Exposure to depleted uranium has been associated with long term health effects, including digestive and respiratory disorders, cancers, birth defects, neurological damage, genetic damage, damaged kidneys and a damaged immune system.  These effects may not become apparent until a few years after exposure

What is Depleted Uranium?

Depleted uranium is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead, which can pierce armour.  DU is an alpha emitter with short-lived decay products which emit beta and gamma radiation.  It has a half life of 4.5 billion years.  It's strongest radioactivity is due to its alpha emissions.  Uranium is partly (0.7%) composed of the isotpoe U-235.  DU is called 'depleted' because most (about 60-70%) of the U-235 has been removed for use in reactors and weapons.  The difference in radioactivity between natural and depleted uranium is that given equal quantities, depleted uranium has about half the radioactivity of natural uranium. However, natural uranium never occurs in the 100% concentrations we see in DU.  So, DU is much more radioactive than uranium in its natural state or uranium ore.  In the United States, DU is considered medium-level radioactive waste and a special license is required to handle it.

DU emits a relatively low-level of radiation; however, hundreds of scientific reports over the past 20 years show the danger of low-level exposures.  Women's breast and uterine tissues are especially vulnerable to ionising radiation.  Women will develop 1.5 times as many cancers as men given equal exposures.  Children are more vulnerable because their bones are growing and they have a long expected life span in which cancers may develop.

DU weapons burn on impact, releasing a toxic radioactive and partly ceramic dust.  Even breathing in one particle can cause damage to tissues, the immune system or the DNA.  Once inhaled, insoluble particles can stay in the body for several years, irradiating nearby tissues.
 

How DU was used in the Gulf War

American MIAI, MI and M60 tanks and British Challenger tanks fired thousands of large calibre DU penetrators.  American A-10 and AV-8B aircraft shot hundreds of thousands of small calibre DU rounds.  By the war's end, more than 290,000 kilograms, (640,000lbs) of DU contaminated southern Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  A large fire at a DU ammunitions store at Doha and the possible bombing of what may have been a uranium processing facility added to the overall environmental contamination in southern Iraq.

How to Identify DU Bullets

The A-10 fires a 30mm round about the size and shape of a cigar and is about 12" long.  The Abrahams tank fires a much larger 120mm round.  They may be slightly deformed from impact.  Since only about 25% of DU rounds fired from aircraft hit the target, many DU rounds may be found in or near target vehicles or equipment, on the soil surface, or buried under the surface.  They may be covered in a fine black uranium dust, as DU rounds corrode over time.  There have also been sightings of a yellow dust in S. Iraq which may be uranium hexafluoride.  The smaller rounds give off approximately 2mSv (millsieverts) an hour.  Stay away from all DU bullets or shrapnel!!  Do not let children hold them!  However, the main danger is not from external exposure but internal exposure - inhalation or ingestion of the dust particles.
 

AVOID ALL SUSPECTED DU IMPACT SITES AND DO NOT COLLECT OR STAY IN CONTACT WITH DU BULLETS AND SHRAPNEL

How to Identify Contamination

The presence of black DU dust and around entry holes on the outside of a vehicle are tell tale signs of DU impact.  if there is an explosion or fire, it may be more difficult to identify DU contamination in and around a vehicle.  When a DU round hits a target, between 10-70% of the round burns, releasing an extremely fine uranium dust.  Most of this dust is respirable in size (less than 5 microns) and insoluble.  It may concentrate in the soil near an impact site.  Do not disturb this soil.  Over time wind, water, soil disturbance and human contact may re-suspend or scatter DU dust, further impeding identification efforts.  The only positve way to identify DU contamination is to survey vehicles and soil with devices capable of detecting alpha radiation.  DU concentrations will be heaviest in the top 10cm. of soil in a 50-225m radius from an impact site.  However, the aerosolised particles are capable of traveling through the air between 40-100km from the site of a fire.
 

WEAR BREATHING PROTECTION IF YOU ARE NEAR A SUSPECTED DU IMPACT SITE OR IF CONTAMINATED SAND IS DISTURBED BY WIND OR VEHICLES.  USE ANYTHING AVAILABLE TO COVER YOUR NOSE AND MOUTH.

How to Reduce Exposure

Stay away from any vehicle, equipment or structure which you believe may have been hit by DU rounds.  Do not pick up or collect DU rounds found lying on the ground.  If you are in a potentially contaminated area (such as near destroyed tanks or vehicles), wear respiratory protection and gloves at a minimum.  Cover your skin and hair.  Wash hands, hair and clothing frequently.  In the event of a dust storm, take every precaution to avoid breathing in the dust particles.  Inform the authorities if you suspect DU contamination of an area.  mark the area as potentially DU contaminated.  Effortsto reduce exposure to these radioactive particles must become part of daily life in southern Iraq.