Column: Idaho
Army Shipping Contaminated Kuwait Sand to Idaho Landfill
By Jill Kuraitis, 4-30-08
The U.S. Army is shipping 6,700 tons of contaminated sand to Idaho from Kuwait. It will arrive at American Ecology in Grandview, Idaho, sometime in May.
Grandview, population 470, is 42 miles south of Boise in Owyhee County.
The sand is from Camp Doha in Kuwait, a former Army warehouse complex used by Army Forces Central Command. The sand absorbed depleted uranium when some spent ammunition was caught in a fire (addition May 1:during the first Gulf War.)
It’s also contaminated with hazardous levels of lead, according to the two military guys who told me the story, whose branch and names won’t be used for obvious reasons. However, it’s no secret, since the story had already been written by Erik Olson in the Longview, Washington Daily News.
Chad Hyslop, spokesperson for American Ecology, did not return New West’s phone calls, but he told Olson that all the sand will be at the disposal site in Grandview sometime in May.
It will take 76 rail cars to run half the sand to Idaho, and then a second trip will be required for the rest. 152 of the smallest size rail cars would build a four-story structure about the size of half a football field.
Andrea Shipley, the executive director of the Snake River Alliance, an Idaho-based grassroots group with a mission to watchdog the energy industry and energy-related government departments, doesn’t like the idea of the sand coming to Idaho. She told New West that “this is a major concern. Depleted uranium is both a toxic heavy metal and a radioactive substance creating health risks that may be far more varied than is recognized in federal regulations today. Safe and responsible clean-up is critical to safeguard the health of Idahoans and our environment.”
The lead contamination, which the Army discovered before the ship carrying the sand to the Port of Longview arrived there, was nearly four times higher than the EPA standard for designating it “hazardous.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, even very low levels of exposure to lead in children can cause learning disabilities, and may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, strokes or heart attacks. Lead is also associated with impaired visual and motor function, growth abnormality, neurological and organ damage, hearing loss, hypertension and reproductive complications.
Whether or not humans might be exposed to the contaminated sand, either during transport, unloading, or processing at American Ecology’s Grandview landfill is not clear. No Army official returned calls. Follow-ups to this story will be posted.
Addition May 1: The full post about depleted uranium on Wikipedia can be found here, but here are two relevant paragraphs.
Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium primarily composed of the isotope uranium-238 (U-238). Natural uranium is about 99.27 percent U-238, 0.72 percent U-235, and 0.0055 percent U-234. Because U-235 is used for fission in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, natural uranium is enriched in U-235 by separating the isotopes by mass. The byproduct of enrichment, called depleted uranium or DU, contains less than one third as much U-235 and U-234 as natural uranium, making it less radioactive due to the longer 4.5 billion year half-life of U-238. The external radiation dose from DU is about 60 percent of that from the same mass of natural uranium.
Depleted uranium munitions are controversial because of numerous unanswered questions about the long-term health effects. DU is less toxic than other heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury, and is only very weakly radioactive because of its long half life. While any radiation exposure has risks, no conclusive epidemiological data have correlated DU exposure to specific human health effects such as cancer. However, the UK government has attributed birth defect claims from a 1991 Gulf War combat veteran to DU poisoning, and studies using cultured cells and laboratory rodents continue to suggest the possibility of leukemogenic, genetic, reproductive, and neurological effects from chronic exposure. Until such issues are resolved with further research, the use of DU by the military will continue to be controversial.
Updates to this story will continue to be posted.
Update May 1: NewWest blogger Irwin Horowitz of 6degrees - named because of his six college degrees including a B.S. from MIT in physics, an M.S. in astronomy and another M.S. in electrical engineering, has a strong interest in nuclear issues and follows them regularly. He told New West that the primary issue with the sand from Kuwait is the heavy-metal toxicity more than the U-238, and the radiation, in the form of alpha particles, doesn’t penetrate skin. Lead, said Horowitz, gets into the soft tissues of the body. “Depleted uranium could enter the body from ingesting it, breathing it in, or through surface skin cuts, so you’d almost have to play in the sand.”
More calls to American Ecology have not been returned.
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Questions as far as the eye can see...
I'm with Serephin, this smells to high heaven. How this became Idaho's problem is beyond me. Here's a link to an 06 annual meeting of shareholders for the <a ><font+color="#cc0000">&EndHTML;=</font></b>&SearchText;=<NEAR/4>("JOHN+M","COOPER")" target="_blank" >corporation.</a>
As far as the CDC information, that has to do with lead. Lead is an element that is different from uranium, and the most common isotopes of lead aren't radioactive. Of course I recognize lead is a bad thing, and I'm not arguing about that. I'm arguing that people getting freaked out about low levels of U-238 is ridiculous.
I don't speak for SRA, nor they for me, but no doubt DU is toxic. Not as nasty as the plutonium dumped at INL, but for more nuclear info that is science based, please visit our website at http://www.MyIdahoEnergy.com
Here is one of the NIH website medical papers I used in my news release on Kuwait dumping DU here, that I also used on deaf ears to the legislative tax break for French Areva to enrich uranium in Idaho (DU is the waste product they will dump here).
1: Environmental Health Perspectives 2006 Jan;114(1):85-91.
In vitro immune toxicity of depleted uranium: effects on murine macrophages, CD4+ T cells, and gene expression profiles.
Wan B, Fleming JT, Schultz TW, Sayler GS.
Center for Environmental Biotechnology and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1605, USA.
