Secondary Contamination is now progressively underway in Gaza

USA, August 4, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)- It is with horror to learn that the UNDP has started clearing the rubble from Gaza. "The task of pulverizing the pieces of broken concrete will begin in eight days". Do they really understand what they are doing and do the Gazan's, who will be doing most of this work, fully understand the high risk associated with this badly planned clean up.



We have already discussed in previous articles that photographic evidence of weapons containing uranium have been analysed by a US expert. A British Prof Chris Busby has also obtained samples from Gaza (an air filter from an ambulance and also a missile crater) and reported his initial findings as follows: "I have had these analysed here, at Harwell and in Sweden and they show the presence of uranium at levels higher than the Lebanon filter. There is both enriched and depleted uranium in different portions of the material, very strange; the actual isotope ratios vary and we are also using CR39 analysis. The results are not fully written up yet and need some thinking about, but there is certainly uranium in Gaza from weapons usage".We have (over many years) experienced the gross neglect by those who pollute to carry out their obligations (under international law) to decontaminate and clean up respective locations around the world. One can draw reference to Iraq which has probably witnessed the worse ever contamination by weapons containing uranium. It has left them with an almost impossible decontamination task with unprecedented levels of suffering by its people with extremely high levels of many forms of cancer, diabetes and birth defects etc. The United States has totally refused to accept its responsibility in cleaning up the contamination it has left behind.

It is ironic that back in 1991 an accident occurred at Camp Doha in Kuwait that resulted in the US having to clean up a contaminated site and ship it all back to the United States for disposal Here is an extraction from that report compiled by R. I. Scherpelz, R. J. Traub, J. G. Droppo and M. A. Parkhurst: Depleted Uranium Exposures to Personnel Following Camp Doha Fire, Kuwait, July 1991, which was prepared for and edited by the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine.

The scenarios attempt to describe conservative but reasonable exposure conditions that may have existed at Camp Doha. During the fire, personnel may have inhaled DU that was entrained in the smoke plume from the fire. After the fire, personnel may have handled DU penetrators and ingested or inhaled DU-containing dust during the decontamination and cleanup activities that occurred in the months following the fire.