nuclear-news

New Zealand to do limited testing of soldiers for depleted uranum poisoning

Kiwi soldiers tested for uranium poisoning, TVNZ June 25, 2012  Soldiers returning from Afghanistan are having urine tests to check if they have absorbed radioactivity from American depleted uranium munitions…. The issue will come before Parliament on Wednesday during the first reading of the Depleted Uranium (Prohibition) Bill, backed by Labour MP Phil Twyford.

A lobby group calling for a ban on the weapons says it understands the
Defence Force is unwilling to pay for a more comprehensive test for
absorbed uranium.

“There is a real resistance to paying for the proper tests,” Rob Green
of the Peace Foundation says.

A parliamentary briefing paper with the bill says depleted uranium
munitions are made from the waste from the process of enriching
natural uranium for use in nuclear reactors.

It is used for armour-piercing munitions because it is heavy and burns
rapidly. Widely used in Afghanistan, it gives off a very fine dust.
The paper says about a third of 800,000 US and British Gulf War
veterans now claim disability benefits for a mystery illness, and
there has also been a sharp increase in certain cancers and child
deformities in Iraq.

There is suspicion that the same is occurring in Afghanistan, but
while depleted uranium was a suspected cause, nothing had been
confirmed.

New Zealand does not have the weapons, but the parliamentary paper
says Defence personnel returning from Afghanistan have had to provide
urine samples for testing.

It also says UK specialist Dr Chris Busby has called for the Defence
Force to use a more sensitive testing system because of the fineness
of uranium dust….
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/kiwi-soldiers-tested-uranium-poisoning-4944252

June 25, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | depleted uranium, New Zealand, Uranium