Depleted uranium (DU) is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process and shares chemical properties with natural and enriched uranium. To investigate the toxic effects of environmental DU exposure on the immune system, we examined the influences of DU (in the form of uranyl nitrate) on viability and immune function as well as cytokine gene expression in murine peritoneal macrophages and splenic CD4+ T cells. Macrophages and CD4+ T cells were exposed to various concentrations of DU, and cell death via apoptosis and necrosis was analyzed using annexin-V/propidium iodide assay. DU cytotoxicity in both cell types was concentration dependent, with macrophage apoptosis and necrosis occurring within 24 hr at 100 microM DU exposure, whereas CD4+ T cells underwent cell death at 500 microM DU exposure. Noncytotoxic concentrations for macrophages and CD4+ T cells were determined as 50 and 100 microM, respectively. Lymphoproliferation analysis indicated that macrophage accessory cell function was altered with 200 microM DU after exposure times as short as 2 hr. Microarray and real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed that DU alters gene expression patterns in both cell types. The most differentially expressed genes were related to signal transduction, such as c-jun, NF- kappa Bp65, neurotrophic factors (e.g., Mdk), chemokine and chemokine receptors (e.g., TECK/CCL25), and interleukins such as IL-10 and IL-5, indicating a possible involvement of DU in cancer development, autoimmune diseases, and T helper 2 polarization of T cells. The results are a first step in identifying molecular targets for the toxicity of DU and the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms for the immune modulation ability of DU.
PMID: 16393663 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
PMCID: PMC1332661
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16393663?ordinalpos=9&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
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Bubbles you remind of the site workers I grew up around in Idaho Falls adamantly insisting that there's nothing unsafe about nuclear but couldn't tell me the basis upon which they justified such an assertion because what they were doing was secret. The same thing they said about the secret iodine releases when I was a child. My thyroid is failing requiring me to take medication for the remainder of my life but there is "insufficient data" to establish a causal connection between my thyroid failing and those releases. How frickin' convenient.
The cult of arrogance and secrecy surrounding nuclear energy is part of the problem. I also have troubles with internal government reports coming to conclusions that finds the government did nothing wrong. I'm sure you garnered some of these attitudes when you did your time there with the navy so you'll forgive me if I take what your assertions with a grain of salt. I too am after the truth but I'll dismiss strident assertions from both sides if you don't mind. Certainly there is sufficient information that justifies the gross expenditure for a bunch of innocuous sand to raise some eyebrows.
That being said, as long as the sand is stored in solid containers and does not seep out or escape into the environment at the waste site, it should result in no measurable effects to harm the general public. But, I wouldn't encourage playing around in it :-).
How much would anyone want to bet that ol' Widestance is behind this? What does he have to lose? How much does his Swiss Bank account stand to gain?
So we should all just apologize and move along and accept our bonus checks like good little people. J. Doe has it all in hand, spin and everything.
Repugnants always go for the money. No matter who has it or what it is for.
Irwin, isn't another issue with DU the fact that it becomes aerosol upon impact? Is that material in the sand and can it become airborn again making it easier to migrate and ingest?
In talking to Jill earlier, I mentioned that one possible concern would be if the storage facility wasn't airtight and somehow some of the sand could become airborne (from a stiff wind, for example). Again, ingesting the material (even airborne particles) could cause some deleterious physiological effects, but I'm not fully conversant with the biological issues involved.
RE: "Since when did the Western states become an international dumping ground...? "
That happened in 1951. That's when the first plutonium from Rocky Flats, Colorado was dumped over our aquifer at INL. That's the same plutonium the final CERCLA plan leaves buried, in this flood zone. The 50's started the Atoms for Peace international proliferation of nuclear power plants for US nuke businesses. That foreign spent fuel waste is still being imported into Idaho, while no high level waste dump, like Yucca Mt Nevada is anywhere close to being forced open. We are also stuck with the melted Three Miles Island core.
The main question is are the silo dumps at Grandview going to contain this radioactive and toxic waste for the thousands of years it will be toxic? Since it is labeled as low level waste, they are only required to show it will be isolated for 100 years.
I have not studied Grandview geology, but at INL they have large historic 100 year floods, and even larger 500 year floods. The plutonium there is already leaking from the tineir floods they had in the 60's. When the plutonium ladden water is pumped to the surface for irrigation, the next brownout wind storm will be resuspending plutonium for inhalation, the worst pathway of exposure for kids and adults.
If Grandview is flood proof forever, they would probably suggest it instead of Yucca Mt...Peter
To some extent, I'm joking; but, to some extent, I'm not. Idaho gets two senators and some other nationally influential politicians and the votes cast for those Idaho politicians sure cause a lot of other people, across the country, a lot of trouble on a regular basis. Should Idaho then get to evade the results of that trouble?
No doubt the symbolic karma has truthful irony. Iduho politicians have volunteered Idaho for front line nuclear duty, and the flag waving has distracted the voters well. But we are closer than anytime, in my 20 years of duty, to the hopeful time when well intended Idaho families realize we are the butt of our politicians joke.
To 6 degrees, and all other detail lovers...
RE: Is the radiation from depleted uranium negligible?
It is not as hot as plutonium-239, and way less than the plutonium-238 that will leak from the pu-238 production cluster that Idaho was selected for in 2004. Please see the Jackson Hole law team and citizens fighting this at http://www.yellowstonenuclearfree.com
But here are 2 NIH website official articles on that subject. Keep in mind, while they slowly watch SOME soldiers with DU, the VA generally refuses to test the urine of ALL vets for DU. It helps them blur the stats, because many soldiers are not downwind of DU, depending on where they serve, and doses vary.
