DU: Unsafe At Any Level

'Safe' uranium that left a town contaminated
They were told depleted uranium was not hazardous. Now, 23 years after a US arms plant closed, workers and residents have cancer - and experts say their suffering shows the use of such weapons may be a war crime
David Rose in Colonie, New York
Sunday November 18, 2007 The Observer
It is 50 years since Tony Ciarfello and his friends used the yard of a depleted uranium weapons factory as their playground in Colonie, a suburb of Albany in upstate New York state. 'There wasn't no fence at the back of the plant,' remembers Ciarfello. 'Inside was a big open ground and nobody would chase us away. We used to play baseball and hang by the stream running through it. We even used to fish in it - though we noticed the fish had big pink lumps on them.'

[…]Now, in a development with potentially devastating implications not only for Colonie but also for the future use of some of the West's most powerful weapon systems, that claim is being challenged. In a paper to be published in the next issue of the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment, a team led by Professor Randall Parrish of Leicester University reports the results of a three-year study of Colonie, funded by Britain's Ministry of Defence.
Parrish's team has found that DU contamination, which remains radioactive for millions of years, is in effect impossible to eradicate, not only from the environment but also from the bodies of humans. Twenty-three years after production ceased they tested the urine of five former workers. All are still contaminated with DU. So were 20 per cent of people tested who had spent at least 10 years living near the factory when it was still working, including Ciarfello.
[…]As concern in Colonie rose, a residents' group began to call for a publicly funded health study. For Anne Rabe, a founder member of a campaign that has now lasted for 25 years, the Parrish study represents overdue vindication. 'I do find it very ironic that the US government at state and federal level refused for so long to do anything, and now the UK comes along and has funded these tests,' Rabe says.
[…]Ann Carusone lived in a house behind the plant from the time of her birth in 1966 until 1993. 'When I tested positive, my reaction was sheer disbelief,' she says. She has endured years of a chronic lung disease, sarcoidosis, an inflammation of pre-cancerous ovarian cyst that when removed was the size of a grapefruit.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2212865,00.html
This is a new issue only insofar as it's continued use in Bosnia/Kosovo, the first Gulf War and Iraq continues to permanently affect civilians and our own soldiers. I've included one more recent story from ScienceDaily.com. War Crime Tribunals, anyone?
Several Tons Of Uranium And The Town Of Colonie, New York
ScienceDaily (Jun. 27, 2007) — Recent research by the Department of Geology at University of Leicester, and at the British Geological Survey aims to improve understanding of how depleted uranium particulate behaves in the environment. PhD research student Nicholas Lloyd has identified uranium oxide particulate that has survived more than 25 years in the environment, and depleted uranium contamination nearly 6 km from point of release.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070626211736.htm