Blowing Smoke

LANL is Sending Deadly Depleted Uranium into the Air We Breathe

A Special Report for Sun Monthly by Marilyn Gayle Hoff

Back in 1943, a memo to Manhattan Project''s General Leslie Groves from Drs.
Conant, Compton and Urey extolled the lethal possibilities of radioactive
materials ""as a Gas Warfare Instrument. The material . . . ground into
particles of microscopic size and . . . distributed in the form of a dust or
smoke or dissolved in liquid, by ground-fired projectiles, land vehicles,
airplanes, or aerial bombs . . . would be inhaled by personnel. The amounts
necessary to cause death to a person inhaling the material is extremely
small.""

Incubating well before the first nuclear weapon exploded, this old dream of
radiological weapons -- weapons that kill or harm by means of radiation --
is now a full-blown reality wherever munitions made of depleted uranium (DU)
catch fire. DU munitions now proliferate in the U.S. arsenal. Bullets or
bombs made of DU range in size from 20 millimeters (7/8-inch diameter) to
120 millimeters (10-inch diameter), a variety obviously intended for diverse
ends.

""Depleted uranium has contaminated the Earth and global atmosphere,"" said
Leuren Moret, a whistle-blower formerly of Laurence Livermore National
Laboratory. She added up 340 tons of DU exploded in the first Gulf War; an
undisclosed amount reducing targets in Bosnia and Kosovo to radioactive
rubble; 1,000 tons bestowed upon Afghanistan; and as of 2004, before U.S.
bombing intensified and vastly ballooned the total, well over 2,000 tons
decimating Iraq.

But on its way to nailing U.S. ambitions abroad, DU needs to be stored,
designed, manufactured, and tested here at home. Discounted Casualties, a
book by Japanese journalist Akira Tashiro, listed 26 American states housing
DU firing ranges, DU weapon factories and/or DU storage facilities. Three in
New Mexico -- Sandia Lab in Albuquerque, the Energetic Metals Research Test
Center (EMRTC) three kilometers from Socorro, and Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL) within sight of Santa Fe -- were listed as
research-and-development and test-firing sites for DU weapons, exploded in
the open air. The EMRTC at Socorro admitted it used about 40 tons of DU
between 1972 (the start of DU testing) and 1993. Until very recently the
uses of DU at Los Alamos have escaped public notice.

DU Is an Extremely Effective Weapon

After the first Gulf War, Doug Rokke, with 35 years of military experience
and a PhD in health physics, was dispatched to the Middle East as a U.S.
army contamination expert in charge of Gulf War I uranium cleanup. He spoke
of his tour of duty in an interview titled ""The War Against
Ourselves"":""DU is an extremely effective weapon. Each tank round is 10
pounds of solid uranium-238 contaminated with plutonium, neptunium,
americium . . . generating intense heat on impact. When uranium munitions
hit, it''s like a firestorm inside any vehicle or structure, and so we saw
tremendous burns, tremendous injuries. It was devastating.""

If contaminated with plutonium, neptunium and americium, the uranium in
munitions is not technically DU. Transuranic elements like plutonium occur
almost never in nature and are born chiefly in nuclear reactors. From this
deadly radioactive spent reactor fuel also comes uranium for munitions,
flavored with its extreme contaminants. Straight from the mines, natural
uranium has likewise gone into munitions. Public-relations-minded military
brass nonetheless call all uranium munitions ""depleted.""

DU consists entirely of uranium, chiefly the isotope U-238. It is
""depleted"" during a process called ""enrichment,"" which extracts traces
of the more fissile isotope U-235 to make nuclear fuel rods and, originally,
A-bombs. The DU remainder is 99.8 percent U-238. Natural uranium is 99.3
percent, half of a percent difference. The United States stores a million
unquiet tons of DU ""waste,"" gives it away free to U.S. munitions makers,
and peddles it around the world.

Uranium is pyrophoric, meaning spontaneously combustible. Put pure uranium
powder on a sunny Phoenix pavement some July afternoon and it will burst
into flames. It is 1.7 times denser than lead. Its zero-sum price tag and
self-sharpening combustibility persuaded the generals to choose depleted
uranium over equally dense tungsten for munitions purportedly limited to
penetrating tank and bunker armor. At this task DU artillery fire has no
peers, burning neat holes through tank armor and incinerating all within.

DU is shot from the 120 millimeter barrels of tank guns, from A-10 Warthog
airplanes and from unrevealed smaller weapons. The munitions are shaped like
bottles, the shell fatter than the bullet, to keep the DU from touching the
barrel as it shoots out. Friction of a DU bullet against its barrel could
explode the weapon.

Fine aerosols of uranium oxides and nitrides form when DU weapons ignite,
since flaming uranium also bonds with atmospheric nitrogen. About 33 percent
of DU dust is soluble. What becomes of these incinerated aerosols
indefinitely suspended in the atmosphere, spread by wind or, if
precipitated, borne by water, sunk to groundwater, or stirred up again by
wind, footsteps and wheels? Asaf Durakovic, of the Uranium Medical Research
Center in Canada, wrote: ""There is no existing study measuring the distance
traveled by such particles."" To avoid studies, which would provide real
answers to these questions, nuclear promoters embrace ""models.""

Smoke Screens

Last summer a report in the July 15 Taos Horsefly stated that Los Alamos
National Laboratory is permitted to burn, per year, three-fourths ton of
depleted uranium (DU) in the open air and tempered this shocking news with
the soothing information, based on a model, that smoke from such
conflagrations would travel only 50 meters.

Models are computer programs, built within parameters that reflect the
careful choosing of which data to consider or stress and which to ignore or
downplay. Model makers who wish to lullaby the populace can select their
parameters accordingly, like the model that reckoned the deaths and
illnesses caused by Chernobyl to be statistically insignificant when seen as
a percentage of the total world population.

