Friday, November 6, 2009

Musings: Exercising Caution

The moon began wearing a halo when the sky turned from black to blue as Koko and I went walking this morning. Peachy puffs floated past on their way to join the steel-gray clouds huddled atop Makaleha and Waialeale, while over the sea, salmon-pink streaks turned first hot pink, and then an intriguing lime-green, as the sun prepared to rise.

Venus kept on shining, even as the world brightened and flushed rosy, and we were refreshed by a brisk trade wind that whistled down the street, rustling leaves and allowing bits of gold to shine through the trees.

Since delving into the topic of depleted uranium, I often wonder just what is blowing in the wind. While doing research for the story that I published yesterday in The Hawaii Independent, an activist told of being up in the Saddle Road area of the Big Island in the midst of an intense windstorm and picking up very high radioactivity readings on a monitor. That’s where the Pohakuloa Training Area and its DU stash lies, in the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and it’s an area that is subject to fierce winds that blow in both directions.

So is DU oxide dust from PTA getting blown around the island, and Islands? Most likely. Is that cause for worry? The Big Island County Council was sufficiently concerned to pass a resolution in 2008 that calls, in part, for:

[A] complete halt to B-2 bombing missions and all live firing exercises and other actions at PTA that create dust until there’s an assessment and clean up of the depleted uranium already present.

Now in addition to the DU found at various training areas, the military is regularly bringing back equipment from Iraq that is contaminated with this stuff. Despite its claims that there’s nothing for folks to worry about from DU oxide lying on the ground and floating on the breeze, the Army has developed a protocol under federal hazardous material laws for dealing with vehicles that may have DU residue on them. As I reported, citing the Army fact sheet:

”Those identified as contaminated with DU are wrapped in plastic and tarps (encased) to prevent the spread of any removable contamination or residues. They are then shipped through the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, to the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland. Here, the vehicles are assessed for decontamination and repair, or for recovery of parts.”

But Major Doug Rokke (Ret.), the former director of the U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project, said that process doesn’t always do the trick. In a written statement, he said:

“Even after extensive depot level cleaning, I found DU and other radiological, chemical, and biological contamination in vehicles years later.

And what about the clothing and personal items of soldiers who have been in the battlefield? How is it cleaned?

In response to the objection voiced by some Big Islanders about Strykers and other vehicles from PTA and Iraq participating in the Hilo Veteran’s Day parade, Dr. Helen Calidicott, the outspoken opponent of nuclear weapons and power who helped found Physicians for Social Responsibility and taught for years at the Harvard Medical School, also issued a statement:

”Depleted uranium 238 is a deadly carcinogenic and mutagenic poison that remains radioactive for over 4.5 billion years.

When used in battle it is converted to tiny aerosolized particles that are inhaled into the terminal bronchi, translocated to the thoracic lymph nodes, and also deposited in bone, kidneys and excreted in the semen where almost certainly the uranium can cause birth defects.

The incidence of childhood cancer in Basra has increased 700% since these weapons were used there in 1991 and the incidence of severe congenital malformations has also risen 700%.

Uranium particles will contaminate the cradle of civilization for eternity inducing more and more cancer, especially in children, genetic diseases and congenital malformations.

Such US military policy is beyond a war crime."


Dr. Lorrin Pang has also raised the issue of nanotoxicity in regard to DU, which he termed “yet another unknown.”

When I think back to all the things we’ve released either unknowingly, or intentionally, that have been found to cause serious harm to humans and the environment, I can’t quite understand why we’re so being cavalier about something potentially poses such a dangerous threat.

Shouldn’t we be exercising caution until we know for sure?

And that goes for the activists who are planning to protest the Hilo parade. If you’re concerned about DU, why would you want to place yourself anywhere near it?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

but if we turn all of our enemies' unborn grandchildren into retards, don't we win the war?

Andrew Cooper said...

The problem when trying to monitor Pohakuloa is all the fresh Mauna Loa basalt. Even without any DU a radiation monitor will go crazy in a the dust, just from the naturally occuring uranium isotopes. Separating the effects takes more than just a portable rad monitor.

