Sickened Iraq Vets Cite Depleted Uranium

August 14, 2006
An Associated Press news story that appeared today in over 100 sources nationwide quotes ESPM doctoral student Dan Fahey on the health effects of depleted uranium ammunition on U.S. veterans.


From the Washington Post (*requires registration):

New York -- It takes at least 10 minutes and a large glass of orange juice to wash down all the pills _ morphine, methadone, a muscle relaxant, an antidepressant, a stool softener. Viagra for sexual dysfunction. Valium for his nerves....

There is something massively wrong with Herbert Reed, though no one is sure what it is. He believes he knows the cause, but he cannot convince anyone caring for him that the military's new favorite weapon has made him terrifyingly sick....

Reed believes depleted uranium has contaminated him and his life. He now walks point in a vitriolic war over the Pentagon's arsenal of it _ thousands of shells and hundreds of tanks coated with the metal that is radioactive, chemically toxic, and nearly twice as dense as lead....

A moderate voice on the divisive DU spectrum belongs to Dan Fahey, a doctoral student [in the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management] at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied the issue for years and also served in the Gulf War before leaving the military as a conscientious objector.

"I've been working on this since '93 and I've just given up hope," he said. "I've spoken to successive federal committees and elected officials ... who then side with the Pentagon. Nothing changes."...

"The bottom line is it's more hazardous than the Pentagon admits," Fahey said, "but it's not as hazardous as the hard-line activist groups say it is. And there's a real dearth of information about how DU affects humans."...


FULL ARTICLE: Sickened Iraq Vets Cite Depleted Uranium