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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Depleted Uranium 
Screening and Testing Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. DEPLETED URANIUM RISK NOTIFICATION FOR DE-
PLOYING FORCES. 
(a) NOTIFICATION.—The Secretary of Defense shall 
establish procedures to require, as part of the procedures 
for preparing members of the Armed Forces for deploy-
ment to a theater of operations, that such members be 
notified of— 
(1) any known or likely use of depleted uranium 
in that theater of operations (whether by forces of 
the United States and its allies or by any opposing 
forces); and 
(2) any health risks associated with exposure to 
depleted uranium. 
(b) TRAINING.—The Secretary shall provide for 
training deploying members of the Armed Forces on the 
safe handling of depleted uranium contamination before 
such members are deployed to a theater in which depleted 
uranium is used. 
SEC. 3. DEPLETED URANIUM SCREENING AND TESTING. 
(a) IDENTIFICATION AND TESTING REQUIRED.—The 
Secretary of Defense shall carry out a program to identify 
individuals who, during active service in the Armed 
Forces, are or have been exposed to depleted uranium and 
to provide those individuals with bioassay testing and noti-
fication of the results of such testing. 
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(b) DEPLETED
URANIUM-EXPOSED
PERSONNEL 
IDENTIFICATION METHODS.— 
(1) PROCEDURES FOR IDENTIFICATION OF EX-
POSED MEMBERS.—The Secretary of each military 
department shall establish procedures to identify 
members of the Armed Forces under the Secretary’s 
jurisdiction who are, or may have been, exposed to 
depleted uranium. For such purpose, the Secretary 
shall identify units and members under paragraph 
(2) and shall accept self-identification reports by 
members under paragraph (3). 
(2) IDENTIFICATION
OF
UNITS
AND
PER-
SONNEL.—The Secretary of each military depart-
ment shall identify units, and personnel assigned to 
units, that have been, or could have been, exposed 
to depleted uranium, based upon information about 
known exposure events (as determined under sub-
section (c)). 
(3) SELF REPORTING.—The Secretary of each 
military department shall accept a report by an indi-
vidual, or a primary care provider for an individual, 
that the individual, while a member of the Armed 
Forces under the Secretary’s jurisdiction, was, or 
may have been, exposed to depleted uranium based 
upon service on active duty (or training duty or fu-
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neral honors duty) in a theater of operations where 
depleted uranium was used, including travel through 
such an area. The Secretary shall prescribe proce-
dures for receiving such reports. Such a self-identi-
fication report submitted to the Secretary under this 
paragraph shall be treated by the Secretary as iden-
tification of the individual for purposes of this sub-
section. 
(4) TREATMENT OF INDIVIDUALS NO LONGER 
ON ACTIVE DUTY.—In carrying out this subsection, 
the Secretary of each military department shall en-
sure that individuals no longer on active duty (in-
cluding members of the reserve components who 
have been released from active duty, members who 
have been retired, and members who have been sepa-
rated from service) are treated, for identification 
purposes, in the same manner as individuals remain-
ing on active duty. 
(c) EXPOSURE EVENTS.— 
(1) TYPES OF EVENTS.—The Secretary of De-
fense shall identify depleted uranium exposure 
events for purposes of this section. The exposure 
events identified shall include the following: 
(A) DIRECT
EXPOSURES.—An event in 
which an individual— 
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(i) is struck by depleted uranium mu-
nitions or depleted uranium armor frag-
ments; 
(ii) enters, or is present within 50 me-
ters of, a vehicle or structure with possible 
depleted uranium residues; or 
(iii) breathes smoke from fires involv-
ing depleted uranium materials. 
(B) EQUIPMENT HANDLING EXPOSURES.— 
An event in which an individual may inhale de-
pleted uranium compound particulates as a re-
sult of the handling of equipment or wreckage 
that has been, or could have been, contaminated 
with depleted uranium. 
(C) OTHER
EXPOSURES.—Other signifi-
cant or incidental exposure events identified by 
the Secretary, including the performance of ac-
tivities in the area of depleted uranium dam-
aged vehicles or structures or the traveling 
through or residing in any such area. 
(2) LIMITED RETROACTIVITY.—In addition to 
exposure events described in paragraph (1) occur-
ring on or after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, such events during the period between January 
1, 2003, and the date of the enactment of this Act 
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may be considered for purposes of this section, if re-
ported during the 60-day period beginning on the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
(d) HEALTH-CARE SERVICES REQUIRED.— 
(1) BIOASSAY
PROCEDURE.—Any individual 
identified under subsection (b) shall be provided a 
health screening test by the Secretary of Defense. 
Such test shall be carried out using a bioassay pro-
cedure developed by the Secretary of Defense in con-
sultation with the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. The same bioassay procedure shall be 
used for all individuals identified under subsection 
(b) and for all types of exposure or possible exposure 
identified under subsection (c). 
(2) TIME FOR TEST.— 
(A) EXPOSURES AFTER ENACTMENT.—In 
the case of an exposure event described in sub-
section (c) that occurs on or after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, the bioassay under 
paragraph (1) shall be administered not later 
than 180 days after the date of the event, ex-
cept that in the case of an individual with an 
exposure event described in subsection (c)(3), 
the bioassay under paragraph (1) shall be ad-
ministered not later than 30 days after the end 
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of the individual’s deployment in the theater of 
operations, but such individual may be provided 
the bioassay earlier upon the individual’s re-
quest. 
(B) EXPOSURES BEFORE ENACTMENT.—In 
the case of an exposure event described in sub-
section (c) that occurs before the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the bioassay under para-
graph (1) shall be administered not later than 
180 days after the date of the reporting of the 
event under subsection (c)(2). 
(3) FURNISHING OF RESULTS.—The Secretary 
of Defense shall provide the results of any bioassay 
procedure under this subsection to the individual 
tested, and the primary care manager or primary 
care provider of that individual, not later than 30 
days after the Secretary receives those results. 
(e) PERSONNEL TRACKING.—The Secretary of each 
military department shall establish procedures for col-
lecting, tracking, and maintaining information on the 
health status of individuals tested under subsection (d) for 
the purpose of assessing any long-term health con-
sequences of exposure to depleted uranium. 
(f) INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BIOASSAY TYPES AND 
CONTAMINATION THRESHOLDS.—The Director of the 
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shall conduct 
an independent review of bioassay types and contamina-
tion thresholds for purposes of the testing under sub-
section (d). 
(g) TREATMENT.—Based on the results of the bio-
assay tests, the Secretary of the military department con-
cerned shall provide appropriate treatment for any illness 
of an individual resulting from a depleted uranium con-
tamination or exposure. 
SEC. 4. COMPTROLLER GENERAL SURVEY AND REPORT ON 
RADIOISOTOPE IDENTIFICATION EQUIPMENT 
USED BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. 
(a) SURVEY.—The Comptroller General shall conduct 
a survey of radioisotope identification equipment used by 
the Department of Defense in order to assess the capa-
bility of Department of Defense facilities to identify con-
centrations of different radioisotopes in naturally occur-
ring levels of uranium. 
(b) REPORT.—The Comptroller General shall submit 
to Congress a report on the results of the survey under 
subsection (a) not later than 180 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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