Yes, I live just down from Pohakuloa and drive through a few times a week.

Joan Conrow said...

I wondered about that, so thanks for your comment, Andrew. Are you concerned about DU?

Also, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald picked up the story today:

www.hawaiitribune-herald.com

Anonymous said...

Doug Rokke had a team of a hundred experts try and fail to clean up the Bradleys and Abrams Main Battle tanks after the 100 hour 1991 War in Iraq that kicked this shit off in Central Asia.

They ended up burying all the Bradleys in place and wanted to bury the 140 ton Main Battle Tanks, too.

The fucking tanks were Classified and had to be returned. That is when a fan sent in pics of the radioactive sign marked tanks sitting on open railroad flat cars in Kansas.

The military stupidity boggles the mind.

Of course, if it kills more civilians or "useless eaters" in Kissinger's memorable phrase, then that is probably OK, too.

If you look at the Army as the most well planned and lethal killing force the planet has ever known; the Operation to contaminate Hawai'i is moving along well.

The idiot civilians even embrace the contaminated Strykers, the objects of their destruction.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Kissinger never said "useless eaters." Just another urban legend. Just goes to show, we believe what flatters our preconceived opinions.

Anonymous said...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7423676/NSSM-200-Kissinger-Genocide-Report-1974

Anonymous said...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7423676/NSSM-200-Kissinger-Genocide-Report-1974

Why are you linking to a report in which the phrase, "useless eaters" never appears, or even the words, "useless" or "eaters"?

Anonymous said...

Because it shows that's what he believes even if he never said the actual words.

Anonymous said...

You said:

Of course, if it kills more civilians or "useless eaters" in Kissinger's memorable phrase

now you say:

that's what he believes even if he never said the actual words.

How on Earth is it "Kissinger's memorable phrase" if he never said it?

Start making sense or go home.

Anonymous said...

if the scientists on the big island county council are so worried, then get a hepa filter filter out there with a guy trained to operate it and compare results against epa regs


"'Even after extensive depot level cleaning, I found DU and other radiological, chemical, and biological contamination in vehicles years later'"

-- means nothing. what were the levels.


and as "uranium" carries a certain connotation, might be good to note u235 (the stuff that makes the "boom") is not in du


"The incidence of childhood cancer in Basra has increased 700% since these weapons were used there in 1991 and the incidence of severe congenital malformations has also risen 700%."

-- online cite pls, if available


"Dr. Lorrin Pang"

-- his expertise knows no bounds apparently :)


"useless eaters"

-- now THAT is harsh


white_man

Anonymous said...

You said:

Of course, if it kills more civilians or "useless eaters" in Kissinger's memorable phrase

now you say:

that's what he believes even if he never said the actual words.

Wrong. I never said the first one. Stop jumping to conclusions or go home.

Anonymous said...

TO: Anonymous said...

but if we turn all of our enemies' unborn grandchildren into retards, don't we win the war?

November 6, 2009 8:48 AM

My conclusion after reading such a depraved remark is to pity you as the retched pathetic being you are.

And Praise be to Allah.

Anonymous said...

"My conclusion after reading such a depraved remark is to pity you as the retched pathetic being you are."
...

The remark was irony - which was obviously lost on you.

Andrew Cooper said...

Not particularly concerned. As an engineer working with scientific instruments I am well aware of the sea of radiation we live in, mostly naturally occurring. Natural isotopes, cosmic rays and high energy EM. I can (and have) set up a CCD here on my desk and monitor cosmic rays, thousands pass through my body every hour, far more energetic than anything DU can produce.

Am I happy about miltary DU use? No. Its use should be restricted, with better disclosure about past usage. I would not want to be close when a high velocity DU weapon hits something. Am I panicking about it? No. Do I worry about any DU lying about in Pohakuloa when I drive through? No. People hear the word radiation and they panic.

I am worried about ocean acidification, plastic pollution, resource over-exploitation and many other issues that are far more destructive on our environment.