Published: November 30, 2006 09:54 am      

Meeting opened eyes to local uranium threat

To the Editor:

I attended a local forum and was horrified to learn that weapons that use depleted uranium — waste from nuclear reactors — are being manufactured at ATK, just a few miles from Cumberland and not far from my home.

According to Dr. Doug Rokke, PhD., former director of U.S. Army Depleted Uranium project, the adverse health and environmental effects from uranium weapons are not limited to combat zones but include the sites where uranium weapons are manufactured.

Employees, and residents living near uranium manufacturing facilities, have reported health problems similar to those reported by soldiers exposed to depleted uranium in the Gulf Wars. Soldiers whose tests show they were exposed to depleted uranium complain of headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, joint pain and unusually frequent urination. Medical evidence exists to prove other adverse health effects such as cancer, neurological abnormalities, chronic kidney pain, rashes, vision loss, uranium in semen, sexual dysfunction, and birth defects in offspring.

If there was an accident involving fire during the transportation of these materials, the health consequences would be horrendous. The dust from depleted uranium can travel great distances and contaminate, air, water, and soil.

The UN Human Rights Commission determined in 1996 that depleted uranium is a weapon of mass destruction that should not be used, since it causes unnecessary suffering and keeps on acting after the battle is over.

It seems logical to me that the best way to stop this madness is to stop the production of uranium weapons.