Thus a postfire risk-assessment model professed to study the distance smoke
would travel from a fire, while its parameters excluded how the fierce,
shifty, spring winds whipping the Cerro Grande forest fire through Los
Alamos in 2000 actually did blow smoke, pollutants and particulates 55 miles
northeast to Taos -- one of many affected communities snubbed by its
calculations. Models can disregard how residents of LANL''s neighbor San
Ildefonso Pueblo are forbidden to cut their own contaminated timber. And
stressing that an atom of uranium, a heavy metal, has the world''s biggest
naturally occurring nucleus, a model can conclude that particles of DU smoke
are too weighty to travel any farther than the length of my driveway.

According to whistle-blower Leuren Moret, ""There are too many variables to
consider in a model. It''s like statistics -- you can make it say anything
you want.""

Such DU dispersion models, said Moret, are ""not considering particle
size."" Flaming DU burns at 3,000 to 6,000 degrees Centigrade, producing ""a
large number of extremely small particles in the nanoparticle range."" A
nanoparticle is 0.001 microns, or a billionth of a meter. In the pull of
gravity, a particle so minute is as light as air. The particle remains
""suspended as atmospheric dust [unless] it is rained out, snowed out or
removed by moisture such as fog and deposited in the environment,"" said
Moret. ""This contaminates air, water, soil and food with ionizing
radiation, internally exposing all living things.""

To avoid litigation and bad-for-business publicity, the U.S. nuclear
industry dresses its activities up pretty, a strategy called ""greenwash.""
Nuke promoters tout DU cooking utensils and convert the badly contaminated,
decommissioned Rocky Flats plutonium processing site in Colorado into a
wildlife refuge playground. Even while generals deny carpeting Iraq and
Afghanistan with fine uranium dust, they rationalize that uranium is barely
radioactive and claim that its alpha radiation cannot harm us internally
because it can''t penetrate skin -- which means, explained retired Manhattan
Project and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicist Marion Fulk,
each alpha particle dumps its intense energy all at once into a tiny area,
making it ""very wicked."" Here the parameters of the generals'' model
exclude wounds and the human need to eat, drink and breathe. ""1.3 billion
people have been killed, maimed and diseased globally from the nuclear
weapons and nuclear power projects,"" said Moret.

The orchestrated campaign to downplay depleted uranium comes with shifting
themes: don''t mention depleted uranium; don''t acknowledge using depleted
uranium; acknowledge using it only to penetrate the armor of tanks and
bunkers; assert that the dust from exploded uranium falls down and goes
nowhere; imply that the ""depletion"" of uranium renders it harmless; never
mention that not all uranium munitions are depleted; stress that depleted
uranium, no big deal, is the least radioactive of all radioactive elements;
argue that since alpha radiation from DU can''t penetrate the skin, it can''
t harm the body; claim that any radioactive particles that do enter the body
will be swiftly expelled; never admit to any connection between exposure to
DU and illness, birth defects, death or Gulf War Syndrome, the infamous
malady afflicting veterans of Gulf War I.

""There has been and continues to be a concern regarding the impact of DU on
the environment,"" reads a post--Gulf War I report by LANL. ""Therefore, if
no one makes a case for the effectiveness of DU on the battlefield, DU
rounds may become politically unacceptable and thus be deleted from the
arsenal. If DU penetrators proved their worth during our recent combat
activities, then we should assure their future existence . . . through
Service/DoD proponency. If proponency is not garnered, it is possible that
we stand to lose a valuable combat capability.""

British environmental writer Keith Parkins commented, ""It is not in the
interests of the military-industrial-complex to admit the link between Gulf
War Syndrome and depleted uranium, or to admit that those who were on the
battlefield will suffer long-term health effects, as to do so would be to
deny the use of the latest military toy."" Such an admission would also
throw open a floodgate of litigation.

I asked David Fuehne of LANL''s Environmental Stewardship Division if it was
true that LANL considers DU nonhazardous. On behalf of LANL he replied, ""A
given mass of DU is less radioactive than a similar mass of most radioactive
materials. The hazards of exposure of DU are primarily due to its chemical
toxicity. All heavy and dense materials, such as lead and uranium, can be
harmful if inhaled or ingested in significant quantities.""

Marion Fulk countered, ""U-238 radiates 12,600 disintegrations per second
per gram. Do you consider that safe? I don''t."" Beyond DU''s chemical and
radiological toxicity, Fulk said, ""the finely divided nanoparticles can
breech the cells, and when they enter the cell they will act as catalysts
for any reaction thermodynamically available to go downhill toward entropy.
It''s like putting the cells in a Waring blender -- you get the same
chemical composition, but no life.""

Depleted Uranium and Gulf War Syndrome

What else do the Americans want?"" spoke Sayed Gharib from Tora Bora,
Afghanistan. ""They killed us, they turned our newborns into horrific
deformations, and they turned our farm lands into graveyards, and destroyed
our homes. . . . we have nothing to lose.""

When asked if the United States and Britain were using DU in the post-9/11
war on Afghanistan, United Kingdom Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon told the
UK Parliament, ""It is not being used at present."" But a recent random
sampling of 17 geographically scattered Afghans by Dr. Asaf Durakovic
disputed this denial.

Durakovic is a former U.S. Army medical advisor, fired after he found
uranium in the urine of U.S. and Canadian Gulf War I veterans in 1999, seven
to nine years after exposure. In his recent study, the uranium he found in
Afghan subjects closely matched uranium from Afghan War bomb-attack craters.
He reported, ""The results were astounding: the [Afghan] donors presented
concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium isotopes between 100 and 400
times greater than in the Gulf veterans tested in 1999.""

