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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (63229)	12/28/2002 8:30:20 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 281500

OT:In general, I agree that the hazards of DU are frequently exaggerated, especially by the left. Uraniuim is a heavy metal and its toxicity has not been much studied. However, most heavy metals are toxic and uranium is no exception: antenna.nl It appears low concentrations of uranium have adverse effects on human kidneys. There is a summary and a longer report from the Royal Society on DU at this URL: royalsoc.ac.uk My guess (and it's not worth much scientifically but I tend to guess well) is that U and DU products are toxic in low amounts with bad effects on kidney function and - I'm stepping out here - possibly on nervous system development following the models of mercury and/or lead. Effects might not show up until advanced middle age or beyond. For instance, lack of complete kidney function might not show in a young person but could become apparent age 50 or 60, or impaired nervous development might not show effects until old age. The above was my first take on the matter. I went looking, found this: Another study in rats with implanted DU or inert metal (tantalum) pellets evaluated the possibility of neurotoxicity (effects on the brain). Here again, Sprague-Dawley rats were surgically implanted with low, medium and high doses of DU to bracket the estimated amounts in Gulf War friendly fire victims with embedded fragments. Because the hippocampus is the region involved in cognition (knowing or perceiving) and learning, researchers chose to examine it, focusing on its electrical properties, after 6, 12, and 18 months. Data from individual experiments in such studies are complex, but the combination of results can be summarized in straightforward terms: the presence of DU in the hippocampal region of the brain changes normal electrical activity there. Changes were related to the length of time the pellets had been implanted. Six months after implantation, the "excitability" of the neurons (that is, the ease of triggering a nerve impulse) in the DU-implanted rats was statistically different[171] from the rats receiving only tantalum. Twelve months after implantation, both the "synaptic signal" (the event that relays the signal between neurons) and the excitability of the neurons were different from the tantalum-implanted animals. These changes did not progress further in DU-implanted rats over the next six months. Eighteen months after implantation, the tantalum-implanted rats showed the normal effects of aging on their electrical activity in the hippocampus and were then no longer different from the DU-implanted rats. It appeared as if the changes associated with aging occurred earlier in the DU-implanted rats. deploymentlink.osd.mil It appears uranium ions do get across the blood brain barrier and have some effect on neuronal activity. Because humans are basically very robust and their brains redundantly built, overt effects could be a long time in appearing. What effect uranium ions might have on nervous development of infants is not clear. That last site is very interesting.