Group seeks study of health effects of depleted uranium

By Barbara Ferry, The New Mexican Copyright 1998 Santa Fe New Mexican December 25, 1998

A group of anti-nuclear activists wants the state Health Department to study the effect of depleted-uranium munitions testing on Socorro residents.

Damacio Lopez, who ran as a Green Party candidate for secretary of state in the November election, was in Iraq two weeks ago along with 40 activists and scientists to attend a conference on the health and environmental consequences of depleted uranium.

"I believe depleted uranium is a major factor in what is happening in Socorro," Lopez said. "But I had to go to Iraq to find out about it."

Depleted uranium is a heavy metal that was first used by the United States in ammunition during Operation Desert Storm. The material used to help munitions pierce armor has been a focus of the controversy over Gulf War Syndrome, a group of unexplained ailments that have been reported by about 100,000 veterans of the conflict.

Lopez, a researcher for the nonprofit Re-Visioning New Mexico, studies the use of toxins by the military. He said he thinks the material might be responsible for both elevated cancer rates reported by Iraqi doctors since the Gulf War and what he says are elevated cancer rates in Socorro.

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology tested depleted uranium in the mountains outside Socorro in the 1970s.

"The explosions (taking place two miles from the town square) would regularly rattle the dishes in our shelves," said Lopez, a Socorro native. "Dust from the explosions would frequently blow into town, yet there has never been a state or federal government-sponsored study of how the testing may be affecting neighboring communities."

Lopez said he asked the state epidemiologist to do a study of the effects of depleted uranium in Socorro during the 1980s but was denied.

State epidemiologist Dr. C. Mack Sewell said he had been unaware of the activists' concerns until Friday, when he received a fax from Peace Action, a group that supports Lopez's call for a health study.

"It caught me by surprise," Sewell said. "I didn't even know what they were talking about.

"We are certainly willing to meet with them and listen to their concerns," Sewell said. "But we first have to determine whether there is any plausibility to their concerns as a health issue."

Sewell said he couldn't immediately say whether there is an elevated cancer rate in Socorro. But he said that data should be available because New Mexico is one of 11 states with a population-based tumor registry.

In August, the Pentagon released a study concluding that depleted uranium was not to blame for Gulf War Syndrome. The study was based on health monitoring of 33 veterans who were injured by "friendly fire" incidents involving depleted uranium. Most had uranium shrapnel in their bodies.

But Gulf War veterans counter that depleted uranium might be to blame for high rates of cancer and birth defects among Iraqi civilians since Desert Storm. In several cities, Iraqi doctors have reported that cancer rates have tripled since 1991.

The Iraqi studies have not been independently confirmed. U.S. officials have said Iraq's chemical and biological weapons could be the cause for the Iraqi people's cancers.

Earlier this month, the head of the Pentagon team investigating Gulf War Syndrome said that depleted uranium should not be ruled out as a factor in veterans' illnesses.

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