But anyway, bless our soldiers, and here are some quotes and references...Peter
The radiological hazard of DU has usually been downplayed by claiming “Since DU has a low specific activity in comparison to natural uranium, it is not considered to be a significant radiological hazard,” [#1 below]. The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research
Institute, however, exploring that issue in the same report, stated, “The potential contribution of radiation to DU-induced biological effects is unknown and the involvement of radiation in DU-induced biological effects could have significant implications for current risk estimates for internalized DU exposure.”
In measuring radiation damage of DU, compared to simpler heavy metals, by measuring increased dicentric frequency and neoplastic transformation frequency, on human osteoblast cells, they indeed discovered “Taken together these data suggest that
radiation can play a role in DU-induced biological effects in vitro.”
Leukemia is accepted as a radiation inducible cancer. A 2005 study did detect DU’s ability to induce leukemia as well, [2]. The Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute found, “The growth properties of leukemic cells from bone marrow, spleen, and lymph node were assessed and indicate that the FDC-P1 cells had become transformed in vivo. The kidney, spleen, bone marrow, muscle, and urine showed significant elevations in tissue uranium levels prior to induction of leukemia. These results demonstrated that a DU altered in vivo environment may be involved in the pathogenesis of DU induced leukemia in an animal model.”
[1] Radiat Prot Dosimetry. 2002;99(1-4):275-8
Observation of radiation-specific damage in human cells exposed to depleted
uranium: dicentric frequency and neoplastic transformation as endpoints.
Miller AC, Xu J, Stewart M, Brooks K, Hodge S, Shi L, Page N, McClain D.
Applied Cellular Radiobiology Department, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research
Institute, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA.
[2] Mol Cell Biochem. 2005 Nov;279(1-2):97-104
Leukemic transformation of hematopoietic cells in mice internally exposed to
depleted uranium.
Miller AC, Bonait-Pellie C, Merlot RF, Michel J, Stewart M, Lison PD.
Applied Cellular Radiobiology Department, Armed Forces
Sisyphus, I'm sorry about your thyroid, but just because you have thyroid problems doesn't mean that they were caused by the iodine release. Did people have similar thyroid issues before nuclear power came about? What those of us who work (or worked, in my case) in nuclear power know is that the risk of low-level exposure is fairly small. ( http://www.umich.edu/~radinfo/introduction/risk.htm ) Normally, about 2000 people of a random 10000 person sample will die from cancer. If those 10000 people were each to receive an additional 1 Rem of whole body radiation (an amount way more than I got from nuclear power in my 21+ years in the submarine force), an additional 8 persons from that group would die of cancer. Obviously, it sucks to be one of those 8 persons. The question is how much of an economic hit do we want to take to reduce the potential death rates for a given risk.
Radioactive dust from depleted DU has been linked to surges in regions where DU rounds were used. This is completely different than anything you mentioned. The dust is what is important.
But you ignored that. I wonder why?......
But you know, play with people's lives when there is money at stake, that just seems like such the conservative thing to do.
[url="http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?c>Global Research</a>
<a href=" More]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml"]More here[/url]
Why do so many doctors disagree with you, Bubbles? Where is your medical degree? Where are your papers published?
I'm not a doctor; I'm just a man of science who's trained in the effects of radiation who wants to keep people from overreacting when it's not required. And since I have no idea who you are, I'll appreciate it if you not to use the term "Bubbles"... that's only for my friends like Sisyphus.
Is AE going to leave the stuff in those 306 containers? What a waste of steel. The externalities of this project are fairly astounding, as is the precedent that "any contamination on foreign lands must be shipped back to the United States for disposal" (as per the AE project manager, in the Apr. 15 TDN story) when you start thinking about the Iraq war.
To me, the baseline problem with DU is that govenments and scientists have had to try, over the years, to find something to do with it, because it is essentially a waste product. Besides being used in dental porcelain in false teeth, as well as being put in dyes and pigments (and I believe that at one time France tried to put it in drinking bottles, but found that it leached), and used as a stabilizer in aircraqft, the really only effective use of DU is to put it in weapons. So instead of looking towards a sustainable future in which, for example, we try to cut down on waste, we just think we can eventually contain or burn or use our waste, including using it on innocent civilians. It boggles my mind.
We are just so good at fouling our own nest....
I noticed that too Sharon. Jill, excellent job on breaking this.
And I did make a snarky comment over at Kevin Richert's place on this topic. I don't normally wade into the cesspool of the general commenting over at the Statesman.
You Repugnants anger hell out of me.
Actually, I'm a Democrat here in Idaho. I'm also a realist. I'm sorry if someone who looks at the science dispassionately angers you.
First, why entertain anyone who makes an argument that DU is not extremely toxic ( that's an obvious attempt at disinformation, and that person is most likely a hack, plant or whatever the preferred description is for someone who willfully spreads disinformation to minimize damning evidence.)
Second, and the big question....
What is the purpose behind shipping the sand from Kuwait to Idaho?
(if that was addressed in commentary I missed it due to the argument with the hack.)
http://www.americanecology.com/about_us.htm
http://www.2news.tv/news/18476139.html
Oh, and Chad Hyslop appears to have been Helen Chenowith's mouthpiece for years.
At least the slime sticks together well.
However, speculations are just that... I'd like to know the "official" reasoning behind shipping tons of contaminated sand, overseas, with a war going on, back to the states. I wouldn't mind also knowing the cost, how long it's been taking place (before the watchdog group found out). Was it the result of a deal? What deal....etc.
I just can't understand him shipping it half-way across the world unless he was making a very good profit from it.
