A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is defined as one that can cause indiscriminate death or injury on a large scale. One of the weapons the American military used in Iraq fits that definition — only it was a much more insidious substance, quiet, slow-acting, and persistent.
It’s called depleted uranium (DU) and takes the form of a brown, radioactive, super-fine dust that is everywhere — in the air, in the sand, in the water supply, inside houses and tents, on top of clothes in closets, on the sheets and pillows, on hair and toothbrushes.
Once a particle gets into the body, it irradiates its immediate surroundings forever, causing all kinds of damage — cancers including leukemia, organ damage, toxic encephalopathy, cognitive dysfunction, and birth defects.
The dust is formed when a projectile containing a core made of depleted uranium strikes an armored target. The rapid release of energy upon penetration of the target causes near instantaneous vaporization, and the release of a radioactive aerosol.
Depleted uranium (DU) is a waste product from the nuclear industry, formed when uranium is milled and enriched. It is cheap, and extraordinarily dense. It can pierce the hardest armor.
It remains in several places in Iraq and, though last used in 2004, it continues to claim victims to this day.
You can read the rest @
http://whowhatwhy.org/2015/11/21/toxic-dust-the-invisible-legacy-the-us-left-in-iraq/
Although I am sympathetic to this issue, there is more here than meets the eye. For example, DU was not the only source of radioactive contamination in Iraq:
It was reported that approximately 300 tons of DU munitions were used during Desert Storm and left on the ground. However, there were other sources of radioactive contamination from the war. The phosphate plant at al-Qaim was bombed during Desert Storm, and a portion of its tailings pile was dispersed into the air. This pile contained uranium and fission products from the natural decay of uranium in the phosphate rock. I did an unpublished study which showed that radiation doses from dispersion of this tailings pile may have been 6 times higher than the dose from 300 tons of DU munitions. This extra radiation dose has not been considered in GWS studies. Here is a description of the facility:
http://www.iraqwatch.org/entities/images/qaim.htm
For other potential causes of Gulf War Syndrome and the maladies suffered by the Iraqi people, please read this blog post:
http://sainthoward.blogspot.com/2014/02/gulf-war-syndrome-20-years-on.html
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