Gulf War illnesses : understanding of health effects from depleted uranium evolving but safety training needed : report to congressional requesters / United States General Accounting Office.

  • United States. General Accounting Office.
Date:
[2000]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gulf War illnesses : understanding of health effects from depleted uranium evolving but safety training needed : report to congressional requesters / United States General Accounting Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the current medical screening program for depleted uranium. This program is operated by DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). We attempted to survey 194 veterans who had been notified about participation, and reached 128 veterans (66%) to discuss their experiences with the program. We also reviewed the services’ depleted uranium training programs and the training records for selected Army units at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Knox, Kentucky. Appendix I describes the scope and methodology for this report in more detail. ae Results in Brief The scientific understanding of depleted uranium’s effect on health is still evolving. Because depleted uranium is a low-level radioactive heavy metal, the potential for health effects are twofold: effects from radiation and effects from chemical toxicity. Two recent expert reviews have concluded that current evidence suggests that it is unlikely that inhaled or ingested depleted uranium poses a radiation health hazard, namely cancer. In assessing health effects associated with chemical toxicity, both reviews cited the kidney as the organ that would show the first adverse health effects, and they noted that animal studies show that very high doses of uranium may cause kidney failure. However, both reviews observed that studies of uranium miners and mill workers have not shown increased kidney disease even though they were occupationally exposed to elevated levels of natural uranium. The Department of Veterans Affairs is currently evaluating 51 Gulf War veterans who are considered to have had the highest exposure to depleted uranium. Evaluations in 1997 of 29 of these veterans, many of whom have embedded fragments, indicate that, to date, none of these veterans show any evidence of adverse kidney effects associated with exposure to depleted uranium. However, most depleted uranium- exposed veterans with embedded fragments continue to have elevated uranium levels in urine, which were related, in some cases, to lowered performance on computerized tests assessing problem-solving efficiency’ and to high levels of the prolactin hormone associated with reproductive health. The clinical significance and long-term health consequences of these findings are undetermined. Additional research is underway to more fully understand depleted uranium health effects and to better estimate the amount of depleted uranium exposure received by Gulf War veterans. 'Program Clinical investigators cautioned that the number of veterans with elevated uranium levels was small and that a few veterans with complex histories may have contributed appreciably to the observed variance.