Canada, U.S. reject idea of depleted uranium ban
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/11/16/uranium001116
WebPosted Thu Nov 16 08:28:57 2000

Nota: il bando sulle armi DU non è necessario, basterebbe applicare la legge internazionale vigente, civile e militare, ed arrestare i violatori professionisti dei diritti umani. Purtroppo resuscitare i morti sarà impossibile. In compenso, si possono sempre far votare, come diceva Marcinkus.

HALIFAX - Calls for a ban on weapons made with depleted uranium have been rejected out of hand by officials in both Canada and the United States.

Scientists at a conference in Manchester, U.K., last week began a campaign calling for a ban of the nuclear waste product used by NATO countries in weapons and armour. But now officials on both sides of the 49th parallel say there's more politics than science behind the calls.

"Frankly, it's a step-child of the anti-nuke movement," said Roger Caplan, deputy director of a U.S. government committee on Gulf War Syndrome.

Caplan says the anti-nuclear movement got nowhere with its calls for a ban on depleted uranium on the argument that it was a nuclear weapon. He says now, they've latched on to Gulf War Syndrome. And he says the scientists calling for a ban are wrong to say it's a health hazard.

He says the scientists have been co-opted by the nuclear ban activists.

Scientists and medical doctors from countries such as Iraq say they have seen the health hazard at close range.

Iraqi Dr. Hadu Ammash says the depleted uranium rounds left in the south of her country after the 1991 Gulf War are as deadly as landmines.

"The incidence of cancer is more in the south, and the south is where the battlefield is – where the contaminated areas still exist," said Ammash.

After the rounds explode, the depleted uranium is turned to dust, which can be inhaled, say the scientists. They say signs of radiation contamination can be found in Iraq and Kosovo.

But Dr. Ken Scott, director of medical policy for Canada's Department of Defence, says there's no way depleted uranium could be responsible for many Canadian soldiers who are now sick.

He was stationed in a field hospital during the Gulf War, and he points out that many ill soldiers returned from the Persian Gulf before the war actually began.