DU, Cluster Bombs, and Landmine Working Group 1-page flyer: Depleted Uranium Basics
Do These U.S. Government Definitions apply to the use of DU?
- RADIOLOGICAL INCIDENT: "an event or series of events, deliberate or accidental, leading to the release, or potential release, into the environment of radioactive material in sufficient quantity to warrant consideration of protective actions. Use of a radiologic dispersal device is an act of terror that produces a radiological incident.” Source: Dept of Homeland Security - Protective Action Guidelines for Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) and Improvised Nuclear Device (IND) Incidents - Preparedness Directorate 1660-ZAO2.
- POISONS: "biological or chemical substances causing death or disability with permanent effects when, even in small quantities they are ingested, enter the lungs or bloodstream, or through the skin." Source: AirForce Manual AFP 110-31. The 1907 Hague Convention IV, Section II, Article 23, absolutely forbids use of any poison or poisoned weapons in war.
Sources for Learning about Depleted Uranium
- “Depleted Uranium, Devastated Health: Military Operations and Environmental Injustice in the Middle East” by Sydney Young. In Harvard International Review, September 22, 2021. https://hir.harvard.edu/depleted-uranium-devastated-health-military-operations-and-environmental-injustice-in-the-middle-east/
- The Illegality of DU Weaponry by Karen Parker, JD. Paper prepared for the International Uranium Weapons Conference, Hamburg, Germany, October 16–19, 2003. View/download PDF: https://grassrootspeace.org/karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf
- International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN): http://www.icanw.org
- Back from the Brink: https://nuclearweapons.info/organization/back-from-the-brink/
- "A Treatise on Military Weapons Containing the Radioactive Material: Depleted Uranium" by Albrecht Schott, Damacio Lopez, and John LaForge. In Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, Vol. 4, Issue 4 (2005): https://journals.kozminski.edu.pl/pub/6560