Symptoms suffered by these irradiated Afghans -- fatigue, serious
immunodeficiencies, kidney damage, leukemia, cancer, and on and on --
closely paralleled the so-called Gulf War Syndrome, a catastrophe that the
Pentagon strives to blame on oil fires, vaccinations, post-traumatic stress
disorder, and chemical and biological weapon releases, never mentioning DU.
In the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fewer scapegoats compete with
DU for the toxic blame. And uranium in the urine nine years beyond exposure
disputes the mollifying claims by nuclear apologists that radionuclides
(radioactive substances) are swiftly expelled by the body.

As U.S. Army contamination expert Doug Rokke, who now battles serious health
problems, described his uranium cleanup operation, ""When we first got
assigned to clean up the DU and arrived in northern Saudi Arabia, we started
getting sick within 72 hours. Respiratory problems, rashes, bleeding, open
sores started almost immediately."" Nobody warned soldiers fighting in U.S.
invasions about the toxicity of DU weapons, and nobody warned or shielded
New Mexico village volunteer firefighters, who battled the Cerro Grande
forest fire close by LANL''s blazing DU firing ranges, even while the ranges
'' extreme contamination went up in smoke.

Of the 580,400 soldiers who served in Gulf War I, where only 148 died in
combat, 11,000 are now dead. ""By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on
Permanent Medical Disability,"" stated Arthur N. Bernklau, executive
director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York. Compare this 56
percent disability rate with the 10 percent disability rate for Vietnam
veterans poisoned by Agent Orange. Boosted by our present wars, the number
keeps growing. Terry Jamison from the Department of Veterans Affairs
recently reported that ""Gulf Era veterans"" on medical disability since
1991 number 518,739. Bernklau said, ""The long-term effects have revealed
that DU is a virtual death sentence.""

Depleted Uranium: There Is No Safe Dose

Depleted uranium"" is a handy moniker, useful for masking its ecocidal
talents, which the generals have always known full well. Witness this 1995
U.S. Army technical report: ""If depleted uranium enters the body, it has
the potentiality of causing serious medical consequences. The associated
risk is both chemical and radiological.""

The half-life of U-238 is the current age of Earth -- 4.5 billion years.
Half of what now exists will still be around 4.5 billion years hence.
Compared to its deadly radioactive offspring, some with half-lives of mere
minutes, it decays very slowly and transforms, element by element, through
many lethal radioactive steps before settling down as lead. Citing this poky
rate of decay, the generals publicly dismiss DU as nontoxic, even as they
downplay how much they use it.

But its virtual immortality means that once its particles camp out inside
your body, they and their radioactive decay progeny will steadily bombard
your cells with radiation forever. Doug Rokke said, ""A portion of this
stuff is soluble, which means it goes into the bloodstream and all of your
organs. The insoluble fraction stays -- in the lungs, for example. The
radiation damage and the particulates destroy the lungs.""

Consider a nanoparticle of insoluble uranium oxide, 1/10,000 the diameter of
a red blood cell. Small enough to elude the filtering celia in your air
passages, it can lodge in your deepest lung sacs. According to physicist
Marion Fulk, an average man inhales at least 100 billion nanoparticles per
day. The likelihood keeps growing that several or multitudes of those
particles will be uranium.

Scientist and radiation expert Dr. Rosalie Bertell testified, ""DU is a very
powerful alpha particle emitter, with each particle carrying a force of
about 4.2 MeV (million electron volts). It requires only 6 to 10 eV
(electron volts) to break the DNA or other large molecules in the body.""

""If you damage a cell, you''d better kill it,"" Fulk said to me. For if
just one alpha particle merely manages to deform just one cell still able to
reproduce, that cell could quit your body''s team, aspire to untrammeled
growth and become instead your parasite, your cancer. Such cell damage
arises from what the nuclear industry shrugs off as ""low level"" radiation.

Nuclear power opponent Dr. Judith Johnsrud wrote me, ""I am appalled that DU
would be incinerated anywhere. . . . Despite DOE and DoD attempts to claim
that depleted uranium is not hazardous to human health, I would have to
conclude that any alpha emitter which is inhaled (or ingested) and thus
becomes an internal emitter cannot help but pose a hazard. . . . Recent
research in the field of radiation microbiology has quite clearly
established that a single radiation track through a cell is enough to cause
a subsequent damage, including but not limited to cancer.""

""By any reasonable standard of biomedical proof,"" asserted molecular
biologist Dr. John W. Gofman, formerly of Lawrence Livermore Lab, ""there is
no safe dose.""


CONTINUED

http://www.sunmonthly.com/HOFF%20%20.htm

> Depleted uranium has contaminated the Earth and global atmosphere


this is wrong - only stratospheric injection of much more radioactive isotopes will cause global radiation levels to rise above natural background levels

Radon gas which is occurs in natural gas and helium, and which oozes out of the ground where it builds up in contained spaces like basements, is just one example of local sources of radioactivity as well as -

stones/rocks/bricks/cement (Radon 222, Carbon 14, Tungsten 183, Samarium 147, Neodymium 144, Rubidium 87, Osmium 194, Proactinium 234, Lutetium 176, Rhenium 188, Lanthanium 188, Tellurium 125, Samarium 151)

Clocks, Watches, and Timers dial paint (Radium 226)

Tobacco (Polonium 210)

smoke detectors (Americium 241)

fertilizers (Potassium 40)

camp lantern mantels (Thorium 232)

CRT's (Strontium 90, Europium 154, Cerium 144, Yttrium 91, Indium 114, Gadolinium 153, Terbium 160)

X-ray machines

sunlight/cosmic rays





Jewelry: Some gold used to encapsulate radium and radon for medical purposes was improperly reprocessed and entered the market as radioactive rings and other types of gold jewelry. Some imported cloisonné being glazed with uranium oxide

Some gemstones, notably natural zircons, are radioactive. Additionally, some
topaz, beryl and tourmaline stones were treated with neutrons from atomic reactors

Rock Collections: Many natural formations contain radioactive materials. Hobbyists who collect such things should vent the rooms in which these items are stored and be careful to avoid inhaling the fine dust particles from these samples.