I believe (contrary to what they claim) there are very hazardous contaminants in this sand as I live fairly close to the Grand View Idaho landfill (downwind), and I have suddenly noticed something very obnoxious in the air. I have great allergies to chemicals such as chemical weapons and biological weapons (like I experienced in Salt Lake with the nerve gas incinerator and air spraying). I also believe that depleted uranium is very dangerous (check out how sick the contaminated and sick Iraqi babies are--it just breaks your heart!).
Surely many of us will become very sick if this
kind of irresponsible and breach of our constitutional rights is allowed to continue! We must stop it now before it becomes permanent, and they even bring in uranium and plutonium like Idaho's governor, Butch Otter, wants to do.
The article also states: "If the radiation levels from the sand were not greater than background levels in Idaho, which are probably less than anywhere in the Gulf at this time, then there would be no reason to ship the sand out of Kuwait. If the retired Major if right, then the sand is contaminated with toxic levels of other substances such as CHEMICAL WEAPONS AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS (in addition to conventional munitions, DU, chemicals, tanks, artillery, fuel, all stored in preparation for gulf war II, and who knows what levels of radiation)."
Additionally, I do believe it's a real possibility that this "real toxic mess" was originally destined for Snowville, Utah. A phenomenon recently happened there: Without notification or permission of the people in Snowville and the surrounding areas, government entities decided to build a 4-county dump/landfill there. When the people found out, they were able to get 5,000 signatures (or more) petitioning and protesting this proposed dump. When the government entities (I know not who) found this out, they sent out letters to each one of the petitioners stating they were NOT allowed to protest and would probably be sued as a result. The phenomena is there were apparently some complaints made to Box Elder County regarding the planned illegal Snowville dump, etal, and the Constitution's 1st Amendment which gives the citizens the right to redress and petition grievances (among other things). All of a sudden this whole issue was "pushed under the table," and is not to be found on the county "dockets."
It appears that (especially) Utah and Idaho are presently under attack by several government entities. I.E., Their water and personal property rights are being encroached upon, their Constitional rights are being tread upon, and there are nefarious health breaches being perpetrated upon them, also by various governmental agencies.
To name a few: Dangerous high-power lines from Idaho through Utah (a public meeting was held June 6, 2008 stating, "A group of citizens is working hard to negotiate routing either out of Box Elder County to a location more acceptable to our residents and affected landowners, and a route that causes the least private injury as required by the State of Utah statues"...sponsored by U & I concerned citizens.)
Another area of attack is North of Logan, Utah, where they are trying to put in a decontamination/storage (and something else) area of plutonium from France.) Logan has the best water in the world and one of the highest longevity rates, but it won't be if this plutonium thing is allowed to go forward. The same goes for Idaho.
And then there are other things which are coming to the forefront concerning unconstitutional partnerships for profit between state and government entities and probably citizens who are joined as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), also for profit and power.
There are other "unconstittionals" coming up, which are in the planning stages. We need to keep our eyes open, that's for sure.
but no responses as of posting date. Has this story died?????? I'm sure by now the sand has reached its destination.... I'd like to follow this if anyone has any links to new articles or new info on the subject
By sumone, 5-24-08
Contaminated sand from Kuwait heads to US
KUWAIT/US: Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from Kuwait are headed toward a dump in southwestern Idaho, in the United States. The American Ecology Corp. is shipping about 6,700 tons of sand containing traces of depleted uranium and lead to a hazardous waste disposal site 70 miles southeast of Boise. The sand arrived by ship at Longview, Washington, this week and company officials say loads are scheduled to begin arriving in Idaho by rail in two weeks.....
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MzgwNTU1MTUz
By sumone, 5-24-08
Kuwait gets rid of radioactive goods
Published Date: February 17, 2007
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTU1MTE=
I got up at 6:30 this morning, and as usual, my nose was itching and clogged up. This is new for me. I have never suffered allergies like this before. My scabs all over my nose are finally starting to heal (they occurred a couple of weeks ago due to an allergic reaction brought on by fierce winds from the northwest blowing in all kinds of gunk.) And if this as a result of the Kuwaiti/Grand View toxic sand dump (which I think it is), then I am pretty peo'd. The thought of going on for the rest of my life in this miserable condition due to the long-term effects of contaminants like depleted uranium dust being blown up into the air and into my home is more than I can contemplate.
As I read through all the "spin" articles on the internet promoting American Ecology Corporation and their specialized "hype" about how expert they are of handling the Kuwaiti contaminated sand (and so on), I get sort of gagged out. I have been all through this before in Salt Lake when they were "hyping" us about how the smoke from the nerve gas incinerator would "only" be equivalent to everyone (including children) smoking a cigarette a day.
It was evident then and it is evident now that they hire "spin doctors" to write these articles to calm the populous down and convince them that "everything will be all right" when it will not be all right!
One particularly distressing article is dated May 1, 2008 at URL: http://www.2news.tv/news/18476139.html. It is entitled "Contaminated Sand Headed for Owyhee County. It shows a large dump truck (with the dump part covered with what looks like a flimsy canvas cover, and dust (probably DU) is flying all over the place as the truck goes speeding along its way. Are they using dump trucks? If so, that would be the reason for all this toxic contamination in the air. What happened to the rail cars and "sealed containers" and plastic bags they are supposed to be using? Is anyone watching them? Do we even have any control over this thing that will in all probability affect us for the rest of our lives? If not, we need to "take control" (back) before it is too late.
I don't trust them. I've had too much experience to place any trust in them. They lie a lot. They don't care about our health! In fact, if they can find a way to contaminate you without your knowledge, they'll do it.
