)할 수 없다. 쇼필드 막사에서 열화우라늄 탄착 실탄이 (deleted uranium spotting rounds) 발견된 이래 많은 주민들이 열화우라늄과 고수치의 방사선에 노출되는 것에 대해 심각한 우려를 표하고 있다. HB 1452 (열화우라늄 검사는 또 일년이 연기되었다.) 우리 섬에 대해서는 참으로 슬프게도, 오늘날 하와이 오염의 가장 심각한 주범은 지구상에서 가장 규제성없고 더러운 산업, 바로 미국군대이다. 현재 우리가 희망해 볼 수 있는 최선은 내년 (2008년)에 하와이 주정부 의회가 우리의 사안을 심각하게 받아들이고 하와이에서 열화우라늄 검사를 하는 것이다. 열화우라늄의 (방사성 물질의) 반감기는 굉장히 길며, 증발된 열화우라늄 먼지/가루는 정화할 방법이 없다. Protect Hawaii의 목표는 군대가 더 이상의 실탄훈련으로 훈련장을 망쳐놓는일을 멈추게 하고 그들로 인해 오염된 토지 문제를 바로잡는 것이다.



Health Problems in Hawai'i and Official Stonewalling

하와이의 건강 문제 및 관료들의 의사진행 방해

One in seventeen births in Hawai'i has a "recognizable abnormality," according to the Hawaii Birth Defects Program website. Cases of diabetes and asthma are on the rise, especially in communities downwind from live-fire training ranges, like Waianae, Oahu. Heart disease and cancer are the first and third leading cause of death in Hawai'i. According to the National Center of Health Statistics the national rates for cancer and heart disease are dropping while Hawai'i's rates are climbing. The Starbulletin reported on March 11, 2004 that 23,000 children in Hawai'i are in Special Education and 720 children were identified as having autism. "Childhood autism in Hawaii is growing at an epidemic rate, according to Autism Society officials." No one knows why? It could be genetic or environmental (chemical exposure)."

하와이의 선천적 결손증 프로그램 웹사이트에 의하면 하와이에서 태어나는 아이 17명 중 한 명은 인식가능한 비정상성을 띠고 태어난다. 당뇨와 천식증의 경우는 점점 증가하고 있으며, 이는 와이아내같이 실탄훈련장에서 바람이 부는 방향에 위치한 지역일 수도록 증상이 심각하다. 심장병과 암은 하와이 섬에서 제1, 제3 사망원인이 되고 있다. 전국보건통계청에 의하면 암과 심장질병에 대한 전국적인 수치는 감소하고 있는 반면에 하와이에 대한 자료는 증가하고 있다. 2004년 3월 11자 The Starbulletin지에 의하면 하와이 아동의 2만 3천명은 특수교육을 받고 있고 720명이 자폐증 진단을 받았다. “미국자폐협회 간부에 의하면 하와이의 어린이 자폐증은 엄청난 속도로 증가하고 있다.” 아무도 그 이유를 모르고 있을까? 유전적 문제일 수도 있고, 환경 (화학물질 노출)적인 이유일 수도 있다.

The Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DOE) spending for special education needs has risen from approximately 75 million dollars a year in 1994 to over 350 million dollars annually in 2004. The State of Hawai'i government has never seriously examined military toxins as a cause of the high incidence of life altering and life threatening illness among Hawai'i's residents. Stonewalling is common with government officials . Activists are denied access to pertinent public health information.

보건부 및 교육부의 특수교육수요에 대한 비용은 1997년에 연간 7천500만 달러에서 2004년 3억5천만 달러로 증가했다. 하와이 주정부는 하와이 주민들 사이에 발생하는 생명을 변경시키고 위협하는 질병의 높은 발생률에 대한 원인으로 군사적유독물질을 심각하게 조사해본 적이 없다. 정부관료들 사이에서는 의사 진행을 방해하는 일이 흔하게 일어난다. 활동가들은 공중보건에 대한 필요한 정보를 열람할 수가 없다.

More on Military Contamination of Hawaii

"According to the Navy, the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex alone contains approximately 749 contaminated sites and is treated as a giant superfund site. Military installations made up five of the top ten polluters in Hawai‘i responsible for releasing persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, which include lead, dioxins mercury, and polycyclic aromatic compounds. Military contamination hazards include unexploded ordnance, various types of fuels and petroleum products; organic solvents such as perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene; dioxins and PCB; explosives and propellants such as RDX, TNT, HMX and Perchlorate; heavy metals such as Lead and Mercury; napalm, chemical weapons, and radioactive waste from nuclear powered ships." (by Kyle Kajehiro of American Friends Service Committee.)


