I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 177 

To provide for identification of members of the Armed Forces exposed during 

military service to depleted uranium, to provide for health testing of 

such members, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 6, 2009 

Mr. SERRANO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To provide for identification of members of the Armed Forces 

exposed during military service to depleted uranium, to 

provide for health testing of such members, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Depleted Uranium 

5 Screening and Testing Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEPLETED URANIUM RISK NOTIFICATION FOR DE2 PLOYING FORCES. 

3 (a) NOTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Defense shall 

4 establish procedures to require, as part of the procedures 

5 for preparing members of the Armed Forces for deploy6 ment to a theater of operations, that such members be 

7 notified of— 

8 (1) any known or likely use of depleted uranium 

9 in that theater of operations (whether by forces of 

10 the United States and its allies or by any opposing 

11 forces); and 

12 (2) any health risks associated with exposure to 

13 depleted uranium. 

14 (b) TRAINING.—The Secretary shall provide for 

15 training deploying members of the Armed Forces on the 

16 safe handling of depleted uranium contamination before 

17 such members are deployed to a theater in which depleted 

18 uranium is used. 

19 SEC. 3. DEPLETED URANIUM SCREENING AND TESTING. 

20 (a) IDENTIFICATION AND TESTING REQUIRED.—The 

21 Secretary of Defense shall carry out a program to identify 

22 individuals who, during active service in the Armed 

23 Forces, are or have been exposed to depleted uranium and 

24 to provide those individuals with bioassay testing and noti25 fication of the results of such testing. 


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1 (b) DEPLETED URANIUM-EXPOSED PERSONNEL

2 IDENTIFICATION METHODS.— 

3 (1) PROCEDURES FOR IDENTIFICATION OF EX4 POSED MEMBERS.—The Secretary of each military 

5 department shall establish procedures to identify 

6 members of the Armed Forces under the Secretary’s 

7 jurisdiction who are, or may have been, exposed to 

8 depleted uranium. For such purpose, the Secretary 

9 shall identify units and members under paragraph 

10 (2) and shall accept self-identification reports by 

11 members under paragraph (3). 

12 (2) IDENTIFICATION OF UNITS AND PER13 SONNEL.—The Secretary of each military depart14 ment shall identify units, and personnel assigned to 

15 units, that have been, or could have been, exposed 

16 to depleted uranium, based upon information about 

17 known exposure events (as determined under sub18 section (c)). 

19 (3) SELF REPORTING.—The Secretary of each 

20 military department shall accept a report by an indi21 vidual, or a primary care provider for an individual, 

22 that the individual, while a member of the Armed 

23 Forces under the Secretary’s jurisdiction, was, or 

24 may have been, exposed to depleted uranium based 

25 upon service on active duty (or training duty or fuVerDate Nov 24 2008 03:11 Jan 09, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H177.IH H177

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1 neral honors duty) in a theater of operations where 

2 depleted uranium was used, including travel through 

3 such an area. The Secretary shall prescribe proce4 dures for receiving such reports. Such a self-identi5 fication report submitted to the Secretary under this 

6 paragraph shall be treated by the Secretary as iden7 tification of the individual for purposes of this sub8 section. 

9 (4) TREATMENT OF INDIVIDUALS NO LONGER

10 ON ACTIVE DUTY.—In carrying out this subsection, 

11 the Secretary of each military department shall en12 sure that individuals no longer on active duty (in13 cluding members of the reserve components who 

14 have been released from active duty, members who 

15 have been retired, and members who have been sepa16 rated from service) are treated, for identification 

17 purposes, in the same manner as individuals remain18 ing on active duty. 

19 (c) EXPOSURE EVENTS.— 

20 (1) TYPES OF EVENTS.—The Secretary of De21 fense shall identify depleted uranium exposure 

22 events for purposes of this section. The exposure 

23 events identified shall include the following: 

24 (A) DIRECT EXPOSURES.—An event in 

25 which an individual— 


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1 (i) is struck by depleted uranium mu2 nitions or depleted uranium armor frag3 ments; 

4 (ii) enters, or is present within 50 me5 ters of, a vehicle or structure with possible 

6 depleted uranium residues; or 

7 (iii) breathes smoke from fires involv8 ing depleted uranium materials. 

