Iraq diggers 'contaminated with radiation'

March 27, 2007 04:42pm
Article from: AAP

TWO Australian soldiers who served in the first Iraq war have tested positive to depleted uranium (DU) contamination despite assurances from the Federal Government they had not been exposed, an anti-nuclear group said today.

Any such admission from the Government would leave it open to millions of dollars in compensation, said Pauline Rigby, project co-ordinator for the group Depleted Uranium Silent Killer (DUSK).

Urine samples from each of the men, who served in different areas of Iraq, were sent last year for uranium isotope analysis at the JW Goethe University in Germany at a cost of $1200 each under the auspices of DUSK and the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC) in Canada, Ms Rigby said.

The results, now being evaluated for publication next month in two scientific journals, showed both men had tested positive to depleted uranium contamination more than 15 years after their return from the first Gulf War.

Ms Rigby said depleted uranium was the toxic and radioactive waste from the nuclear enrichment process.

Denser and heavier than lead, it is used as a projectile to penetrate heavy bunkers and tanks.
"This is a huge issue about compensation which the Government would be determined they will never pay," Ms Rigby said.

"It's going to be Agent Orange all over again, except this time it's going to be a little bit worse because the mutations go into the general community from blood and organ donations."

A 52-year-old Sunshine Coast man, known only as "Frank" (not his real name), said he was one of those tested.

In 1991, he was an army medic in the mountains of northern Iraq, aiding Kurdish refugees fleeing the persecution of Saddam Hussein's forces.>>>cont

LinkHere