Radiation and Chemical Releases

"Cobalt–60, a radioactive waste product from nuclear-powered ships, has been found in sediment at Pearl Harbor . Between 1964 and 1978, 4,843,000 gallons of low level radioactive waste were discharged into Pearl Harbor . 2,189 steel drums containing radioactive waste were dumped in an ocean disposal area 55 miles from Hawai‘i. The military recently disclosed that from 1941 to 1972 it had dumped more than 8,000 tons of chemical munitions, including blistering agents mustard gas and lewisite, in the shallow seas off O‘ahu island. Fishermen have been burned when they accidentally raised this toxic catch. For many years, the military denied ever using depleted uranium in Hawai‘i. However in January 2006, activists forced the Army to admit the presence of depleted uranium contamination on O‘ahu." (by Kyle Kajehiro for more information go to www.dmzhawaii.org )

The U.S. Army's SEIS Confirms High Radiation Readings

The U.S. Army's Stryker Brigade Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) is published in July 2007.

In chapter 3 page 7 of this report it states: “Forty-five separate locations showed Gamma levels higher than background…In total nine samples were collected (six soil samples and three fragments)…Laboratory analysis indicated that three soil samples exhibited uranium-238 above background levels. Additionally, spectroscopy analyses confirmed that the three fragments collected are comprised of DU.”

We are not out of the woods yet a previous paragraph states: “In October 2006, a third survey of the area was conducted in areas made more accessible by a successful prescribed burn of the impact area.”

What toxins were present in the smoke that drifted over downwind communities during this "prescribed burn"? Concerned resident of Hawai'i interview on KBOO Radio Portland, Oregon:

CALL TO ACTION: For Hawai’i Residents and Visitors PLEASE HELP US PROTECT HAWAI’I (See the original link)

Video Fwd: LEGACY OF WAR - DEPLETED URANIUM'S TOLL ON THE PEOPLE

Bruce Gagnon blog
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
LEGACY OF WAR - DEPLETED URANIUM'S TOLL ON THE PEOPLE



'Would you call this genocide?'

Text fwd: DU in Afghanistan and Iraq

* Text Fwd from Makiko Sato (seamesky@sand.ocn.ne.jp) on Dec. 2, 2009

The document content at the bottome has been sent wide in Japan

by Mobuo Kasahi of No DU Hiroshima Project

which is committed to the issue of depleted uranium weapons.

The document ( letter?) was sent on May 19th, 2005 from an DoD officer

to his counterpart in the Military Traffice Management Command

regarding the transfer of "critical"weapons, meaning, depleted uranium weapons.

Somehow this document was leaked and he obtained the leaked info.

This photo of the original document should be here, but it seems unaccessible now though I've tried.

Kasashi is concerned about Obama's latest announcement of upcoming

US beef-up in Afghanistan, so he's just begun circulating this.

Kasashi wrote that, according to this info, US has been using DU weapons in Iraq and

Afghanistan, that the US officials recognize its danger, and that DU weapons have

become US' main weapons as it is repeatedly described as 'critical.' Makiko

______________________________________________________________________________________________

[original ]
Department of the Army
Headquarters, Military Traffic Management Command
200 Stovall Street Alexander, VA 22332-5000

May 19, 2005

Reply to Attention of
Office of the Deputy to the Commander

Dr. Robert A. McGuire
Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety
United States Department of Transportation
400 Seventh Street, SW. Washington, DC 20590

Dear. Dr. McGuire: As the representative for the Department of
Defense (DOD), the Military Surface Distribution and Deployment
Command (SDDC) would like to thank your office for its continued
support in providing DOD with its numerous transportation
exemptions and Competent Approval Authorities. These documents are
vital to the accomplishment of our mission and critical to the success of the
Global War on Terrorism.

The DOD’s record of safe transportation of depleted uranium (DU)
ammunition is flawless. There has never been a single safety
incident concerning DODO DU ammunition shipments. Despite that
fact, DOT-E 9649, (governing the shipment DU ammunition) is one of the few documents on which our two agencies have not been able to reach an agreement.

We believe that failure to renew the exemption may possibly
interrupt the movement of these critical munitions to our forces in
Afghanistan and Iraq. The cost of our compliance with the currently
exempted standards may reach as high as $50 million; and it may
cost prohibitive given our current fiscal restraints.

The DOD looks forward to working with DOT on this critical issue.
Please have your office contact Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wyrosdick
at (757) 878-7518 so our staffs can continue to work toward a
mutually beneficial resolutions. You[r] continued cooperation is
greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
　Patricia M. Young　　　
　Deputy to the Commander