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CADU NEWS 18
September 2004
Contents
Coming Soon
- The Third International Day of Action
Launch of International Petition Campaign
UK DU Test for Veterans "Too Little, Too Late"
Leading Radiation Scientist Speaks Out On Government
Scientists Downplaying DU Risks
Exemption to Labeling of DU Munitions Not Renewed
Civilian DU Worker Wins Legal Aid to Sue Honeywell
Independent Gulf War Syndrome Inquiry in London
Italy: Justice for a veteran's family in DU related
case
New Paper from Dr. Rosalie Bertell
Free Huda Ammash
Vieques
Bomb Targets Proposed for Superfund Listing
UNEP to Study Environmental Hotspots in Iraq
DU Round Found on Military Base Where it Was 'Never Used'
Draft Convention to Ban Uranium Weapons Now Ready
CERRIE Fails to Find Agreement
CADU at the Boston Social Forum
Support CADU Through Using
Your Telephone!
A Message to All CADU Supporters
Coming
Soon - The Third International Day of Action
November 6th will see the International
Day of Action to Ban Uranium Weapons.
Long term CADU supporters will remember the success of the last two years'
International Days of Action Against Depleted Uranium Weapons, in which
actions took place all over the world. This year the day will have an
even more international flavour as it is being supported through the International
Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW), of which CADU is a founding
member.
November 6 has been set by
UN as the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment
in War and Armed Conflict. ICBUW is therefore asking all groups and individuals
to organise actions to ban uranium weapons. Just having a small-scale
study meeting or doing a one-person petition on the street will contribute
a lot to gathering momentum for the international campaign. So please
join us!
So far actions are being planned
by groups in Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, The Netherlands and
the United States. To give you some ideas here are a selection of what
is being planned:
In Belgium the Belgian Coalition
to Ban Uranium Weapons will visit the Prime Minister, and the Ministries
of Defence and Foreign Affairs, to hand over a copy of collected petition
signatures.
In Italy PeaceLink are organising
a march and event in Florence for soldiers and their families, scientists
and people from Iraq and Bosnia to tell their stories.
In Japan the NO DU Hiroshima
Project are organising a gathering at a park by the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima,
with music performance and speeches as well as a mini photo-exhibition
on the Iraq war and the DU damage.
In Manchester we at CADU are
organising a public meeting in Manchester on November 3rd and on November
6th we will be having a stall and some street theatre in Manchester City
Centre. We would love people to come and be involved with us or to organise
their own actions. We can supply leaflets and publicity materials for
groups and individuals who are interested. If you are interested please
contact us at 0161 273 8292 or email us at [email protected]
Launch
of International Petition Campaign
ICBUW has launched an international
petition to ban uranium weapons. It can be signed online at www.bandepleteduranium.org
or paper copies are available from CADU (maybe having a stall and collecting
signatures would be a good event for the Day of Action?). Please sign
it yourself right away and urge your friends to do so, too.
This petition campaign will
continue until the realisation of a treaty to ban uranium weapons, but
we have set our first deadline on February 15, 2005, so that we can appeal
to the EU Parliament or to the UN Disarmament Committee to be held in
Geneva next spring.
The petition states:
We, the people, need to let
governments and the United Nations know that these weapons can have no
part in a humane and caring world. Every signature counts!
We call for your support to
demand:
1. An immediate end to the
use of uranium weapons.
2. Disclosure of all locations where uranium weapons have been used and
immediate removal of the remnants and contaminated materials from the
sites under strict control.
3. Health surveys of the 'depleted' uranium victims and environmental
investigations at the affected sites.
4. Medical treatment and compensation for the 'depleted' uranium victims.
5. An end to the development, production, stockpiling, testing, trade
of uranium weapons.
6. A Convention for a Total Ban on Uranium Weapons.
UK
DU Test for Veterans "Too Little, Too Late"
The National Gulf
Veterans and Families Association has accused the Ministry of Defence
of deliberately dragging its feet in waiting 14 years to implement a screening
test to detect uranium in the bodies of Gulf war soldiers.
After the announcement by the
MoD that a new test would be offered to 500 military and civilian personnel
who served in the Gulf war, veterans are saying that the procedure is
too little, too late for the thousands who have suffered unexplained ill-health
for years.
Many veterans who had been
exposed to radiation from battlefield shells believe they may have levels
of depleted uranium in their bodies that can no longer be detected, and
that may have caused kidney failure or leukaemia.
The MoD set up an independent
committee of scientists' and veterans' representatives in 2001 - the Depleted
Uranium Oversight Board - to develop a screening process.
Three years later, they are
ready to take applications from those who served in the Gulf area between
August 1990 and July 31 1991. The test will also be made available to
those who served in Kosovo from August 5 1994. The results will take three
months to come back.
