Echoing concern of Hawaiian citizens monitoring radiation there, Malu Aina spokesperson Albertini said, “It was only in August, 2007 that the Army confirmed that the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa base is contaminated with DU.” Albertini continued, “To date, they have done very limited research and testing to see the extent of the contamination or whether or not the Navy, Marines, Air Force may also have used radiation weapons in training there.”
The Army has admitted the use of one type of Uranium weapon used in Hawaii, in rounds associated with the Davy Crockett, a nuclear weapon with a warhead weighing 51 pounds. (9) As Albertini explains, “The Davy Crockett was only one of approximately 60 different kinds of nuclear weapons in the arsenal back in the 60s and 70s. Who knows how many other radiation spotting rounds might have been used? To bomb a site with known contamination shows a complete disregard for the health and safety of ground troops who train there and island residents and visitors alike.”
The term DU or Depleted Uranium refers to munitions made from natural Uranium that has some of the more fissile U-235 removed for use in bombs and nuclear power plants. The term “Depleted,” as used by the military to describe the US arsenal of “conventional” radioactive weapons, is often contested, as the isotope ratio of U235 is merely reduced – not depleted - by .5% (one-half of one percent). Furthermore, according to the Uranium Medical Research Centre website, after the extraction of some of the U-235, the amount of radioactive U-238 is actually increased from 99.27% in natural Uranium to a higher 99.79% in Depleted Uranium. (10)
Trace amounts of plutonium, neptunium, americium and fission products are also added to Depleted Uranium during the enrichment process, rendering it even more hazardous to human health. (11) With a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years, DU is a serious threat to the environment and a costly prospect for future remediation on a number of contaminated military sites throughout Hawaii. (12)
The chemically toxic and radioactive material, used in testing and training on federal properties in the United States since the 1940’s, Uranium weapons have been used overseas in combat since at least 1991 in the first Gulf War. When a weapon containing DU is fired, a fine aerosol of ceramic uranium oxide is formed. Most particles are less than 10 microns in size and are easily inhaled into the lungs.
The majority of DU is insoluble and can remain inside the body for decades. Once lodged inside the lungs, DU slowly spreads, primarily into the lymph nodes and bone. The excretion of these particles from the body is a very slow process.
The use of Uranium-238, the primary component of DU munitions, is particularly hazardous for use in combat and military training because fine particles can be spread by the wind and are readily re-suspended. Disturbances of contaminated soils can occur through movement of military vehicles as well as bombs dropped from the sky that hit the ground with tremendous impact. This can cause the transport of invisible Uranium oxide aerosols throughout the environment.
Metallic particles smaller than 5 microns in size are so light as to remain suspended in the atmosphere, contaminating the environment through the wind and precipitation for billions of years into the future. When fired, some of the Uranium becomes nano-sized particles a billionth of a meter in size. Smaller than microns, these Uranium particles act like a gas. The radioactive alpha nanoparticles can cross the lung-blood barrier and can impact cells up to six cells away. (13)
With regard to concern for health effects of the bombing of contaminated soils, Malu Aina spokesperson Albertini stated, “This, along with other training at PTA, is an outrage given the presence of Depleted Uranium (DU) confirmed at PTA. The full extent of the contamination is not yet known but the military is taking action that risks spreading the stuff around. It shows the complete disregard for the health and safety of Hawaii residents and the military people who train on the ground there.”
Malu Aina is asking the military to install monitors around range impact areas with live data available on-line for public viewing. (14) In addition, citizens are requesting that the military provide testing for Uranium exposure of military personnel and civilians who believe they may have been exposed to Depleted Uranium on any of the toxic sites across the Hawaiian Islands. (15)
With a history of military presence going back to the 19th century, discoveries of toxic and radioactive contaminants on Hawaii’s 161 military installations are expected to continue. (16) Hawaiians, in ever increasing numbers, are calling for the demilitarization of their state. In particular, concerned citizens are demanding the immediate end to military training exercises which spread toxic and radioactive contamination for residents and visitors and the unique, fragile, and sensitive tropical Hawaiian ecosystems. (17)
Despite these concerns, 161 military installations in Hawaii have received ongoing and enthusiastic support and funding from US Congress for military testing and training operations in a wide number of chemical, radiological (18) and biological weapons on several islands in the Aloha state. (19)
Ten years before B-2s began dropping bombs on the Big Island of Hawaii, current Chairman of the US Senate Subcommittee on Defense, US Senator Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, had appealed for funding of the B-2 stealth bombing on April 14, 1997, stating, “I believe the B-2 is the most vital weapon of our future.”
