ok guys, fair enough, these kinds of weapons are helping us to kick arse and take names, but...the after effects!!! i would not even want to be in a tank that uses these shells!
True enough and the government claims that the crew members are entirely safe and in no danger from after affects. Go figure.
Is it true that the places were they fall are contaminated for ever? a dirt cheap way to get rid of radioactive waste. And casualties on both sides garanteed...It should be forbidden.
Because correct me if i'm wrong, but would it not just be the 'atomic soldiers' of the 1950s on a smaller scale? Those poor blighters were scarred by radiation!!!!!
True what bothers me here is what govenrments do not tell. It started after the first Gulf War when veterans came back with all kind of illnesses and there claims were often related to radioactivity.
I guess the question is would you rather take out those 6 T-80's rocking over the hill with six rounds (possible with Chally 2 so I'm told) and risk various ailments or would you prefer to have to go back to each one and put another round in just to make sure and risk getting shot up yourself?
Yes it's better the enemy than ourselves, but there are more convential ways to take them out aren't there? And what about the next generations are these people still to be considered enemies? I don't think anybody has the right to permanently ruin a landscape just because at one point there was an enemy on it. I really think these weapons should be banned by international conventions.
You know, I've had to discuss this subject far too many times. It is truly amazing how little most know about DU. Uranium, like most heavy metals is mildly poisonous if ingested, much as lead or mercury is. In its "depleted" state fissionable U 234 has been culled from the material leaving essentally all U 238. U 238 is not readily fissionable except by use of fast fission processes not widely used in civilian power production and not adaptable to nuclear weapons. But, U 238 is an alpha emmitter as a radioactive isotope. Now, alpha particles are only a health threat if ingested. That is, they are breathed or eaten. U 238 being very heavy is also not readily made airborne making it less of a threat than radon, another radioactive alpha emmitter. In the case of military usage, most DU is also densified by use of various means such as hot isostatic pressing increasing its density and hardness beyond that found in naturally occuring metal. If DU is coated say, with varnish, then it is no threat whatsoever as a radioactive. The emmissions are contained. Outside this, even when fired, DU remains a minimal hazard. The penetrator mostly breaks up in the target and the chunks remaining are really of no danger whatsoever. In handling DU one need only follow good hygene practice. Thorough handwashing to remove any contaminants is really all that is required. So, unless a soldier is handling large quantities of DU on a daily basis and some of that is airborne or could be ingested DU is less of a threat than many other industrial chemicals present in modern military operations. The World Health Orgainzation and Veteran's Administration have done massive studies on the effects of DU. They found no significant threat to health from it. If you peruse the net you find most, if not all, of the alarmist sites trace back to a handful of common sources that are not credible. Many of the sites themselves have dubious credibility too. Go sit in your basement for a couple of hours a day. You are likely to get a far larger dose of radiation from radon than DU could ever give you.
TA, if you sit inside a tank's fighting compartment and are penetrated by a DU round, I am quite sure that the pulverized particles if inhaled will have a deleterious effect on your long term health, as ingestion of a heavy metal. Well, you may argue that the short term effects of being walloped by a DU penetrator will be more pressing than long term ones but these are of lesser concern to most people. I work on an power installations company, and as standard practice our personnel have to wash repeatedly at the end of the day if they have handled bare copper. The risk is minimum but it's a risk anyway so we have to have personnel covered. The safety concerns I heard about DU have to do with pulverised traces in beaten areas but I understand the highest risk will be if you mix DU powder with your coke and snort it. Just follow normal hygiene or as I also saw advised somewhere, "don't lick your tank shells". Again, DU will be most dangerous especially if served by that famous DU dispenser, the A-10 Warthog. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs257/en/ http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/du/en/ http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/du.htm There is also http://www.stopnato.org.uk/du-watch/ but with a name like Stop Nato what do you expect?
If you are in a tank a DU round penetrates the least of your worries will be inhaleing particles. Far more immediate to your future will be how badly wounded you are by the high speed fragments, the fires started (DU is pyrophoric at about 900 C), and basically whether you will live or die.
That makes sense to me but what is you take on the Gulf War Syndrome that was present in the first Gulf War and absent in the current war ? Some blamed DU shells as the cause of the Syndrome and others the vaccinations ect. I had forgotton about it until this thread started up.
Interesting information T.A. You certainly know more than most of us about this matter, but still, I really wouldn't want to be a Guinea Pig in a tank in case you are just 1% wrong