Pottery: Some types of pottery are glazed with uranium oxide, such as Fiesta ware.



all contributing to background radiation here - the Uranium problem is thousands of miles away and the vast oceans provide a huge sink, so that even hundreds of tons dispersed over there can't compare to the sources I just listed above which are right here



> If contaminated with plutonium, neptunium and americium, the uranium in munitions is not technically DU. Transuranic elements like plutonium occur almost never in nature and are born chiefly in nuclear reactors.


this is right - they are actually using nuclear waste..





> Put pure uranium powder on a sunny Phoenix pavement some July afternoon and it will burst
into flames.


fine powder may, but many elements and compounds will ignite or burn when finely powdered, even wheat flour can explode when dispersed as a fine powder in the air and ignited..

Depleted Uranium - US Lung Cancer Rates Soar
Karl W B Schwarz, Rense.com


From Karl W B Schwarz
- kwbschwarz2@snet.net

march 9, 2006


So, what is the plan?

On the March 8, 2006 edition of the CNN American Morning program with Miles O'Brien and Soledad O'Brien, they made a startling announcement. On average there are 175,000 new cases of lung cancer each year in the United States. For just the months of January and February 2006 there are 172,000 confirmed, newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer. This is not just a little spike on the charts and much worse news is coming. That is already averaging this year about 6 times the normal incidence of new lung cancer cases in a year.

They tried to attribute it to second hand smoke, but second hand smoke and cigarettes are nothing compared to being exposed to Depleted Uranium ("DU") and particulates created by DU explosions. You can smoke for 30 years and not do the damage that DU can do to you in 30 days.

How long does it take to get lung cancer after being exposed to DU and nano-particulates? On average 2-5 years is the correct answer. We started bombing Afghanistan in October 2001 or four and a half years ago. We started bombing Iraq again in March 2003, or just shy of three years ago.

oranges & apples


the above post in no way addresses the point that the use of Uranium munitions thousands of miles away presents a risk HERE when compared to - mostly - Radon gas

the "salesman" just changed the subject to war vets exposure *over there* coming back here, showing the effects of exposure - yes a big problem - however that doesn't justify the hyperbole of "global Uranium danger"

the real danger BTW if you weren't so busy grinding your axe to notice, is the reactor waste (NON-depleted Uranium)

but still to say it's a global problem is to ignore basic elementary school science which shows the actual risks for actual sources of radiation for where we actually are

the "Uranium powder will burn" statement is yet more ignorance based hyperbole that presents basic chemistry as a dangerous mystery - for many elements and compounds will ignite, burn or even explode when powdered..

the original research which I linked to (the declassified FOIA document from the scientists who developed the atomic bomb) refers to Uranium hexafluoride GAS and specifically states it's a localized effect due to the only slight radioactivity, alpha particles can't penetrate the skin - only internal exposure danger, Uranium it'self is extremely heavy (1.7 X's heavyer than lead) and doesn't spread far even as the finest possible powder it's absorbed/washed into the oceans, rain and cannot spread about on a global scale enough to rise anywhere near normal/natural background radiation from mostly Radon.

Natural gas (fuel gas) has quite a bit of Radon in it and Helium as used in balloons does too..

it's amusing that you tumble and grind, collect and treat rocks/gems/gold for profit and *expose yourself to quite a bit of natural radiation* far far more than anything up to living with a gulf war vet and washing his clothes, etc

that little detail along with smoking seemed to just pass you by..

ignore the facts you don't wish to deal with - hyperbole the one's you want to grind an axe upon

you're not doing anyone a service by presenting the issue in such paranoid and ignorant terms - stick to the real 2 subjects ;

1.) populations THERE
2.) war vets

are being exposed to -

1.) large amounts of DU
2.) some NON-DU - nuclear reactor waste

you're not going to "trick" people into worrying about it by claiming it presents a danger to US/globally

a quick search of "natural background radiation sources" will show the fallacy of that angle..

the chart clearly shows Uranium to be far less than 1 % of the radiation we already get all around us..

living high up in the mountains, rock collecting and frequent jetliner travel gives up to double or triple even that amount - quite a bit of radiation comes just from the sky, and the rocks under our feet..

MORET: The atmosphere globally is contaminated with it. It’s completely mixed in one year. I’m an expert on atmospheric dust. I’m a geoscientist, a geologist, and that’s what I studied and did my research on. It’s really a fascinating subject. We have huge dust storms that are a million square miles and transport millions of tons of dust and sand every year around the world.

forgot the URL
http://www.axisoflogic.com/cgi-bin/exec/view.pl?archive=129&num=17578

once more, since it's only slightly radioactive even if it did spread globally (and you've dismissed the *only stratospheric injection of only much more radioactive isotopes directly from the scientists who developed the atomic bomb via declassified FOIA documents*, can raise the radiation to anywhere near natural background levels - what 5 or 6 times now ?)

"a geoscientist, a geologist"

for the issue of atmospheric circulation the discipline is meteorologist and climatologist, and for the issue of what the risks are for radiation exposure it's nuclear physicist (you know like the scientists who developed the atomic bomb I've cited a half dozen times) and for risk modeling of biological systems it's epidemiologist

he doesn't even *claim* to be qualified in other words

but let's - again - add some perspective

trace amounts of Uranium have indeed been detected all over the globe (as well as lead, mercury, DDT, PCB's, etc, etc)

one more time - because Uranium is only SLIGHTLY radioactive however, the radiation one recieves is far below natural background levels (well under 1 %) AND it's a far less harmful TYPE of radiation (alpha particles)

again look at the chart I posted above which was prepared by a group of scientists from the *correct* fields of nuclear physics, meteorology, climatology and epidemiology

by a process of consensus and peer review no less..