Senator Inouye had defended the stealth bombing system well in advance of welcoming the bomb drops in his state, maintaining that, “there is a need for the B-2 bombings: It is a long-range-strike aircraft, capable of reaching anywhere in the world and releasing highly sophisticated, explosive weapons.” Furthermore, Sen. Inouye had remarked, “It is the only system that is capable of operating beyond the range of weapons of mass destruction.” (20)
Further information can be obtained by contacting DMZ Hawaii/Aloha Aina info@ dmzhawaii.org or Malu Aina at ja@interpac.net.
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, public speaker, activist, and a certified personal coach who specializes in Uranium weapons. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation's capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week.
Yes, but also please see the comments under this article, of which this article is pretty much a re-hash.
To summarize: The wisdom of dropping dummy bombs on the Big Island is certainly debatable, and I wouldn't blame residents there one bit for being more than uncomfortable with it.
However, the attempt here to use the ridiculous notion that those dumb bombs are going to somehow disturb some sleeping DU monster is completely counter-scientific and fallacious. EVEN IF there WAS deposits of DU dust in the soil on Hawaii, (there's no evidence that there is) and not just the intact chunks that were used simply for ballast, it would STILL be entirely inconsequential. This according to the world's experts in radiation health and medicine, anyway, but what would they know?
Has anyone stopped to consider this simple concept?: Is it really wise or noble to continue to provide the Arab media with this kind of inflaming material, when it has no support from the (legitimate) scientific community?
Is it really helpful to the cause of world peace, which surely everyone embraces, to throw bombs of misinformation like this article into the soup of international dialogue?
by
Alan Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 479 comments)
on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 12:54:28 PM
I challenge you now to buy the property adjoining the Pohakuloa Training Area and to take deep whiffs of the Uranium oxide in the air while you play outside with your children or grand children on the days the B-2s are dropping 2,000 lb. bombs into DU-contaminated soils next door.
I dare you to buy that property and try to enjoy life in your backyard with your family outdoors, knowing that the Uranium-filled grounds are suspending radioactivity - invisible particles - into your air.
What the military has done - and still is doing - to Hawaii is disgusting.
by
Cathy Garger (21 articles, 5 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 84 comments)
on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 1:17:14 PM
Relying on "experts" with a vested interest -- along with a reputation for repeatedly lying and denying -- is quite different from relying on reality, especially when the "experts" are known to have no interest in the damage they do to the environment and the health of the people affected by their advice.
by
Nancy Bracewell (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 19 comments)
on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 6:52:30 PM
I would choose not to. However, my choice would be based on presumably a discernible and disturbing shaking of the ground, not some imaginary presence of uranium particles above and beyond normal ambient levels.
But if the bombs would stop dropping, and you folks succeeded in driving property values down to bargain basement levels due to a non-existent threat, I'd be right in there buying, building and living quite fine.
So, you go girl!
by
Alan Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 479 comments)
on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 2:20:37 PM
Recently I and many others were some distance from the Pohakuloa Training Range watching the radiation monitor for a solid hour and a half, stay below background levels. A gust of wind came up off the training range lifting topsoil up into the air and blowing directly over all of us and the monitor, which had stayed below 20 counts per minute for an hour and a half. The minute that dirt hit the monitor ...the digital display screamed up to 75cpm.
There was a Nevada court case won last year by the community trying to stop bombing of their area. The judge agreed with the people that additional bombing WOULD stir up and make airborne, the radiated dust from previous testing.
Look it up.
And furthermore, if this weren't such a serious concern for residents, there wouldn't be a bill in the Hawaii State legislature right now for continuouscontinuous air testing around this base.