9 (B) EQUIPMENT HANDLING EXPOSURES.— 

10 An event in which an individual may inhale de11 pleted uranium compound particulates as a re12 sult of the handling of equipment or wreckage 

13 that has been, or could have been, contaminated 

14 with depleted uranium. 

15 (C) OTHER EXPOSURES.—Other signifi16 cant or incidental exposure events identified by 

17 the Secretary, including the performance of ac18 tivities in the area of depleted uranium dam19 aged vehicles or structures or the traveling 

20 through or residing in any such area. 

21 (2) LIMITED RETROACTIVITY.—In addition to 

22 exposure events described in paragraph (1) occur23 ring on or after the date of the enactment of this 

24 Act, such events during the period between January 

25 1, 2003, and the date of the enactment of this Act 


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1 may be considered for purposes of this section, if re2 ported during the 60-day period beginning on the 

3 date of the enactment of this Act. 

4 (d) HEALTH-CARE SERVICES REQUIRED.— 

5 (1) BIOASSAY PROCEDURE.—Any individual 

6 identified under subsection (b) shall be provided a 

7 health screening test by the Secretary of Defense. 

8 Such test shall be carried out using a bioassay pro9 cedure developed by the Secretary of Defense in con10 sultation with the Centers for Disease Control and 

11 Prevention. The same bioassay procedure shall be 

12 used for all individuals identified under subsection 

13 (b) and for all types of exposure or possible exposure 

14 identified under subsection (c). 

15 (2) TIME FOR TEST.— 

16 (A) EXPOSURES AFTER ENACTMENT.—In 

17 the case of an exposure event described in sub18 section (c) that occurs on or after the date of 

19 the enactment of this Act, the bioassay under 

20 paragraph (1) shall be administered not later 

21 than 180 days after the date of the event, ex22 cept that in the case of an individual with an 

23 exposure event described in subsection (c)(3), 

24 the bioassay under paragraph (1) shall be ad25 ministered not later than 30 days after the end 


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1 of the individual’s deployment in the theater of 

2 operations, but such individual may be provided 

3 the bioassay earlier upon the individual’s re4 quest. 

5 (B) EXPOSURES BEFORE ENACTMENT.—In 

6 the case of an exposure event described in sub7 section (c) that occurs before the date of the 

8 enactment of this Act, the bioassay under para9 graph (1) shall be administered not later than 

10 180 days after the date of the reporting of the 

11 event under subsection (c)(2). 

12 (3) FURNISHING OF RESULTS.—The Secretary 

13 of Defense shall provide the results of any bioassay 

14 procedure under this subsection to the individual 

15 tested, and the primary care manager or primary 

16 care provider of that individual, not later than 30 

17 days after the Secretary receives those results. 

18 (e) PERSONNEL TRACKING.—The Secretary of each 

19 military department shall establish procedures for col20 lecting, tracking, and maintaining information on the 

21 health status of individuals tested under subsection (d) for 

22 the purpose of assessing any long-term health con23 sequences of exposure to depleted uranium. 

24 (f) INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BIOASSAY TYPES AND

25 CONTAMINATION THRESHOLDS.—The Director of the 


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1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall conduct 

2 an independent review of bioassay types and contamina3 tion thresholds for purposes of the testing under sub4 section (d). 

5 (g) TREATMENT.—Based on the results of the bio6 assay tests, the Secretary of the military department con7 cerned shall provide appropriate treatment for any illness 

8 of an individual resulting from a depleted uranium con9 tamination or exposure. 

10 SEC. 4. COMPTROLLER GENERAL SURVEY AND REPORT ON 

11 RADIOISOTOPE IDENTIFICATION EQUIPMENT 

12 USED BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. 

13 (a) SURVEY.—The Comptroller General shall conduct 

14 a survey of radioisotope identification equipment used by 

15 the Department of Defense in order to assess the capa16 bility of Department of Defense facilities to identify con17 centrations of different radioisotopes in naturally occur18 ring levels of uranium. 

19 (b) REPORT.—The Comptroller General shall submit 

20 to Congress a report on the results of the survey under 

21 subsection (a) not later than 180 days after the date of 

22 the enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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