Afghans' uranium levels spark alert

[Czar]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3050317.stm

 

[tweakmm]

How long before some far-right wacko says this is definite proof that the terrorists had access to nuclear weapons. The UK and USA said they didn't use uranium weapons and they never lie, hell, Blair is digging up Saddam's WMDs right now.

 

[sMiLeYz]

Jesus... "The results were astounding: the donors presented concentrations of toxic and radioactive uranium isotopes between 100 and 400 times greater than in the Gulf veterans tested in 1999.

"If UMRC's Nangarhar findings are corroborated in other communities across Afghanistan, the country faces a severe public health disaster... Every subsequent generation is at risk."

Jesus... jesus... jesus...

 

[LunarRay]

I sure hope this is all a hoax.

 

[KenGr]

This all sounds very bogus. As has been hashed over again and again, even if uranium weapons are used, they would have to be designed to atomize or burn to cause any uptake by humans. But this is exactly opposite of what they are used for. Uranium is of value because it is very heavy and dense. It's a cannon ball type weapon.

There were a few similar stories out of the Balkans. When the most extreme case was investigated (I think it was a small group of Italian soldiers) it turned they hadn't been anywhere near uranium weapons or armor. They came from a village where the local water table (and wells) had a very high concentration of natural Uranium.