Arkin estimated that 940,000 of the Air Force's 30mm DU shells, and 4,000 of the Army's 120mm DU anti-tank shells were fired. Alloyed with titanium, the DU becomes extremely hard and makes devastating armor-piercing ammunition. The remaining1,999 lbs. The danger posed by DU warheads is that when they smash through tanks, etc., the DU partially burns, producing uranium oxide dust which is spread far and wide by the wind. Small particles can be permanently trapped in the lungs, where the alpha radiation does cumulative and irreversible increases over the victim's lifetime.
Children are especially vulnerable. . .
Hoskins warned in 1993. The United Nations World Health Organization is investigating the health effects of the DU weapons thatwere used against and left littering the Persian Gulf. Today, eerie complaints of possibly radiation-induced illnesses are coming from Iraq, and from vets and their families. The Gulf War Syndrome's short-term symptoms are probably the result of untested vaccines and drugs given, in untested combinations, to vets without their informed consent. But chromosomal and reproductive damage and possible cancer incidence are the long-term dangers, and early warnings are now appearing in the flesh.