Mahalo to Ms. Garger.
by
Shannon Rudolph (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 13 comments)
on Monday, January 28, 2008 at 3:16:20 PM
I'm afraid ordinary citizens with ordinary equipment simply aren't able to reliably analyze radiation readings and determine their origin or cause. Even this anti-DU activist (who at least has some knowlege in the field but is non-the-less still infected with political bias) is aware that you can't detect DU without sophisticated expensive instrumentation:
"I have personally visited two countries where DU has been used, Iraq and Kosovo with scientific measuring equipment and I collected samples for analysis. I found elevated levels of radioactivity in both countries without great difficulty and also took samples which were subsequently analysed in the UK by two independent laboratories. Both found DU in the samples from Kosovo so I find it hard to believe that all these groups found no evidence of DU, or at minimum, only DU near the target. However, there are a number of technical problems associated with surveying for DU contamination, and it may be that these problems have been responsible for the failure of some missions to find DU. The most significant problem is that DU is an alpha and beta emitter, the latter because of its radioactive decay product isotopes, Thorium-234 and Protoactinium-234, which are not mentioned in the DoD report. The range in air of alpha particles is a few centimetres, and they are easily stopped by a film of water. Beta particles have a range of up to a metre but will not penetrate a Geiger counter window. This means that a normal Geiger Counter will not register the radioactivity from DU. The GM tube of a Geiger counter will mainly register gamma rays. Because Uranium is a very weak gamma emitter, it is only within a metre or so of pure DU fragments that any gamma signal will register, and this is probably why some of the reports mentioned activity near the target, or near the impact hole. To look for DU it is necessary to use a device called a Thin Window Scintillation Counter, such as the Nuclear Instruments Type Electra 1A that I took to Iraq and Kosovo. These instruments are expensive, and not used for measuring radiation except by the nuclear industry who use them to check contamination by Plutonium."
And even if you did have the necessary instrumentation, it's still a complicated task to correctly interpret the readings. It's like reading a thermometer, you can get a reading, but exactly what factors working together caused that reading, and exactly what does that reading mean to your health. I wouldn't describe a reading difference between 20 and 75 as "screaming", and I wouldn't necessarily think that being exposed to a "75" level of radiation is bad for your health. It might actually be good for you!
"Also note that correctly interpreting Geiger counter readings requires specialized knowledge and skill. All Geiger counters will give readings from the naturally occurring background radiations, and these readings have quite a bit of normal variability. One must thus be able to separate out the large background radiation that results from cosmic rays, natural radioactivity in the soil, buildings, certain foods, etc., from any additional contamination. The normally fluctuating background radiation is often misinterpreted as being caused by radioactive contamination by inexperienced persons."
As far as the Nevada case, that's apples and oranges. This is involving highly radioactive fall-out from nuclear blast tests, not what are in essence small fragments of a barely radioactive mineral.
But the findings of any court case are only as reflective of truth as are the truthfulness and plentifulnes of the information and data presented in the case, and the degree of emotion and bias injected by the judge or jury. Like radiation readings, one has to look far deeper than the final verdict if one wishes to get at the real truth of the matter.
by
Alan Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 479 comments)
on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 at 1:11:13 PM
How anyone can defend the bombing runs by the Imperial US Air Force and/or the artillery barrages rained in by the Imperial US Navy from 10-20 miles offshore is beyond my comprehension. Or maybe not, since I worked at Pohakuloa for a civilian painting subcontractor for the Army back in the '70's. I know this is anecdotal but it goes to show how the Military thinks. They clearly don't care about the people or the Aina (sacred land).
While painting windows on the newly built cold weather quonset huts, I was surprised by the concussion of nearby artillery shells...well, it IS a bombing range/training facility, right? Right. As I worked (with difficulty), I began wondering why the military needed to bomb our island paradise and did some research, asked questions here and there. I didn't last long at that cushy $20/hr. Job because of what I found out about Pohakuloa and Kaho'olawe, the other island in the group so brutally misused by the US military. The Day I quit, there was a Capt. Inspector in my face, yelling about the paint on the screens of his precious huts and when I rold him It couldn't be helped because of the artillery concussion disturbing my otherwise steady stroke, he just said, "Get used to it, boy, well be doing a lot of it!" Catch-22 deja-vu! Well, I wasn't a boy then, or now and wasn't the day I walked off that mountain after telling him to put his brush where the sun don't shine.
This "boy" doesn't work for military assholes, not even for $20/hr.