Alpha particles emitted in the lung tissue is deadly.
Or didn't you know that?
Also the daughter isotopes are even more radioactive.

Your 'science' is weak.

> Alpha particles emitted in the lung tissue is deadly.


compared to beta particles, X-rays or Gamma rays ?

So Radon gas which is RIGHT HERE WITH US IN FAIRLY HIGH AMOUNTS giving off over 50 X's more alpha particles, stronger beta particles and the much stronger more penetrating gamma rays.

Radon gas in homes causes as many as 40,000 lung cancer deaths in the US each year. The Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States today. If you smoke and your home has high radon levels, your risk of lung cancer is especially high.


Increased incidences of lung cancer have been reported from numerous epidemiologic studies of groups occupationally exposed to high doses of radon, especially underground hard rock miners. These include particularly uranium miners, but also groups of iron-ore and other metal miners, and one group of fluorspar miners.

The atomic radius is 1.34 angstroms and it is the heaviest known gas, being nine times denser than air. Because it is a single atom gas (unlike oxygen, O2, which is comprised of two atoms) it easily penetrates many common materials like paper, leather, low density plastic (like plastic bags, etc.) most paints, and building materials like gypsum board (sheetrock), concrete block, mortar, sheathing paper (tarpaper), wood paneling, and most insulation.

Radon is also fairly soluble in water and organic solvents.


EXPOSURE

The primary routes of potential human exposure to radon are inhalation and ingestion. Radon in the ground, groundwater, or building materials enters working and living spaces and disintegrates into its decay products. In comparison with levels in outdoor air, the concentrations of radon and its decay products to which humans are exposed in confined air spaces, particularly in underground work areas such as mines and buildings, are elevated. Although high concentrations of radon in groundwater may contribute to human exposure through ingestion, the radiation dose to the body due to inhalation of radon released from water is usually more important.

Another issue to consider is the *unusual* property of the radioactive decay chain of uranium/radium/radon. What makes this seem unusual is that a gas is produced from a radioactive solid element (a rock) and then the radioactive gas changes back into radioactive heavy metallic particles. This process and their atomic size (extremely small) makes possible the transport of radioactive atoms through a relatively static environment. In other words, radon's extended half-life (it takes about a month for a specific amount of it to decay to almost nothing) provides enough time for the gas to migrate through cracks and crevices in building foundations, then into the internal air volume where it changes into the more harmful radioactive heavy metals.

This gas and the resulting very small metallic particles (so small that they will float in air) move quickly through a building or home, contaminating the air. An analogy that makes this easier to understand is to think how easily some can detect the presence of a smoker in another part of the building or the cooking of coffee or bacon in the kitchen on Sunday morning. In other words, almost nothing will stop this gas from moving from the basement to other parts of a house if it makes its way into the basement in the first place.

Since their mass (M) is so much greater, yes.

When the emitting particle is right inside the tissue, penetration is irrelevant.
E=MV squared over 2

So you're going to leave?
You seem to have racked up quite a few 'hiddens' even under your 'Hex' handle.
Don't let the door bump your butt on the way out.

Maybe you can apologize for DU contamination somewhere else with all your funny graphics and pseudo science.

Where are they?

I can only guess that these web bugs were put in posts.

Also, afaik, Hex, you're the biggest user of these data collectors. You put that one on that displays the user's IP address.

This is a very familiar discussion that I've had with many people. Like many misunderstandings the roots are very simple.

The actual physical element we are all talking about is not just simple elemental uranium. The topic actually is only created on a battlefield. That is why very few of us are actually talking about the correct thing.

The actual battlefield product is called "ceramic uranium oxide gas and aerosols". It is created under battlefield conditions by uranium weapons used as directed by US/UK Troopers.

The first likely victims are the Troopers. The next are people who live nearby.

And now, since we known the battlefield product is carried by air currents many thousands of miles and was found in England, the radioactive, toxic and insoluble heavy metal is a danger to us all.

At least 50% of the uranium munitions turn into tiny pieces that are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. This means the are invisible, they cannot be seen.

People in england and Europe got dosed with 23 Million radioactive particles in their lungs apiece during the American Bombing of Baghdad called Shock and Awe.

That is reality.

Just because we can't see it does not mean it can't hurt and kill us.

So, let's talk about the actual battlefield product. Do not be distracted by the desire to wander to something familiar instead of the unknown.

The topic is now battlefield ceramic uranium oxide gas and aerosols. Who's next?

> Where are the Urchin bits?

I posted all the detailed info about it yesterday - it was hidden within 2 hours

I'm not the first to raise warnings about it either...

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/153477.php


> you're the biggest user of these data collectors. You put that one on that displays the user's IP address.


and Bush & the NSA are demanding my logs of millions of people ?

the http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg picture only shows YOU your IP, and it's not scripted into every visitor and every view like the urchin URL's are, for google's collection which is an advertising datamining related activity - something IMC should have no part of

but then there's cookies, MD5 hashed extra IP and referrer logging, etc as well..