Now to change the subject a little: I just love these articles by Tom DeWeese. The one I am looking at now is titled, "National Heritage Areas: Assault on Private Property." (at URL http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom102.htm). It's about how H.R.1483 legislation will create six Heritage Areas in a 175 mile corridor from Virginia to the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa. The article warns that the bill would send over $135 million of federal pork to special interests to be used to influence local zoning laws and help LOCK AWAY OUT PRIVATE LANDS in the name of historic preservation.
It's my opinion that if this type of legislation (to take control of us and our private properties) is allowed to continue unabated, everybody will soon be forced off their rural properties and will be "herded" into the cities where they will live in small communal apartments and ride the "light rail" to work everyday. They will do all their shopping at the various light rail station exits, and then carry or pull their groceries home as they walk to their abodes. There won't even be many cars anymore (except for the government officials and those who are "on the take" and can afford the gas). And it gives me the "shudders." I saw all of this in the planning stages back in the late 90's when they were mapping out their plans. Lately, it appears to be all coming about on the "fast track!" Let's hope we all rebel and not let this happen! Cause you know what will happen...we will all be confined to the city and will have to get special permits in order to take a little trip out of town.
These are questions I (and many others) would like to have answered.
I don't think that's being done at Grand View. I think the "contamination crew" has been using dump trucks to empty the contaminants from the rail cars and then transfer and empty them into the land fills. If I am right, this is a very poor method of disposal as it would tend to put a lot of radiated particulants into the air. Is this by accident or on purpose? Or is it just plain being stupid?
After reading many articles on just when the longshoremen finished unloading the 6,700 tons of "sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead" onto U.S. terra firma at the Port of Longview was around April 29, 2008. According to one article, "Half of the containers will be loaded onto 76 rail cars and transported to an American Ecology disposal site in Idaho. The other half will remain at the port until the trains return to haul them to Idaho. These containers all will be at the disposal site in Idaho within 15 to 30 days, Hyslop said." So...according to this and other articles, all containers were scheduled to be at the disposal site by the end of May at the latest. They have been continually unloading and emptying the containers at the dump beginning approximately in the middle of April and continuing possibly on into June. This would coincide to the time when I had (as listed above) those allergic reactions due to "something that was in the air."
And I took another look on the web at those poor little Iraqi babies and children that have been contaminated with depleted uranium, and it horrifies me. I fear for our little children that live anywhere near this Idaho dump site. First it was thimerosol in the vaccines, and now it will be depleted uranium at the dump sites. Our babies were given vaccines with thimerosol beginning in the early 1980's and it has been causing an autism epidemic; and then our soldiers were contaminated with DU (plus their vaccines) and are now even committing suicide in droves because they can't take being terminally sick anymore.
Now we'll have the additional worry with the possibility of some of our little ones becoming horribly deformed from being contaminated by DU.
Woe unto us all!
I think it is a very real possibility that they have found a way to aerosol us in our skies with this brain cell stuff. Aren't "blood cells" one of the contaminants in the chemtrails? (P.S. I know more than I am telling you.)
Now, I perceive a time in the near future when we will be pushed just about as far as we are willing to go by these subversives (or secret combinations) who are taking us over.
The Bible is very clear on what we are to do about it. It's in Ezekiel 3 v.17-21 and also Ezekiel 33 v.7-11 (plus elsewhere in the Old and New Testaments).
It says in essence: We are to be diligent watchmen and women, and we are to give the heathen warning from Jesus that (when he comes) they shall surely die if they don't repent and turn from their evil ways.
And if we give them warning and they don't turn from their wicked ways, then they shall die in their iniquity, but "thou has delivered thy soul."
But if we don't warn them, "his blood will I require at thine hand (and we will die right along with them)." We are not to bear the shame of the heathen and we are not to depend on our guns to save us (for as per Revelations, "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.") And we are not to join them (as many of the House of Israel have already done.) And woe to the House of Israel (as a whole) if they do not repent! "For why will ye die, O house of Israel?"
So, we need to warn them before it's too late!
"Let us not be asleep as others are; let us be awake and watching them."
Also, Brother R.J. Stair (in his 70's) has a radio web site that I like to listen to at http://www.overcomerministry.com. I can also get it during the night out of Roswell, New Mexico on the a.m. 1200 dial. Brother Stair considers himself to be "the" modern-day prophet. He is a character and never at a loss for words and knows world happenings and the Bible quite well. (He advises us to get out of the cities; don't go to doctors or hospitals, but heal yourself; grow a garden and become as independent and self-sufficient as possible, among other things.) He has great "down home" music. This morning there was a "whistler" on, and I really enjoyed that. He boasts that he can now be heard all over the world including Russia. He believes that we will incur "martial law" around the end of February 2009. He says he knows he will be killed, and believes Jesus will come within six months of his death. You gotta admire someone with that kind of hootspah!
Roger
As a result, for the last couple of weeks my family has chosen to stay indoors as much as we can. And so, we don't have any more symptoms of being contaminated, except for minor sinus problems. And I get up during the night and close the windows if I can detect "stuff in the air."
I still remember how people in Southern Utah (during the 1950's when the radio-active fallout from the above-ground atomic bombs in Nevada would come over their area in a pink cloud) told about how some of the people didn't pay any attention and stayed outdoors. As a result, within about ten years, they got really sick and died of various kinds of cancer. Others who went indoors (when they saw the pink clouds coming) managed to escape becoming terminally sick from it. So, I learned a lesson from that.