The four clinics at which testing
will be done are St Thomas' hospital in London, the Glasgow Royal Infirmary,
Southmead Hospital in Bristol and the University of North Tees in Stockton-on-Tees.
Leading
Radiation Scientist Speaks Out On Government Scientists Downplaying DU
Risks
Dr Keith Baverstock the World
Health Organisation's senior radiation adviser in Europe spoke out at
a conference on low level radiation in Edinburgh, about the pressures
to ignore the dangers posed by radioactivity. Using examples of compensation
to veterans of nuclear tests and DU weapons he argued that by downplaying
the risks from radiation, government agencies had undermined public trust
in science and technology.
As reported in CADU News 17
Dr Baverstock wrote a paper while at the WHO on the cancer risk posed
by DU weapons which was suppressed. In Edinburgh he explained that he
outlined in the paper possible mechanisms by which DU posed a cancer risk
that were ignored by the International Committee on Radiation Protection
(ICRP), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health
Authority.
He argued that insoluble DU
retained in the lung over a long period can cause 'genotoxicity', through
a combination of its radioactive and chemical properties. The uranium
binds to DNA and proteins and is slowly transferred from the lung tissue
to the blood, from where it can move around the body, particularly to
the bones, before finally being excreted to the kidney. Another potential
cancer risk is from the 'bystander' effect, which shows that irradiated
cells pass on damage to surrounding healthy cells.
"When the WHO were advised
of these potential mechanisms they ignored the information in the preparation
of a Monograph on the health effects of DU published in 2001 and subsequently
suppressed the publication of a paper postulating these three mechanisms."
Baverstock argued. "In an ideal world the WHO would have alerted
the IAEA and ICRP to the potential hazard of DU oxide dusts in Iraq."
His paper is now available
online at http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/DU-Radiological-Toxicity-WHO5nov01.htm
or is available in paper format from the CADU office.
Exemption
to Labeling of DU Munitions Not Renewed
In CADU News 16
we reported on a campaign by US groups to force labelling of DU munitions
in transportation. Previously DU munitions were subject to a special U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) exemption, DOT-E 9649, which allows
the shipment of depleted uranium munitions without a DOT "Radioactive"
placard displayed on the shipment. This potentially put emergency services
and the public at risk as responding services would not have known to
implement special protective measures in case of an accident. The exemption
ran out on the 30th June and so far has not been renewed, although the
U.S. Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC,
formerly MTMC), which manages the shipment of depleted uranium munitions,
has been granted a time extension in order to provide information requested
by the DOT. Campaigners are still being urged to send letters to the Department
of Transportation to ensure a future exemption is ruled out.
For more information see: http://www.traprockpeace.org/
Civilian
DU Worker Wins Legal Aid to Sue Honeywell
A civil engineer in the aerospace
industry in Yeovil, UK, Mr Richard 'Nibby David', has won legal aid to
take his case to the High Court. The case will be heard from the 6th to
the 17th December 2004. The awarding of legal aid in a personal injury
case is extremely unusual, but Mr David's case was judged to be "in
the wider public interest".
From 1985 to 1995, Richard
'Nibby' David worked as a civil engineer in the aerospace industry in
Yeovil, UK, for the company Normalair Garrett, now owned by the US company
Honeywell. Mr David suffers from severe illnesses, which he claims he
contracted on the work floor, handling aircraft components containg DU
.
One of the proofs of the effects
of possible poisoning with DU was delivered by Dr. W. Hoffman of the Bremen
Institute for Prevention, Research and Social Medicine, who carried out
tests which proved Nibby to have an increased rate of dicentric and ring
chromosome mutations in his lymphocytes. These mutations are known to
be caused by exposure to ionising radiation.
Subsequent genetic examination
and analysis was done by Dr. Beaman at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
It showed Mr. David had developed the exceedingly rare Gitelmans syndrome.
This is a genetic condition which affects the kidneys from birth and depends
on the genes involved being inherited from both the mother and the father
(in itself a rare occurrence). Usually the syndrome is active from birth,
but Mr. David developed it in his 40's. Dr. Beaman says the actual cause
of the genetic mutation and mature onset is out of his range of expertise.
The hearing was originally
scheduled for October but has been postponed in order to allow more time
to compile the evidence. The NDDU DU Support Group has been set up to
help Mr David. To make a donation or to find out more about Mr David's
case please visit www.bandepleteduranium.org where details of how to donate
online are given.
Independent
Gulf War Syndrome Inquiry in London
An independent inquiry into
Gulf War Syndrome has been set up in London to establish the facts about
Gulf war illnesses and resolve the long-standing dispute over their causes.
The independent inquiry is funded by an anonymous donor and headed by
former law lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick.
The inquiry will consider all
aspects of potential harm to soldiers, including vaccines, chemical weapons
and depleted uranium. The announcement of the inquiry has been very embarrassing
for the government which has always refused to hold a public inquiry.
