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Cancer and birth deformities in Serbia – depleted uranium’s deadly legacy

Permanent consequences “The half-life of uranium 238 is very long – 4.5 billion years,” reminds nuclear physicist Miroslav Simic, stating that “this way of throwing away nuclear waste on civilian, but also military targets, is not human as the consequences are permanent.”

Depleted Uranium, Dirty Bombs: NATO’s Deadly Gifts To Kosovo, Serbia  Piotr Bein’s blog 29 March 2010, By Ljubica Vujadinovic, Belgrade: A leading Serbian expert in the field says NATO’s use of depleted uranium ammunition in it’s aggression against Serbia has caused an enormous increase in cancer rates and the number of newborns with genetic malformations.

Silent killer“Depleted uranium is not only radioactive, it is very toxic as well,” says doctor Radomir Kovacevic, an expert of the Institute for radiology protection at the Dr. Dragomir Karajovic institute in Belgrade.In an interview for the VJ Movement, he explains “Primarily it is nephrotoxic, so it affects the kidneys, then the liver and spleen. Actually, the whole organism is affected from the aspect of toxicity, it is poisoned.”Four studies conducted so far, on both civilians and those who worked on the spots’ decontamination, have shown that DU exposure causes typical and specific changes in genetic material.

Threat to newborn lives. In the Vranje area, which is surrounded by four known DU contaminated locations, there has been an enormous increase in cancer rates and the number of newborns with genetic malformations.

“In 1998, 21 children were born with deformities. In 2008 there were 73,” says Nela Cvetkovic, a Member of the Vranje City Council, in a statement for VJM. The number of of the newborn didn’t change, it is about 800-1000 babies per year.

At the same time, in a six year period after the NATO bombing the number of newly registered cancer cases has more than doubled – from 185 in the year 2000 to 398 new diagnoses in 2006….

Permanent consequences “The half-life of uranium 238 is very long – 4.5 billion years,” reminds nuclear physicist Miroslav Simic, stating that “this way of throwing away nuclear waste on civilian, but also military targets, is not human as the consequences are permanent.”

Depleted Uranium, Dirty Bombs: NATO’s Deadly Gifts To Kosovo, Serbia « Piotr Bein’s blog = blog Piotra Beina

March 29, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | depleted uranium, EUROPE | antinuclear, depleted, nuclear costs, nuclear spin, nuclear technology, nuclear weapons, radiation, reactors, uranium, wastes