I posted extracts of the actual sf-active code which was deleted within minutes;

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
web-based administration of articles, including the ability to hide articles but display them on a "hidden" newswire

web-based administration of spam control, including the ability to send a "poison cookie" to a repeated spammer

web-based administration of any number of newswires, with the ability to have topical, thematic, internal & hidden categories, as well as local/global/other separation. Publishing in multiple categories is possible

md5 hash of REMOTE_ADDR/HTTP_USER_AGENT/HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE

IP Spam Detected (matched trimmed hash of above)

md5 hash of heading/author/summary/article

content Spam Detected (matched trimmed hash of above)

to log ;

Spam blocked with IP: REMOTE_ADDR/timestamp/HTTP_USER_AGENT/HTTP_REFERER/REQUEST_URI

give a poison cookie

cookiename="news_.la.indymedia.org"

now if the user already has our poison cookie, block them too

block posts if they contain certain keywords

banned_keywords.txt

Hide messages with banned keywords
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the above proves you're using cookies for more than harmless "features" - poison cookies are exactly what spyware/malware/security/privacy utilities watch for and guard against

and these came rolling in *right as* pages on here loaded which my security rejects and logs

i.image.com.
i.css2js.com.
i.jsev.com.
i.cssxx.com.

javascripts, stylesheets, MD5 hashes and cookies - all precisely what you've been working on

I wondered what the unusual offsite URLS were, and it wasn't easy to figure out as a search doesn't reveal anything directly (84 hits - nothing about google or urchins), and even WHOIS queries don't show it -

WHOIS "i.css2js.com." -- Domain not found.
WHOIS "i.jsev.com" = [ ]
WHOIS "i.cssxx.com." -- Domain not found.

WHOIS "i.image.com."

Registrant:
Davies Brynley
Image
P.O. Box 448
Cayman BWI 0000
KY
Domain Name: IMAGE.COM
Administrative Contact:
Davies skamal@IMAGESERVICES.COM
Image
P.O. Box 448
Cayman BWI 0000
KY



it took some digging to even figure out they ARE urchins, then more time to find the data I posted which was hidden -

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/153477.php

we know who introduced them and where, and who's codebase you're relying on, also the MD5 scripting above - something else you've been "fooling around" with..


whether "sheepdog" wants to keep plugging luxefaire, like his latest "barter in the hidden dumpster" thread, and "chemtrails", "radiowaves are dangerous radiation" and so on is none of my concern. you & nester's little MD5 spam script can deal with him.

with me security, privacy and concern for accurate data/truth comes first..

on the main IMC years ago there were patrons who actually cared and put the information to use, they even took time to debunk people like "sheepdog" when I didn't, and nester "your friend" wasn't calling the shots behind the scenes -

a spoofed X-rated picture against me stayed up for over a week, but my security/privacy related factual info gets hidden in 2 hours, and the embarrassing but actual sf-active "open" code is deleted within minutes.


it's obvious what the deal is here and I would have to be insultingly "devisive" to spell it out - which wouldn't do any good anyway

everything that has a beginning has an end, and this isn't the place for me - I belong on indybay if anywhere.

enough said






> many thousands of miles and was found in England

less than 2 thousand - over dry land mass, once it went out to sea it was absorbed, and again over there - with several thousand miles of open sea between us

I posted the data - even a map showing the area affected..

ceramic isn't special or magical - it can't make something only slightly radioactive millions of times more so, or inject it into the stratosphere, and it's not a biologically active element like Iodine

you've presented no supporting data and are relying on FUD and hyperbole

I've posted declassified FOIA documents from the very scientists who developed the atomic bomb which addressed the subject specifically - of what it takes to cause global contamination enough to raise radiation above background levels

and I just enumerated the radionuclides of natural sources plus presented data on Radon gas which is over 50 times more concern than the worst case extrapolation (and of europe not here)


the measurements that were made was during a major bombing champaign and when the wind was blowing that way, and it was dry (no rain) - worst possible case

it's pure hyperbole to attempt to apply this globally (the vast oceans, the doldrums, rain)

and you have the impressive sounding "23 million particles" - state in REMS please the dose..

In the 50s and 60s 300 megatons of nuclear bombs were exploded in the atmosphere many which pierced the stratosphere and carried highly dangerous and extremely radioactive radionuclides to every corner of the globe - this is mainly why tobacco is radioactive, which kills upwards of a million people a year..


http://www.thememoryhole.org/nukes/dod_nuke_emissions.pdf

Whizz, you must be 'affected' with some obsessive problem that only you can deal with.
I am not this Bill person and only you seem to be trying to convince the readership of this. You have absolutely noting to base your ramblings on except funny graphics and innuendo while at the same time attempting to elicit personal information about me, which if you actually knew who or where I was, you would not need to do. Enough said.
Your FOIA documents only pertain to fission/ fusion events, not chemical reactions as DU munitions and battlefield events. So we have an apple/ orange comparison having nothing to do with real world events or models.
Are you being paid to down play the effects of GLOBAL CONTAMINATION through the criminal use of low level nuclear warfare?

ignorance based FUD -

> The actual battlefield product is called "ceramic uranium oxide gas and aerosols".

> chemical reactions as DU


real science -

Pottery: Some types of pottery are glazed with non-depleted uranium oxide, such as Fiesta ware, and Uranium isn't a biologically active element like Iodine.



P.S. - you and "Bill" are the ONLY TWO who plug luxefaire, (hundreds of times) yet you two have *never exchanged a single word* and "Bill" has never said a word to me - you have though and when I bring up luxefaire YOU are the only one who "explodes" at me about it

you two are joined at the hip yet Bill is a mute - and you do all his talking for him

What the fuck does pottery glaze have to do with aerosol U238+ by-products?
And you're the one that keeps bringing up this luxfiare or whatever...
I also notice that you have this agenda to deny the existence of the chemtrail problem.
Maybe you're working for the government or maybe you're just obsessed.

http://www.post-gazette.com/images/19990317hofiestaM.jpg

http://www.madeintheusadinnerware.com/images/fiesta2.jpg

http://www.banowetzantiques.com/images/fiesta.jpg

http://members.aol.com/hisissy/pjs-fiesta.jpg


(these samples of common pottery are coated with *NON-depleted* Uranium oxide)


"luxefaire" hits 329, author "Billder" author, "sheepdog" site:indymedia

luxefaire plugs are now hidden and you're just bubbling over with joy about it

some of your "magic bio-rings", gemstones/jewelry, rock tumblers/grinders/polishers are *themselves radioactive* - far more so than Fiestaware which is more so than "ceramic uranium oxide gas and aerosols" because it's only in one area of the globe while Fiestaware is used world-wide..

your whole radiation scale is reversed -

things you ignore are hundreds of times more radioactive Radon gas right there in the room with you, (50 X) with beta & gamma as well, your own body (Potassium 40) (20 X), the sky (20 X), the ground at your feet and the walls of your house (10 X) medical X-rays (10 X), smoking (5 X), TV/computer CRT/smoke detector (2 X), gold/gemstones/jewery (3 to 8 X), dishes/pottery (2 to 5 X)

Dust from Uranium munitions over there - .01 X, in the parts of Europe affected downwind .1 to .3 X


your concern is all ass backwards

Or smoking?
More likely a 600% increase in propaganda to mitigate the soaring cancer rates in Europe and America. Despite your customary funny graphics.

chemtrail "aerosols", Uranium oxide "aerosols"


sound scary don't they ?