The Government responded by saying it would be inappropriate for ministers
to give evidence and by writing to scientists paid to research illnesses
in veterans warning them not to reveal ongoing findings.
The kind of obstructive behaviour
shows the arrogance of the government, more interested in saving face
than finding the truth about what happened to soldiers who served in the
war.
Lord Lloyd will announce shortly
when he will reveal his findings.
Italy:
Justice for a veteran's family in DU
related case
A court in Rome ordered the
Italian Ministry of Defence to compensate the family of Stefano Melone,
a soldier who died of a malignant vascular tumour. According to the court,
Mr Melone's death was "due to exposure to radioactive and carcinogen
substances" on missions in the Balkans.
Stefano Melone was suddenly,
in February 2000, diagnosed with cancer (Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma
of the bone, lung and pleura). In August 2000 a military commission acknowledged
the link between his illness and the military service abroad, so he applied
for a pension. However, after many surgical operations, he died on 8th
November 2001 in Milan, at the age of 40.
Since then, his wife has been
engaged in a battle to obtain compensation from the Ministry of Defence,
together with many other soldiers and families in similar situations.
Before dying, Stefano had asked his wife to do this, so that their children
and all the other families could safeguard a future in spite of the terrible
pain and loss. To date, 27 Italian soldiers have died of lymphoma, cancer
or leukaemia, and 260 are currently ill, after their missions abroad.
Many of these missions took place in countries where DU has been used,
including Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq.
After three reports and many
mistakes, a commission nominated by the Ministry of Defence, has eventually
acknowledged an increase in lymphoma among soldiers assigned to missions
in the Balkans. In spite of that, the Italian Ministry of Defence refuses
to give compensation to their families, let alone to admit that DU has
a role in these cases. Hardly any information is given to soldiers currently
on missions abroad about the risks the are facing, and whoever complains
about this lack of information is treated as a traitor and marginalised.
It is too expensive and difficult to obtain medical tests and therapies
for these kinds of health problems. Only a few soldiers or families have
the courage to stand up and ask for compensation after illness or death.
On the 26th of June, in Rome,
the magistrates of a local court have ruled that the Ministry of Defence
must pay 500.000 Euros in compensation to Stefano Melone's family.
By Francesco Iannuzzelli of
Peacelink, Italy (http://www.peacelink.it/).
New
Paper from Dr. Rosalie Bertell
As her testimony
to the Hiroshima World Tribunal on Iraq the wonderful Dr Rosalie Bertell
has written a new paper "The Use of DU Weapons in War". It is
available from the CADU website and in paper form from the office
Free
Huda Ammash
Female Iraqi scientist Huda
Ammash has been held by US forces after claims that she was involved in
Iraq's WMD programme. Now that the Iraq Survey Group has found that there
were no missiles, or indeed WMD programmes, CADU believes Dr Ammash, who
in the past has spoken out about DU, must be released. CADU opposes all
imprisonment without trial or evidence.
Vieques
Bomb Targets Proposed for Superfund Listing
The Atlantic Fleet Weapons
Training Area (AFWTA) on and around the islands of Vieques and Culebra,
Puerto Rico used for live fire training for 100 years may soon be declared
a Superfund site. Responding to the request of Puerto Rico Governor Sila
Calderon, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Friday proposed
to add the area to the list of the country's most contaminated hazardous
waste sites.
The listing would make the
site eligible for federal cleanup funding. Contaminants of the land and
water may include depleted uranium, mercury, lead, copper, magnesium,
lithium, perchlorate, TNT, napalm, PCBs, solvents and pesticides, the
EPA said. Protesters camped, demonstrated and were arrested repeatedly
until the Navy agreed to cease the live fire practice in 2003.
UNEP
to Study Environmental Hotspots in Iraq
Since the attack on Iraq in
2003 the United Nations Environmental Programme has been wanting to go
into Iraq to study the environmental effects of the conflict. The United
States and UK governments have not allowed this to happen, citing the
security situation as the reason. UNEP has now announced a revised programme
by which it will work with Iraqi scientists, from the Iraqi Ministry of
the Environment, to carry out a study of a variety of environmental hotspots
in Iraq and samples will be sent back to Europe for analysis.
The study of depleted uranium
is conspicuously missing from the press release announcing the project,
which cites other areas of concern such as sulphur mines and chemical
refinery sites. However in an interview with Pekka Haavisto, 46, a former
Finnish environment minister who now chairs the U.N. Environment Program's
post-conflict environmental-assessments task force on Iraq, said "And
of course, DU also is a concern, because some of these vehicles, especially
tanks, may have been targeted with DU weapons. Our experience from the
Balkans is you have to clean the DU from the tanks before you recycle
the metal. This is a high priority....Then if you speak of the Gulf War
of 1991, there are figures indicating that up to 280 tons of DU munitions
were used. If you compare that with Kosovo, where 9 tons of DU was used,
and with Bosnia where 3 tons was fired, the amount used in Iraq is quite
big.
