I VISITED Kosovo in June 2000 and was concerned to learn that NATO forces had
begun using depleted uranium weapons in their campaign to drive out Serbian
troops. Since then, NATO veterans have reported unusual levels of illness and 17
have died from leukaemia.
快猫短视频 recently quoted Dudley Goodhead, head of the Medical
Research Council鈥檚 radiation and genome stability unit at Harwell, Oxfordshire,
as saying that insoluble depleted uranium dust, if inhaled, could be 鈥渟cavenged鈥�
by white blood cells and transported to local lymph nodes
(13 January, p 5). The
report by a Royal Society committee chaired by Brian Spratt of the University of
Sussex, which was published last week, does little to allay my concern. The
report points out the 鈥渁lmost complete lack of measurements鈥� of depleted uranium
in urine samples taken soon after a shell has hit a target and calls for a
鈥渄etailed review of the effects of radiation from radioactive particles in lymph
苍辞诲别蝉鈥�.
I sent John Spellar, the armed forces minister, Goodhead鈥檚 original
suggestion that lymph nodes from dead servicemen should be checked for radiation
damage.
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Before the Spratt report was published, Spellar replied that in 1999 the US
government鈥檚 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry reported no
changes or accumulations of uranium were detected in the spleens of animals
exposed to uranium oxide for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, over 5 years.
Furthermore, animals exposed to uranium dusts for up to a year showed no
significant changes in their lymph nodes or bone marrow. These findings suggest
that uranium-mediated changes are unlikely to occur at the low doses to which
veterans might have been exposed, said Spellar. So lymph node analysis is not
necessary.
In the light of the Spratt report, Spellar or his successor should urgently
reconsider whether lymph node analysis is necessary.
BACK in 1997, most commentators gave Michael Meacher a ministerial lifespan
of no more than a few months. But despite this confidence-sapping start, the
environment minister has proved to be one of Labour鈥檚 most successful
ministers鈥攁s well as holding his job throughout the life of the
government. Part of the reason for his success in the job is that he genuinely
cares about the environment.
But he is not keen on the plan to curb the growth of global warming by
creating giant ponds of calcium hydroxide to soak up carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere
(快猫短视频, 31 March, p 14).
When I asked him about the
plan, he listed a catalogue of still unsolved practical problems. These included
where the heat needed to regenerate the details of calcium hydroxide would come
from. He was also concerned about the effect of the ponds on the local hydrology
and ecology, and whether the public would accept these vast lakes of
chemicals.
Although the government will take a close look at the long-term technical
options, including the calcium hydroxide plan, he thinks the best way to tackle
global warming is to cut carbon dioxide emissions by using energy more
efficiently and by relying more on renewable sources.