However, two of my neighbors who stayed outdoors during this time are now experiencing adverse health symptoms. One has a seriously infected nose with red sores all over the outside of her nose, and the other neighbor (I warned her but she chose not to pay much attention) is not feeling good at all. She has extreme sinus problems and pain in her joints, and problems and pain with her bowels and lower back bones that she says won't go away. I told her to put some steam on her stove (to keep the contaminated floaties down) and stay indoors and take plenty of liquids, plus Vitamin C, which she is doing.
It's at http://www.naturalnews.com/z023274.html
It has some interesting things to say. For instance, "Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations."
and "More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991," said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. "The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive...people, particularly children, are condemned to die of malignancy and congenital disease essentially for eternity," said anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott.....
And now because of the dumping of the Kuwaiti DU+at Grand View, Idaho, my life outdoors is greatly curtailed (woe is me!). I'm not blaming the very high amount of pollution that is in the air totally on the landfill. I do think our government and related entitiies have found they can step up incineration production and get away with it by using the California forest fire smoke as a "smoke screen."
There is a lot of misinformation on the internet. Leuren K Moret is one of those who pretends to be an expert but is not. You said that Moret was a "nuclear scientist". In reality, Moret had a connection with two nuclear laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore. At Berkeley, she was a graduate student in Geology under a distinguished UC Berkeley professor and worked with another doctoral student Johathan Stebbins who now is a distinguished professor in his own right at Stanford. They did not study uranium or radiation; they just used the laboratory facilites above the University of California campus. At Livermore, Moret was a Senior Scientific Technologist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing. I tried to put links in my original post so that you could learn direct from the source documents, but the spam filter does not like too many links. Go to to the Yahoo Group DUStory and follow the directions to use the guest user name and password to go to the Files Section - there you will find documents that I got about Moret, Douglas Lind Rokke, a fellow con artist in the anti-DU crusade, Asaf Durakovic and other documents that will teach you rather than propagandize you. Message 76 at DUStory also has a number of publicly accessible links that will show you what real international scientific research has found out about DU versus what the anti-DU crusade that was started by Saddam Hussein's government when it wanted out from under the UN Sanctions that ended the Gulf War and found it easy to con the sincere peace activists who visited Iraq in the 1990's and before 2003. I do urge you to learn, not just take everything that you find on the internet to be the gospel truth because it often is not.
TAB I -- The Camp Doha Explosion and Fires (July 1991) -
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii/du_ii_tabi.htm#TABI_TheCampDohaExplosionandFires(July1991)
Roger
DUStorydashowneratyahoogroupsdotcom
"The ECC team surveyed the North Compound with its own radiation detection and measurement equipment. On entering the 2nd Squadron motor pool, they found large quantities of DU scattered around the MILVAN ammo storage containers that had detonated in the fire. Many of these DU penetrators were intact, but others had fragmented or burned down to varying degrees, with some almost completely reduced to ashes. Individual rounds exploding among the stacked ammunition ejected some rounds and penetrators into the open. Other rounds, burned or unexploded, remained within the shells of the conexes. Using an AN/PDR-56 radiation detector fitted with a small alpha probe, the EOD sergeant measured the DU cores, and after they were removed, monitored the surface beneath them. Most DU penetrators inside and outside of the conexes gave off very low radiation readings. The ECC team then double-wrapped the DU penetrators in plastic, bubble-wrapped them, and put them in 55-gallon drums. Personnel packing the drums with DU penetrators wore surgeon's caps, safety glasses, half-face protective masks, coveralls, butyl rubber aprons, rubber surgeon's gloves with cotton inserts, and rubber "booties" over their normal work boots. The team filled eight drums with about 250 DU penetrators"
Prior to this, the Army had filled five 55-gallon drums with DU penetrators - so at least 400 of the DU penetrators appear to have been recovered back in 1991.
Suggest any of you with serious interest in what happened in July 1991 read both Tab I and all of the footnotes - many of the footnotes are from investigators who interviewed people who had been there in order to learn more a few years later.
There may be a lot of disinformation on the internet, but there is also a lot of truth. I am not really interested in what happened in 1991 (maybe somebody else out there is). Sorry. I just know that contaminated soil was brought more than half way around the world and haphazardly and carelessly (with a dump truck) deposited 140 miles upwind (northwest) from where I live when there was a fierce wind (around June 5, 2008) and that it came into our home and that during that time I experienced a toxic effect that I have never experienced before (that is, during the summer and all at one time). This included throwing up in the middle of the night, a couple of bloody noses, and huge scabs (the worst I have ever had) on top of and all around my nose which took quite a while to heal.
Then, we wised up and stayed indoors for a couple of weeks, but a couple of neighbors didn't and one also got huge scabs on her nose, and another became really sick and had to go to bed, plus she had other symptoms of being contaminated. We finally got a little rain and some thunder and lightning, around the 22nd of July, and it cleared the air a lot and made breathing a lot easier (thank God!).
And I do believe Doug Rokke is "on the mark." There is just too much proof that DU is dangerous, by studying our contaminated soldiers and those Iraqi babies and children who are extremely affected from their encounter with DU. It's a tragedy!
You get on a rant about my credentials as a podiatrist above. In my May 1 post you will see my view and 2 medical articles I refer to. In no way do I state I am an expert in anything. I quote the experts, you decide. But I do have an open challenge to debate INL scientists anytime, anywhere. They have even backed out of radio shows when they found out I would be present correctly quoting documents that contradict their claims of safety.