DU
Round Found on Military Base Where it Was 'Never Used'
Army contractors uncovered a DU round at the Cape Edwards military, New
England, USA, base. Army officials have long said DU was never fired on
Camp Edwards. But some Upper Cape base activists said the military didn't
always monitor defense contractors who improved and developed weapons.
Investigators concluded it
was a depleted uranium round after testing it with a machine that measures
radioactivity, said groundwater program manager Kent "Hap" Gonser.
James Kinney of Sandwich, a member of the citizen panel that monitors
the Camp Edwards cleanup, "I don't think anyone just happened to
have one depleted uranium round out there that fell out of their pocket,"
Kinney said. "If there was one, I'm sure there were more." It
makes us wonder how many other military bases have used DU in secret?
Draft
Convention to Ban Uranium Weapons Now Ready
A draft convention to ban uranium
weapons has now been prepared by Manfred Mohr and A. Samsel of IALANA.
The convention has been adopted by ICBUW and can now be used in campaigning
work to advance its progress into the United Nations as a treaty. Entitled
a "Draft Convention on the prohibition of development, production,
stockpiling, transfer and use of uranium weapons and on their destruction".
The Draft Convention contains
a general and comprehensive prohibition of the development, production,
transport, storage, possession, transfer and use of uranium ammunition,
uranium armour-plate and of any other military use of uranium. The Convention
also outlines obligations concerning the abolition of uranium weapons
and the destruction of uranium weapons construction facilities.
The Convention obliges signatories to decontaminate or to ensure a rapid
decontamination of contaminated areas at most five years after its entry
into force, emphasising the protection of and assistance to civilians
living in these areas. Each State Party that uses uranium weapons in a
conflict is responsible for the consequences, including compensation of
the victims.
Please contact CADU for more details.
CERRIE
Fails to Find Agreement
The Committee Examining Radiation
Risks from Internal Emitters (CERRIE), which was set up by former environment
minister Michael Meacher to review models used to estimate health risks
from radioactive materials, has failed to include the minority report
of dissenting scientists from 'The Low Level Radiation Campaign' (LLRC).
Scientists representing Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth were among
those who agreed not to include the opinion of LLRC and the exact reasons
their opinion was not included are not clear at this point.
Michael Meacher has reacted
angrily to the news, accusing the final report of giving a one-sided establishment
opinion. What is clear is that the failure of CERRIE to reach a position
on the dangers of low level radiation is a grave disappointment for all
those who campaign on the issue and were hoping it represented a unique
opportunity for an authoritative new understanding of the issue. The minority
report is being released by LLRC and copies can be obtained by emailing
[email protected]
CADU
at the Boston Social Forum
This July I was invited to
speak at the International Peace Conference which was organised by the
American Friends' Service Committee and our friend Joseph Gerson. At the
same event, US groups had organised a workshop on DU and kindly invited
me to speak and share in the workshop.
I explained the history of our own organisation and the progress we were
making in the UK, not to mention our dismay when we knew that the UK and
the US had again dared to use DU in the recent Gulf War. I was also keen
to emphasise the international character of the campaign now and the strength
of the newly formed ICBUW. It was so useful to be meeting up in the US
with our campaigning friends there; after all it is only the US and the
UK governments who have used these radiological weapons. It was so cold
in Boston that all the meeting rooms were chilly, but I was told even
the air conditioning couldn't be adjusted!
This is even more chilling when you consider the advanced technological
weapons the US military has under its command...But the workshop got a
good audience with some new folks to the campaign. Our thanks to the Military
Toxics Project for setting up the meeting.
Rae Street- CADU
Support
CADU Through Using Your Telephone!
CADU has a partnership with
the ethical phone provider, The Phone Coop which allows CADU supporters
to support CADU while accessing a great and cheap phone service. The Phone
Coop has a new 1p anytime and 1p evenings & weekends offer which not
only makes it highly competitive but means CADU receives a proportion
of all profits. If you are interested in becoming a member please contact
us at the office.
A
Message to All CADU Supporters
CADU is very pleased to announce
that we have received funding for a part time worker from the Joseph Rowntree
Reform Trust Limited. This gives us the security to carry on planning
our work for the year ahead. As our supporters know the last year has
been a difficult time for CADU financially and without donations from
individuals and groups we would not have been able to carry on. Thank
you for all your support over the years which has allowed us to reach
the position we have.
Subscribe to CADU News -
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are £8 per year (unwaged/student) £10 per year (waged) and
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Please send a cheque or a request for a standing order to:
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