"You are eligible for a urine test to measure for uranium. ...
Consult your unit medical officer on return to your home base."
Consult your unit medical officer on return to your home base."
Melanson is using a "faulty approach" that assumes radiation is spread out evenly over the whole body, Durakovic said.
"Depleted uranium dust that is inhaled gets transferred from the lungs to the regional lymph nodes, where they can bombard a small number of cells in their immediate vicinity with intense alpha radiation," Durakovic said.
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"All I know is I'm still sick and the Army can't tell me why," said Staff Sgt. Ray Ramos, one of the soldiers caught in the crossfire of the experts.
Ramos and others have suffered from chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, urinary problems, severe joint pain and other unexplained ailments since last summer when they were stationed in the Iraqi town of Samawah.
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Still, the Pentagon's existing policy is not nearly as careful about depleted uranium as is Britain's. Every British soldier dispatched to Iraq is handed a wallet-sized card by the Defense Ministry that states:
"You have been deployed to a theater where depleted uranium munitions have been used. DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal, which has the potential to cause ill health. You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during your deployment."
Juan Gonzalez/New York Daily News/Common Dreams May.06-08.04
