from the Iraq Action Center Website

According to a 1991 UK Atomic Energy Authority report about the 1991 Gulf War, "US tanks fired 5,000 DU rounds, US aircraft many tens of thousands and UK tanks a small number of DU rounds. The tank ammunition alone will amount to greater than 50,000lb of DU... If the tank inventory of DU was inhaled, the latest International Committee of Radiological Protection risk factor...calculates 500,000 potential deaths." In other words, the 25 tons of radioactive debris in the desert could cause 500,000 deaths.

According to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the US and UK Forces left more than 300 tons of Depleted Uranium on the battle fields between Kuwait and Iraq, mostly in the form of toxic, radioactive dust.

From the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI), Health and Environmental Consequences of Depleted Uranium Use in the U.S. Army, June 1995

"Depleted Uranium is a low-level radioactive waste and therefore, must be deposited in a licensed repository.

"If DU enters the body, it has the potential to generate significant medical consequences. The risks associated with DU in the body are both chemical and radiological."

"Personnel inside or near vehicles struck by DU penetrators could receive significant internal exposures."

"Short-term effects of high doses can result in death, while long-term effects of low doses have been implicated in cancer."

"When a kinetic energy round penetrates a vehicle, it contaminates the vehicle interior with dust and fragments. As much as 70 percent of a DU penetrator can be aerosolized when it strikes a tank (Fliszar et al., 1989). Aerosols containing DU oxides may contaminate the area downwind. DU fragments may also contaminate the soil around the struck vehicle."

"DU is inherently toxic. This toxicity can be managed, but it cannot be changed."

From the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) report, included as Appendix D of AMMCOM's Kinetic Energy Penetrator Long Term Strategy Study, Danesi, July 1990.

"Aerosol DU exposures to soldiers on the battlefield could be significant with potential radiological and toxicological effects."

From the Operation Desert Storm: Army Not Adequately Prepared to Deal With Depleted Uranium Contamination, United States General Accounting Office (GAO/NSIAD-93-90), January 1993, pp. 17-18.

"Inhaled insoluble oxides stay in the lungs longer and pose a potential cancer risk due to radiation. Ingested DU dust can also pose both a radioactive and a toxicity risk."