> 600% increase in propaganda to mitigate the soaring cancer rates in Europe and America


I don't disagree with or dispute that cancer is on the rise, especially in civilian populations in Afghanistan, Bosina, Iraq. There's no doubt Uranium munitions, depleted and NON-depleted are the cause. We are bringing the contamination home not on the wind, but in the bodies of our military staff.

Here in the US it's a huge problem - for the military who served there and their families

but to scream hyperbolic "global Uranium dust contamination" in order to trick the general population into thinking it's their problem personally isn't the answer

such red herrings are easyly refuted with real science and will be at any turn - except in flake circles who believe in anything

you need to reach out to the military personel affected - not us

we didn't sign those papers, we didn't agree to become part of the killing machine, the murderous idiots who did have the problem, not us

The only real concern outside this are the civilian populations in Afghanistan, Bosina, Iraq, etc..

they didn't sign up for it either..

The prevailing winds don't recognize borders. And the 'scrubbing' of the air through rain and 'vast seas' is only partial ( now the oceans are further assaulted with this 4.5 Billion year [ half life for christ's sake ] contamination) as it reaches all of us unable to breath from bottled air.
Do your job, downplay the effects or make up 'reasons' why the cancer rates are soaring in a country that is smoking less and had a diminishing lung cancer rate until after the wide spread use of this illegal munition brought the rates up and past previous levels.
Oh. and BTW, the reason the American Tobacco is radioactive is the use of Uranium tailings and by products of nuclear refinement used in the fertilizers of said products. The reason that per capita smoking / lung cancer rates soared after WWII.

just blame it on "aerosols"- that usually works


> The prevailing winds don't recognize borders.

and you don't recognize actual measurements - or FIOA documents




> now the oceans are further assaulted with this 4.5 Billion year [ half life for christ's sake ] contamination) as it reaches all of us


Uranium isn't man-made, it's already IN the oceans, IN the ground below our feet (that's where RADON GAS comes from)

I'm still waiting for your measurements that back up "global" contamination, still waiting on the dosage in REM's or RAD's

weird isn't it how I have facts & figures that quantify and keep risks in perspective, while you have none yet dredge up magic scare words like "aerosol", first for "chemtrails" now for Uranium dust

but where's the figures - where's the facts - where's the hard data ?


> downplay the effects or make up 'reasons' why the cancer rates are soaring in a country that is smoking less and had a diminishing lung cancer rate until after the wide spread use of this illegal munition brought the rates up and past previous levels.


no I've published articles and data myself about Uranium munitions, about NON-DEPLETED reactor waste and virgin Uranium being *detected by measurements*

There IS a rise in cancer world-wide, reasons are many

1.) ozone layer depletion allowing more cancer causing UV rays
2.) various carcinogenetic chemicals continue to be used and are building up in food chains
3.) nutritional quality of food keeps falling allowing cancers to take hold in populations
4.) more additives and chemicals in said food
5.) Uranium munitions contamination vectoring through military personel


> American Tobacco is radioactive is the use of Uranium tailings and by products of nuclear refinement used in the fertilizers

wrong - ALL tobacco globally, grown outdoors is contaminated with fallout mainly polonium 210 from the massive atomic bomb tests conducted in the 50's & 60's

2 reasons

the radioactivity from Potassium 40 is minor and has always been with us - with only small increases due to mining sources, tobacco isn't especially affected - all plants & animals get this, non-smokers included..

the radiation from polonium 210 is *dangerous* compared to Potassium and *wasn't* always with us


tobacco grown indoors in greenhouses is safe.. (relatively)

A milligram of polonium-210 emits as many alpha particles as 5 grams of radium.

has a half-life of 138.39 days

A very rare element in nature, polonium is found in uranium ores at about 100 micrograms per metric ton

Polonium may now be made in milligram amounts in nuclear reactors.

Uranium ore has only an extremely small amount of Polonium in it - it comes from man made NUCLEAR REACTIONS AND BOMBS

Polonium is a highly radioactive and toxic element and is dangerous to handle. Even milligram or microgram amounts, handling polonium-210 is very dangerous and requires special equipment used with strict procedures. Direct damage occurs from energy absorption into tissues from alpha particles.

Polonium is extremely toxic and highly radioactive. Polonium has been found in tobacco smoke as a contaminant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium



Conservative estimates put the level of radiation absorbed by a pack-and-a-half a day smoker at the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays every year.

The Office of Radiation, Chemical & Biological Safety at Michigan State University state in their newsletter that the radiation equivalent was as high as 800 chest X-rays per year.

The National Institute of Health published a radiation exposure chart which shows that smoking 30 cigarettes per day is the equivalent of 2,000 chest x-rays per year.

R.T. Ravenholt of the Centers for Disease Control stated that tobacco is the largest source of radiation exposure among the American public.


Tobacco is a far bigger problem than Uranium dust thousands of miles across oceans away

and millions of people smoke..