But it didn't end there...The next Easter I was taking a Spiritual journey to hike up Mauna Kea, east of Pohakuloa TA and as I enjoyed the incredible beauty of tha mountain on a clear Easter morning, I was surprised to hear what sounded like thunder...unfortunately, it wasn't anything so benign. It was two Fighter-bombers laying out huge firestorms of what must have been napalm on the mountainside, which I don't think was even inside the boundaries of Pohakuloa TA. Kinda ruins any hope for a spiritual communion with nature, neh? After checking myself to make sure it wasn't Altitude-induced hallucinations (I was over 12,000 ft.), I once again walked down off that mountain in sadness and went to the Ocean to cleanse myself. I felt filthy that I was an American, to tell the truth. Filthy again.
But 30 years later the bombs and artillery are still falling on paradise, raining "practice" death on its citizens, and the sacred land...this is very saddening to me, personally and an outrage to the people of Hawaii. Why DU was used there or anywhere is an outrage. Why the military has control of any part of the Big Island is an outrage. Military madness is desroying our world and our country. The US military budget is much larger that all the other military budgets in the world COMBINED! Enough, you think, Alan, to keep us fucking SAFE?
Thanks for the article, Cathy Garger, my sister, Peace be with you...and with you, Alan Dubya Williams, peace be with you, also, even though you insist on defending the madness,
by
Papawhale (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 58 comments)
on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 12:54:45 AM
To say that the Arab world might regard this kind of reporting as fuel for their anger is ludicrous at best...They have plenty of other pressing matters in Iraq and Afghanistan to keep that hatred of us burning, thanks to US Imperialism. How dare those Arabs hide our oil under their sand? Yikes!
I deeply appreciate Ms. Gargers articles and the continued efforts of Jim Albertini and all the people of Malu Aina. Keep up the GOOD work! Mahalo nui loa.
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Papawhale (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 58 comments)
on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 1:04:14 AM
Thanks for your perspective, Papawhale, but I think you've either missed or chosen not to address my point. I didn't and don't "defend" the bombing and general military use of the Big Island. I do think that the institution that prevented and continues to prevent the strategically located Hawaiian Islands from falling into far less benevolent hands deserves some benefit of the doubt, but I too wish they could find somewhere more isolated and less revered to do their thing.
My objections are to the scientifically unfounded assertions about DU somehow getting airborne due to the dropping of bombs, or any military activity for that matter. This is silly for these reasons:
1) It's generally agreed, even by DU foes, that the only potential danger from DU is when it is transformed into very small breathable particles, which only happens when the material impacts at great velocity a very solid target, such as a tank. This is not how DU was used in Hawaii; it was used as weight simulation for target practice for a small portable nuclear weapon system. This ballast didn't aerosolize upon impact, because it wasn't used as high speed precision projectile, or anything close.
2) Even if there HAD been training with actual DU weapons, numerous studies and surveys on battlegrounds and even DU training ranges have determined that there is very little potential for harm to people or the environment from the relatively small amounts of residue from these weapons.
The way these guys talk, it's like the entire area is covered with inches of solid DU dust, like the volcanic powder from the Mt. St. Helens eruption, with the slightest wind or disturbance resulting in billowing clouds of deadly fallout. As far as we know, there is NO DU dust whatsoever to stir up anyway -- so why stir up all these unfounded fears and prey on people's emotions?
Now as far as Arab/Middle East opinion, I don't quite understand why you would minimize the added effect of anti-DU propaganda. Just because many are currently angry about U.S. involvement, does that make it somehow O.K. to add fuel to the fire and falsely claim that our actions have additionally POISONED THEIR LAND FOR ETERNITY, AND CAUSED MASSIVE INCREASES IN BIRTH DEFECTS IN THEIR CHILDREN? How would that be merely an incidental side issue to someone? The anti-DU folks certainly don't seem to think it is. (Actually, before a few intransigent folks threw exploding wrenches into the works of what most over there viewed as a very positive change in their governance, there was much gratitude and celebration of U.S. action.)
Now, finally things are starting to improve in Iraq, and folks are realizing who's really the enemy. Pity, that in addition to all our other extraordinary efforts, we also must counter lies injected into a newly free media about depleted uranium. Lies that were incidentally largely started and selfishly utilized by Saddam Hussein in an attempt to foster world sympathy. (He also probably didn't much like the fact that these weapons had been used quite effectively against his tanks.)
No, I don't appreciate Garger's efforts in this area at all. Nor should anyone who savors a tasty dish of natural, unbiased science. Hold the politics and agendas, please.
by
Alan Williams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 479 comments)
on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 5:12:03 PM