But to answer your questions a podiatrist is a surgeon of the foot. I do use x-rays and radioactive bone scans when needed, but never on pregnant women, as my medical education taught me. I am trained to understand the biological effects of ionizing radiation on pregnant women. Yes, we take the same sciences of physics and chemistry as Medical Doctors (MD) and Osteopathic Physicians (DO). We use the same medical texts, and usually the same medical professors taught at both schools.
But that don't make me right. If a carpenter said the same things, they would be right too.
Dr Rokke was the doctor that the Penatagon thought had the right credentials to head the investigation of DU. When he blew the whistle, they started slandering him just like you do.
The VA fired 2 MD's that demanded DU urine testing, but the medical studies I quoted were peer reviewed from the official Nat'l Institute of Health's pubmed website. Are you in the "Agent Orange is good for you" club?
Also, some nights are okay to leave the west window open but last night wasn't good. I woke up sick during the night (and immediately closed the window) and haven't felt good all day and am experiencing pains in my legs. Who knows what the source is. It could be any combination of things.
You mention Doug Rokke, as did Dr Rickards - Rokke is a professional liar; he found that he could not get enough work as a substitute teacher and did not seem to make it as a professor, so he goes around the country on the anti-DU and 9/11 Truth rubber chicken circuits with his hand out. My reply to Dr Rickards got hung up in New West's spam filter; I guess it can not handle a half hour to write carefully researched reply.
If you are 140 miles from the disposal site; you most certainly are not being affected by anything that was dumped there. The furthest that DU went from the site were the IAEA deliberately blew it up into the air with explosive charges as an experiment was a few meters. It is extremely dense and does not travel far.
Most of the stuff on the net regarding DU endlessly repeats the same false information. Go see a Certified Health Physicist. I am sure that there are some in Idaho or just go to your local college or community college and learn something about the physics and chemistry and set your mind at rest. There is no sense worrying about something that will never harm you, but first you have to learn why it really doesn't present a harm to you.
Roger
Why do you keep trying to find holes in my story? Rokke stepped up to the plate and that's what is important. You need to step up to the plate, too, and quit trying to find holes in his story. And, please state the truth!
On and around that day (June 5), the weather was fierce. I've heard that sand can blow 300 miles in a fierce wind, and the jet stream was moving all around. I do believe radiation (DU) can permeate the sand.
Since I am no expert, I cannot prove it was the depleted uranium. But my intuition tells me I am correct. (You've heard about women's intuition haven't you?) I have experienced the incineration of chemical weapons up close and knew what that was and where it was coming from (25 miles as the wind blows from the west over the Oquirrh mountains in Salt Lake ). Before that incinerator was even finished, I kept looking into that corner and knew there was something "evil" out there. I even tried to go up Butterfield Canyon to see what it was, but the state had it all blockaded off.
Then, on the first day of incineration of GB/Sarin Gas (on August 22, 1996), I drove out there (to Rush Valley) and stood downwind. The incinerator smoke gave me great pain in my head and stomach, and I had to get out of there before I passed out. I had sores inside my nose for weeks. And for two years I went through hell until I could move out of Salt Lake. The only way I made it was by keeping steam on the stove. (It was very interesting to see the particulants collect and float on top.)
This is what I had to do with the contamination of June 5 and and for some days thereafter. It was like the "chemical weapon contamination" all over again.
And I do belive the "army" was involved in both the incineration of nerve gas and the Grand View uranium dump fiasco.
The part which causes me to still shake my head is that they could have neutralized the GB/sarin and not put it into our air, but Congress would not have paid for that, or it would have required additional legislation. I'm sure there is a much better way to dispose of the DU, but trust them not to use it!
Rokke did not step up to the plate; he started peddling lies after he got fired by the Army from the Army Chemical Corps School; if he had truly stepped up to the plate as you call it, he would have actually had some knowledge to share that the Army wanted to keep hidden. Have you ever looked at the vast amount of knowledge that the Army has released at the Gulf Links site. Rokke was fired during his initial civilian probation because he really was unsuitable for the job. The Army will not officially tell you that; all of Rokke's blemishes are protected by the Privacy Act, but I have corresponded with people who were there when it happened.
Your story is full of holes because you have made no effort to verify it with anyone who does not have a political axe to grind. I have no political axe to grind; I never supported George Bush and I have been a Democrat since I first voted in 1968. I was really heartbroken that my first vote for President could not go for Bobby Kennedy, but I voted for McCarthy and McGovern, etc. through Gore and Kerry. I fought hard against the Swift Boaters during the Kerry campaign and my research on what actually happened when Lieutenant Kerry was discharged from the Naval Reserve has been widely praised and posted.
Sorry woman's intuition does not pass muster when what you are claiming is impossible. Read the literature; the scientific literature that is; look at what the IAEA did in Kuwait; look at what UNEP found in Boznia-Herzegovina, even in Southern Iraq and look at the Uranium measurement made during the UNEP clean up of a former Soviet SCUD missile site in Afghanistan. Science is not an "I believe" issue; it is "show me", "verify it", "let me try to duplicate the finding" type issue. Nothing in the anti-DU literature that abounds on the internet passes even these simple tests.
You are really hard to talk to. You seem to know nothing about intuition and you pooh, pooh all that I have to say. No one out here has an axe to grind. We're all just suffering. The air is being contaminated by all kinds of things besides the DU. The last five years were wonderful because the air was so pure. Now all of a sudden, we can't even leave our windows open very much. The birds have gone and I even found a large beautiful dead one out behind our house a few of weeks ago (I think the DU got to it.)
