PLEASE FORWARD TO FELLOW CANADIANS AND TAKE ACTION !!!

"CANADIAN URANIUM IS BASICALLY PROVIDING THE MATERIAL FOR THESE WEAPONS.
And I really would ask you to make this an issue in the front/centre and
STOP IT NOW AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN !!
-- Dr. Rosalie Bertell
- -------------------------------------------------------------------

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT -[prepared by Janet M. Eaton] of remarks by:

DR. ROSALIE BERTELL speaking on DEPLETED URANIUM [DU] WEAPONS and
CANADA'S central ROLE in the PRODUCTION of these weapons.

Dr. Bertell was one of nine prominent Canadians speaking at: An Unjust
and Illegal WAR: Leading opponents of the War against Yugoslavia speak
out: A public meeting held at Convocation Hall at the University of
Toronto May 6 1999.

Dr. Rosalie Bertell is one of the world's leading authorities on health
effects of low level radiation. For a decade she worked for the US
National Cancer Institute and for 30 years has been in the forefront of
research on the effects of low level radiation on human health. In 1984
she founded the International Institute of Concern for Public Health in
Toronto.

For further background on Dr. Bertell see:
"Dr. Rosalie Bertell - A Great Humanitarian & Scientist"
http://news.flora.org/flora.mai-not/11275

All the best,
Janet M. Eaton, PhD

=============================================================

Audio Transcript:

I'd like to talk about a little known factor in this war and that is the
kind of ammunition which is being used. It's called Depleted Uranium
[DU] but don't let that fool you - it doesn't mean it's harmless.
Depleted Uranium is basically radioactive waste. It's the waste from
uranium enrichment. When the uranium is taken out of the ground most of
it is Uranium 238 but they like the fissioning of 235 which is less than
1 percent of the whole - so when they do uranium enrichment they
basically try to increase the proportion of the uranium 235 that
fissions and the rest of the uranium, and a lot of it, is considered
waste.

For a long time in 70's there was an effort to declare this waste -
scrap metal and use it in our refrigerators and stoves and bicycles and
automobiles and many of us were out there protesting this and we
actually won and they stopped talking about that but very quietly on the
side they gave this uranium free of charge to weapons manufacturers.

And what they discovered was its more dense than lead which means it so
goes through a tank or an armored car, or a bullet proof vest. It's
what's called auto pyrophoric which means it can burst into flame and
when it does it becomes an aerosol and also - you know how when you make
pottery if you put in a kiln and fire it you get a glass – well that's
what happens to uranium when you ignite it in battle.

This was actually used for the first time by the Russians in Afghanistan
but on a very small scale. The first time used on a very large scale was
in Iraq in Gulf War and it was used extensively by the US and the UK.
According to the Pentagon 400,000 American veterans were exposed to this
depleted uranium aerosol in the Gulf War. About 200,000 of these men and
women have sought medical care since the war and about 115,000 have been
diagnosed as having Gulf War Syndrome. Now one would think in the United
States of America given this new weapon and this massive exposure and
these sick veterans that they would have tested the veterans for
Depleted Uranium.

I was in Washington DC 10 days ago and I found that not one American
veteran had been tested for Depleted Uranium in the 9 years since Iraq
war. We actually have tested some of the veterans here in Canada and we
have found Depleted Uranium in their urine at quite a high level and
remember this is 9 years after their exposure which means that the
amount that they are now excreting is nothing compared to what the
original dose was.

There has been quite a dispute, which some of you may know, since the
war is on in Kosovo whether or not Depleted Uranium ammunition was being
used. In a sense this adds to the problem but you should know that every
Cruise missile contains Depleted Uranium ballast and when that missile
impacts that ballast is again aerosolized into very small particles of
uranium glass that can be breathed in and it will stay in body 10 years
or more and it keeps irradiating the tissue around it wherever it is in
the body!!

Canada has been an international leader against land mines but this
depleted uranium is worse than land mines and it will stay around for
thousands of years after the war is over. It is incorporated into the
farm land; it can be picked up by the vegetables; the schrapnel can be
handled by children ; it stays around ; it doesn't disappear; and
because it's an aerosol it can travel as much as 50 - 60 km from the
point of release.

THIS IS CHEMCIAL AND RADIOLOGICAL WARFARE - IT'S OUTRAGEOUS - IT'S A
VERY SERIOUS VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS!!

I think this talk about chemical warfare in Iraq and violation of Human
Rights in Serbia is outrageous - because if anyone is waging chemical
and radiological warfare and violating human rights it's NATO !!

In 1996 this issue was brought before the Human Rights Tribunal in
Geneva and the Tribunal condemned it as warfare. They actually called
Depleted Uranium a weapon of mass destruction. I think it might be
better called a weapon of indiscriminate destruction but they didn't
really have a term for it. I say indescriminate because it will by
choice affect women and children. Women have tisses that are more
radioactively sensitive like the breast and uterine tissue. Children are
closer to the ground; they're growing; they'll incorporate more uranium
into their bones when they grow and they also have a longer life span so
that the cancers that have a longer latency can be expressed. So it
selects out women and children

Anyway it was condemned by United Nations Human Rights Commission and
they have appointed a rapporteur to prepare a brief for the United
Nations. It's not completed yet.

The World Health Organization has sent a team into Iraq to look at the
after math of war but they just went in last fall and they expect to
spend two years in study.

So I think you can see that the forces for good here are slow compared
to the extent at which this is being used and the rapidity with which it
is being used not only in Iraq but Bosnia and Kosovo .

So I would call this to your attention- and I would ask you to make this
known.

It's largely Canadian uranium that's being used!!

Canada has a policy that its uranium cannot be used in Nuclear Bombs!

That policy does not extend to these DU weapons. So you really have to
complain loudly about this!

Canada also sends its uranium down to Paducah, Kentucky to be enriched
and it does not ask for the return of the waste. If that waste stays in
US for 30 days by US law it becomes US uranium.

SO CANADIAN URANIUM IS BASICALLY PROVIDING THE MATERIAL FOR THESE
WEAPONS.

And I really would ask you to make this an issue in the front/centre and
STOP IT NOW AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN !!