Depleted
Uranium Petition Campaign
Mendocino County
Chapter 116 of Veterans For Peace (VFP) invites the public to join us in our
petition campaign to the U.S. Congress, calling for a moratorium leading to a
ban on depleted uranium (DU) munitions.
The petition is now circulating locally and nationally through VFP
chapters, participating groups, and individuals.
The United
Nations has declared DU an illegal weapon.
The European Union has passed a resolution calling for a moratorium and
global ban on the production and use of depleted uranium munitions. Information and research is being suppressed
and discredited by our government and military much as the toxic defoliant
Agent Orange was during and after the Vietnam War. Similar to Agent Orange – now irrefutably
recognized to have caused rampant death, disease, and environmental damage
among U.S. troops and Southeast Asian lands and peoples – depleted uranium
munitions as used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans presents a national and
world public health threat we must confront.
Depleted uranium
is a chemically toxic radioactive heavy metal 1.7 times the density of lead. It
is the uranium waste remaining after the process of enriching uranium to be
used in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. Thousands of tons of the waste are recycled
to weapons manufacturers by the government for use in M-16 shells, tank shells
and other munitions and to manufacturers of military tanks and vehicles as
up-armored shields. As effective as DU
is as a penetrating explosive weapon and shielding device, its effects are much
more far-reaching as long-term poisonous residuals in human bodies, soil, and
air. When a depleted uranium round hits
a hard target, as much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn on impact,
creating a firestorm of depleted uranium oxides. The toxic residue of this firestorm is an
extremely fine insoluble uranium dust. The dust can spread by the wind, be
inhaled and absorbed into the human body and absorbed by plants and animals,
becoming part of the food chain. The
breathable uranium oxides are passed through to offspring, and may result in
birth defects. With a half-life of 4.5
billion years DU and its effects last virtually forever.
If you want to
participate by signing/circulating the petition click on dupetition for Word file (or dupetitionp for a .pdf document) and download the
petition to print from your word processor or browser. For further information please contact: VFP-116, PO Box 1330, Laytonville, CA 95454 or
email dupetition@gmail.com There are
numerous web sites with DU information such as: www.bandepleteduranium.org or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium . Recent research
information on the binding of low level uranium to human DNA leading to various
cancers, the work of Diane Stearns,
Mendocino County
VFP-116 -- which you may remember as raising over a half million dollars for
relief of Katrina victims and whose members spent months in the New Orleans
area doing relief work – is reaching out nation-wide to gather thousands of
signatures on this petition to our members of congress. We have not set a deadline to end this
campaign.