I thought I’d go off topic for this blog, not because I’ve lost enthusiasm for injecting some sanity into lead biohazard monitoring and management, but it’s nearly Christmas and no one in government is going to do anything for the next few weeks.

I came across a lovely lady in Rockhampton who grew up and lived near Sarajevo. She has all sorts of “interesting” medical conditions as a leftover from her time in Bosnia.

It’s been over 25 years now since the Bosnian war so most of us have forgotten about the conflict unless we had connections with people in Bosnia. There are some glorious stories about how the Bosnians used microwave ovens as decoys for expensive anti-radar missiles, but that’s going off target.

Anyway, she was working at a local University and was sent down to the city’s water reservoir with a radiation counter to determine if there was any radioactivity in the water. This was the water supply for the whole city and it was 5 years since the reactor meltdown in Chernobyl, 1100 kilometers away.

She turned on the radiation counter and it went off the scale. Since that couldn’t possibly be the case she went back to her professor and told him the radiation counter appeared to be faulty. Except it wasn’t!

The local water supply was seriously contaminated by radioactive materials. In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t due to the fallout from Chenobyl, it was due to depleted uranium used by NATO in the Bosnian war.

All the depleted uranium used in the Balkans was in the form of 30-millimeter rounds fired from Air Force A-10 aircraft. About 10,000 rounds were fired in Bosnia and approximately 31,000 rounds were fired in Kosovo.

It’s worth watching a YouTube video titled: How NATO turned Sardina into a radioactive nightmare (How NATO Turned Sardinia Into A Radioactive Nightmare (youtube.com)). Sardinia is host to NATO’s playground for military operations and weapons testing. The testing range near Quirra in Sardinia is used by both NATO and Israel for weapons testing..

One of the weapons used was depleted uranium ammunition, another is French-made missiles containing thorium, which increases the risk of lung and pancreatic cancer. Parts of Sardinia have been turned into a radioactive and toxic metal nightmare, and the people that live and work there are dying in terrible ways. At least in Sardinia the responsible military authorities were prosecuted.

I’ve been aware of the properties of depleted uranium that made it a formidable anti-armour technology, but I guess I didn’t appreciate that the label “depleted” didn’t mean less radioactive. Uranium consists of two main isotopes, U238 (99%) and U235 (1%). The U238 that is “left over” after separating out the U235 which is the fissionable isotope for bombs and reactors, or left when the fissionable material has been used up is depleted uranium.

What makes depleted uranium so useful is that when you fire it at armour, it ignites into a white hot lance of molten metal which slices through armour and incinerates anything on the other side. The soldiers inside the tank are literally toast.

But if a white hot blob of metal hits something solid, it splashes as well and a fine dust is formed from the uranium vapour and that dust cloud covers anything near the target, it contaminates everything in the vicinity. If soldiers or civilians come over to check out the destroyed tank, they’ll get covered in radioactive dust, rain will wash it into the rivers and streams and so on.

It turns out that compensation has been paid to NATO soldiers exposed to the fallout from depleted uranium in Kosovo, but not to civilians, because they’re collateral damage that can’t be avoided. In fact a UNEF report stated “radiological and toxicological risks at DU contaminated sites are, in most cases, insignificant”.

U238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years so the depleted uranium is going to around for a lot longer than mankind. And what’s being done to protect people against the effects of depleted uranium? Not much really.

Bosnians feel just a bit pissed off at NATO, but they ought to reserve their contempt for the nation that supplied the deleted uranium ammunition, not the organization that used it.

If you have a weapon that causes radioactive fallout, then in my book its a nuclear weapon, every bit as harmful in the long run as a small scale nuclear bomb where the fallout consists of radioisotopes that mostly have shorter half-lives than U238.

There are no really effective chelation agents to remove uranium, probably because the US hasn’t invested the money to find one. Why would they, it’s not their problem.

As a comparison, when the Chinese government became aware of the damaging effects of manganese, causing neurological symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, they commissioned a study to find a cure for manganism (that’s the term for manganese poisoning) and Chinese scientists found one. If you’re in China and get manganism from working in a manganese mine, or welding high strength steel containing manganese, you have access to an effective chelation treatment that’s not yet available in Australia. In fact, if you are lucky enough to be diagnosed with manganism if you’re a welder, which is unlikely, the treatment will most likely be nothing. It will get better if you wait.

If the will was there to find a way to protect people from the effects of depleted uranium contamination, it would probably be found. Instead the US is supplying more depleted uranium ammunition to the Ukraine.

If the will was there to protect people from lead, we could do it tomorrow. We have everything we need.

If the will was there…….

Have I pointed out that it wouldn’t cost very much at all?

If the three monkeys (you know: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil) running our health services did a cost-benefits analysis, treatment to prevent the many harmful outcomes of lead exposure would win hands down.

If the will was there…