Having had a little more experience in life than you have, what you have said about Rokke makes me like him even more...that he was and is a nonconformist. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "He who wouldst be a man must be a nonconformist. And the Bible backs this up (see Romans 13v.8). A nonconformist gets in a lot of trouble throughout his life because he doesn't go along with the "status quo." He thinks for himself. Being a "Democrat" all these years says to me that you have been "conformed" for quite a while. I could tell from Clinton's voice (from the beginning)...what he would do. And I certainly was "on the mark" with our current president. I never vote by party, I always vote according to my intuition and vote for the integrity of the man or woman (which makes for slim pickins). This year it looks like I'll be voting for Chuck Baldwin...not that I think he'll win, I just can't stand to vote for anyone who will take this country down any further, such as will be the case with our current Democratic presidential candidate (or Republican for that matter).
You appear to me to be quite erudite. That is, you are very "book learned," and you take what you read as being "gospel." Don't you know people lie all over the place in order to "conform."
Interesting dialogue!
Roger, can you please provide the reference for your statement that DU travels "only a few meters" when it was exploded in a test? That seems so wrong compared to my collection of DOE studies of nanometer size particles that easily resuspend in the wind.
I have to agree with Marjorie, that DU dust and many small particles of pollution can travel very far in the wind. It is documented polution from Japan crosses the ocean to pollute us. However, I am not sure if the DU at Grandview has been dumped loosely, or if it was buried in barrels, still sealed tight. Perhaps they dumped it raw and saved the barrels for future use. Then it might be effecting Marjorie. Perhaps they buried it sealed, and it has nothing to do with Marjorie's serious symptoms.
Marjorie, your MD needs consulted for sure, but from my "perspective", your previous exposure in Utah probably has harmed your immune system. Just as a citizen, I was on the citizen advisory comittee for the CDC Historical Dose study of all the accidental and intentional releases of radioactivity at INL, Marjorie's new neighbors. So the her recent wind storms may have resuspended many tiny radioactive particles to inhale. You all have seen a high wind "brown out" the view as it lifts dust from the earth. The recent 3,000 acre wildfire at INL no doubt resuspended millions of radioactive particles from the plants burning, that had absorbed them in the soil. This may relate highly to Marjorie's symptoms.
I post below the proclamation on hypersensitive to toxins growing list of people from Gov Otter. He doesn't mean it, but it is true. Butch let's huge industrial dairies choke their neighbors on ammonia and sulphers, and invites leaky plutonium-238 production to Idaho. But the proclamation sure is correct, no matter how hypocritical.
And Roger, are you aware that Gulf War vets, officially by medical journals, have an elevated brain tumor rate, and a high ALS (Lou Gerhig's Disease) rate? While no sole source like DU can be pinpointed, umm, sumptin's going WRONG in at least 2 of the many complained of diseases. These med journals are not written by Dr Rokke either! I find many articles that refer to him as heading the Pentagon DU task force, but when I tried the Pentagon website they have no search engine to check. I LOVE to double check people, so I will keep an open mind. But so far I love Dr Rokke's efforts, but I get my info from our official NIH science website, pubmed...Peter
Gov. Otter proclaimed May 2007 and 2008 to be Toxic Injury Awareness and Education Months. They included the following statements:
“Whereas, people of all ages and throughout the world have developed illnesses from toxic injury, also referred to as chemically induced Illness; and in the past some of those who developed intolerance to low-level exposure were diagnosed with chemical sensitivity and/or multiple chemical sensitivity; toxic injury often is characterized by heightened sensitivity to very small amounts of air pollution, petrochemicals and other toxins found in our everyday products and environment; it can start at any age and can be caused by short-term or chronic exposure to one or more chemicals, frequently pesticides and solvents; toxic injury can be life threatening and may include multiple, often disabling illnesses, affecting the respiratory, central nervous (brain), immune, musculoskeletal, porphyrin, energy metabolism and endocrine systems; toxic injury is a chronic debilitating condition for which there is no known cure, causing serious financial, employment, learning, housing, health, social and other consequences; and it is crucial for those with toxic injury to have the support and understanding of their government, families, friends and society in general as they struggle with the restrictions and isolation now placed on them; there are diagnostic codes readily available for toxic effects of many chemicals found in our everyday environment and surroundings; those suffering with toxic injury deserve the same rights, acknowledgment, respect, support and help allotted to other illnesses and disabilities.”
This website pushes the proclamation and which states endorsed it.
http://www.mcs-america.org/index_files/proclamations.htm
The rest of you, if there is anyone actually reading this, here is the link to the IAEA Report on its extensive field and laboratory research in Kuwait after the Gulf War -
Radiological Conditions in Areas of Kuwait With Residues of Depleted Uranium - Appendix III - Experiments to Examine Resuspension
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1164_web.pdf
I started posting a number of links, but this website's spam catcher doesn't let them through. There is a message at the Yahoo Group DUStory which has a couple of dozen or more links to various reports about radiation, depleted uranium, an actual case where people died after being exposed to radiation but yet young men who had been contaminated fathered normal children after they had been completely decontaminated (Goiana, Brazil), areas of the world where there is natural high background radiation, what the UN Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission considers to be WMD and many other factual links -- one that might surprise you is the amount of uranium, including all of the daughter decay products that is emitted from coal burning power plants -- Marjorie, you really don't want to live downwind of one of these. The Message number is 76.
Your reference actually contradicts your claim that DU particles "can only travel a few meters"! And they didn't even burn the DU, they just exploded it into mainly chunks. Page 9 of 81 says "although smaller particles may be carried a distance of several hundred metres by the wind [10]." It aso admits that the wind can resuspend those particles again, umm, just like I said.
And even though your "reference" agrees with me, it is only tell