Manchester, 6 novembre 2000

Durante una cerimonia privata, Damacio Lopez è stato insignito della qualifica di membro onorario dell'Osservatorio Etico Ambientale.

Breve profilo:

Lopez, Damacio (New Mexico, USA)
Damacio Lopez, 56, a Bernalillo resident and an american native (the last Piro) of Socorro, New Mexico, worked from 1993 to 2000 as research director for Re-Visioning New Mexico studying money in New Mexico politics, writing legislation and promoting efforts at campaign finance reform in New Mexico. He researched and analysed election campaign contributions to political candidates. He mobilised grassroots involvement in universal health care legislative efforts. An essential component of his work at Re-Visioning was the direction he provided to the environmental justice project that focused on DU issues.

Mr Lopez first became involved in depleted uranium research in 1986 when he organised Socorro residents in the investigation of potential health risks associated with nearby explosive testing of depleted uranium weaponry. In 1993, explosive testing was halted in Socorro. Ultimately, the combination of his ongoing aand relentless volunteer efforts and work-related responsibilities resulted in an invitation to serve as a consultant to the United Nations Sub-Commission on Human Rights.

He has also partecipated on a DU panel at the request of the NGO Committee on Disarmament at the United Nations in New York and a DU panel at The Hague Appeal for Peace in the Netherlands. He remains active in this issue as the executive director of the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST). This work involves research and presentations before community groups and before international bodies such as those in the United Nations system.

He graduated cum laude from the University of New Mexico in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in American Studies, writing his thesis on The Use of Depleted Uranium by the US Department of Defence. Mr Lopez has taken postgraduate course work at UNM in Community and Regional Planning. He was the author of Friendly Fire: The Link Between Depleted Uranium Munitions and Human Health Risks (1995) and co-author of Uranium Battlefields Home and Abroad: Depleted Uranium Use by the US Department of Defence (1993), as well as co-author of an article on Persian Gulf War Ilnesses which was published in the International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology (1995). His previous work experience includes three years as a radio announcer for KSRC radio in Socorro, and 17 years as a PGA golf professional.He is a US Air Force veteran.