13.09.2017
Promotion of book "Early and delayed health effects of depleted uranium"
More than a century has passed since the discovery of radiation. Apart from the production of energy for medical purposes, it found its use in the production of nuclear weapons, whose use marked the end of the past and the beginning of the new millennium. Answers to questions about the consequences of using radioactive ammunition, how to understand the biological effects of depleted uranium on the environment and the human organism and what precautions should be applied, is offered in the book "Early and Deferred Health Effects of Depleted Uranium" by Svetlana Žunić, the new publication of Odbrana Media Centre, presented today at the Central Military Club.- The military use of depleted uranium has contributed to global contamination, due to airborne transfer of particles after bomb explosion, which caused the disturbance of the balance of all natural resources. The most frequent effects on human health are thyroid gland disorders, malignant diseases and anomalies of the fetus, the reviewer Ljubiša Rakić, vice president of the SANU for Natural Sciences pointed out, explaining that the consequences were not recorded only in the areas where depleted uranium was used, but also at distances of more than thousands of miles.
The author of the book believes that the result of using depleted uranium in modern nuclear wars is an immeasurable suffering of global proportions and that there are three possibilities for how mankind can behave.
- First: not recognizing the existence of risks and the consequences of using depleted uranium for human health and the environment. Second: accepting the threat of reality with the phrase “Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant” (in translation: Hail, Emperor, those who are to die salute you). Third: Studious approach to analysis of risk and consequences and setting up a strategy for their overcoming. The last option is the only possible if one counts on the future of the country and preserving the health of the population in permanently altered environmental conditions.
Indicators found by the author are based on the processing of authentic medical data obtained by analysing the condition of patients from the territory directly exposed to depleted uranium after the NATO bombing of the former SFRYrepublics.
- Due to the repeated bombing of the geographically nearby territories of the Balkans and the Persian Gulf in the period from 1990 to 2011, every four years, a large population in the zone of exposure to radioactive particles of depleted uranium from the air, has been continuously exposed to its radiobiological effect with the possibility of permanent presence of internal sources of ionizing radiation, having in mind the average human life. [...] The use of depleted uranium for military purposes results in environmental changes that are manifested by empirically unusual phenomena: temperature extremes, fires and altered seismic activity. Contamination of all natural resources, including air, water and biosphere, is the cause of internal population contamination in a wide region of exposure, most often through inhalation. Early and delayed health effects of depleted uranium occur after the radiation of radioactive particles emitting radiation. Besides inhalation, depleted uranium particles enter the body through the intake of contaminated food and water and injured skin contamination, the author explained, adding that the growing trends of malignant and non-malignant diseases, both in Serbia and the world, provide an incentive to study the negative consequences of the military use of depleted uranium.
Editor of the edition, Mirjana Sandić, pointed out that the book is already being used as a textbook at the Medical School of the Military Medical Academy and that it represents a significant contribution to a better understanding of the biological effect of depleted uranium on the human organism. She also drew attention to the part of the book, which is a well-argued appeal to change social consciousness, which would, by making a rational strategy, help reducing the devastating effects of depleted uranium on human health and the environment.