-weird isn't it how I have facts & figures-
Your FOIA documents are un related to battle field Uranium munitions and their by products. Funny how you keep using them to relate to non fusion / fission real world models.
I'm sure your 'sources' have many prepared responses to excuse the rising cancer rates.
U238+ contamination is real and a global problem of monstrous and permanent legacy. No matter your efforts to point at other known sources which you infer have caused the cancer rates to increase ( 600%) within the last ten years. You're not earning your pay.
My personal dosimeter has registered about 100 Roentgens within the last year. At present I am doing back ground measurements and analysis with what is available, test equipment. I'm not waiting for federal data to C&P.
And I *have* worked with radiological materials including Americium 241 so don't try to BS me, Whizz.

Since most detectors won't measure this particle due to its low penetration.
Right now I'm using photo multipliers with a thin film optical coupler to attempt to do this.
My 'lab' ( workshop) is not really set up for this, but for you, I'll keep at it.
Maybe I should set up a mobile vapor chamber to take stats.

a correction -

in

qc.js

the ad button is flagged as an ad (it's not, a simple keyword error)

and in

theme0.css

p.media img { padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ddd; margin: 0 auto 0 auto; }

is flagged as a web bug based on size - it's not though (web bugs are based on offsite URLs)

it looks clean now otherwise - so does indybay, which I just checked out


> U238+ contamination is real and a global problem of monstrous and permanent legacy. No matter your efforts to point at other known sources which you infer have caused the cancer rates to increase ( 600%) within the last ten years.

correct Uranium is everywhere in the ground globally and is in fact where Radon comes from - the 50 X bigger source of radiation you keep ignoring - Uranium is permanent because it's always been with us everywhere since the dawn of time

you keep using words like "excuses" paid/pay while the measured facts & figures show otherwise

everytime you disagree with anyone about anything they automaticly become government agents being paid

when you claimed radio waves are dangerous I told you I build transmitters from scratch and sit right next to them and the antennas while tuning, getting over 100,000 times more flux than what you were claiming to be dangerous

I became an agent then

when you claimed HAARP was mind control and causing harm, I posted how the equipment is far away near the north pole that the signal is very weak here and can only barely be picked up on a radio

Again I was an agent


chemtrails are widespread, with common everyday elements like aluminum being "deadly", I explained how it's normal for jet engine exhaust to form clouds of ice crystals that high up, from the tons of water that's formed from the hydrogen of the fuel

once more I was an agent


Now Uranium dust on the other side of the globe is claimed to be a dangerous source of radiation while Radon gas right in the room with you and tobacco smoke is ignored - as well as gemstones/jewelry/pottery, all told hundreds of times higher levels of radiation, some much worse like gamma rays even..


and again I'm an agent


so when your paranoid fantasies fail to alarm and convince you turn them against the people who aren't fooled by them


I'm sitting here getting rich according to your claims by covering up that the sky isn't falling and people aren't dropping dead like flies in the street..

So while I'm getting benefit from the deception no one else is even paying attention at all in this hidden sandbox that *I know we're in*

no one is posting "gee sheepdog thanks for enlightening me about this" - don't you just hate government agents like Hex for sex who always get their way and ruin things...

You're right - my paymasters ARE wasting their money - and my time

"when you claimed radio waves are dangerous"
A quote would be nice.
Unless I have advised people not to watch the food cook in a mircowave oven.
And if this is an example of your 'data mining' you just pulled the plug on any shred of credibility you have tried to wrap yourself with.
So we can assume the level of fidelity you represent.
Zero.

"when you claimed radio waves are dangerous"
A quote would be nice.


Tesla anyone ?

so do we pick the from your deleted threads or hidden ones to quote from ?



> any shred of credibility


which handle ? how many hundreds of spam/troll posts, how many handles do you have ?

my paymasters want to know...

"when you claimed radio waves are dangerous"
Still waiting, buzz lips.
Not even bothering to address your other allegations that you cannot support with any quotes. Despite your 'awsome' data mining. ( like the NSA is so fond of )
Tesla was a giant. Unlike you who just provide blather like a small petty person.
Our world is being poisoned with Uranium munitions and you type away trying to hide it.

have any [cough] proof to back that claim up ?

and where's your boy Bob ?

So ( cough ) where is all the data you have mined?
Where the sun don't shine?
"when you claimed radio waves are dangerous"
Don't you get tired of being a suck up w/o credibility?
And I can wait for your ( cough ) data.
Come on do a dance for DU.
It is a permanent poison you and me and our children will have to deal with.
So get busy and act like a cat covering up shit on a marble floor.

Re: Uranium

> will have to deal with

and how's that ?

there's thousands of tons of high level radioactive waste which keeps proving scientists wrong thinking some kind containment casket will work

everything's failing

steel drums, concrete even uranium/lead filled fails

most of this waste is very hot, and contains about 200 isotopes many of which are highly dangerous and have never even been seen before in nature (man made)

-or-

Uranium which is all around - everywhere in the ground naturally since the earth was formed billions of years ago, which is only slightly radioactive

ignore the Radon gas in your home

ignore tobacco's polonium 210 - so radioactive it glows blue and gives off enormous heat

ignore the high level nuclear waste which nothing will contain time is proving

let's insted worry about naturally occuring only slightly radioactive Uranium thousands of miles away across vast oceans

populations IN the drop zones worry

War vets present while the munitions are being used worry

some people within land mass areas downwind during the bombing champaign might even worry


but keep worrying sheepdog - and ignore the Radon, Polonium and hot nuclear waste right here where we live

it's what you do best

I think we should ignore the Whizz who can't back up its blithering about the pronouncements it keeps making and brings in ancillary trivia to blow more smoke up our ass.
"when you claimed radio waves are dangerous"
or dragging out excuses for the 600% cancer rate increase by inferring 'natural' sources were the reason for this recent increase.,. Weren't you the one who said that DU was like lead in a battery?