Radioactive munitions contaminate people and nature
On the warfare use of weapons containing Depleted Uranium (DU)
by Dr Daniel Güntert MD
During the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans, hundreds of tons of munitions containing depleted uranium were used. After the US government at the time had denied the illegal use of this kind of banned weapons, Brigadier General Michael A. Brooks finally confirmed on 26 March 2001, that “DU bombs had been used.”1 in the Iraq War: Michael Killpatrick, Deputy Director of Deployment Health Support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, recorded the following information: “The Army fired and used from tanks and armored vehicle 24 tons or less of DU bombs, and the Air Force, 10 tons or less of DU bombs from Air-planes. These, when combined, would be equivalent to 115 tons of metallic uranium.”2 Depleted uranium munitions were first used on a large scale in the first Gulf War in 1991. At that time, the US military used 320 tons of depleted uranium weapons. Approximately 11 tons were deployed in the Balkan War, and 75 tons in the Second Gulf War.3
DU causes diverse and severe damage
to people and to the environment
DU was primarily used because of its enormous penetrating power, resulting from its high specific gravity (approximately twice that of lead), and because of the enormous heat generated during explosions. What is more, microparticles of oxidized DU are also dispersed into the air and atmosphere as aerosols during the explosion, and these finally spread over a radius of hundreds of kilometres. These airborne DU aerosols are inhaled by soldiers and civilians, reaching even the smallest respiratory tracts. Uranium-238 and uranium-234, used in depleted uranium weapons, are so-called alpha emitters with half-lives of 4.5 x 109 and 2.5 x 105 years, respectively – that is, between 4.5 billion and 250,000 years – until even 50% of the radiation intensity of the uranium is reached! Alpha rays have a very short range (about 30 µm), but cause chromosomal damage and cellular transformations in the human body at the cellular level. These can lead to cell deformations and malignant degenerations. The consequences are severe birth defects, malignant tumours, and various inflammatory reactions in different organs (autoimmune reactions).
“Once the uranium particles are inhaled into the body, the particles attach first to the trachea and the respiratory system. As the particles are practically insoluble, they are difficult to dissolve in the blood, and stay there for a long period of time. Eventually these clinging particles continue to expose the neighboring organs to radiation. By that, they cause the cell and the gene to go into some transformation, and cause cancers, leukemia, lymphoma, congenital disorders and defects. … This kind of very dangerous weapons are being diffused in large quantity all over Iraq by the US and British troops. Not only during the war, but also after the war, and an unimaginable length of time of 4.5 billion years hereafter, the people of Iraq will have to bear the burden of living in this vast polluted land and learn how to survive with this grim reality.”4
US authorities denied a direct link between exposure to depleted uranium particles and cancer in humans or birth defects for a long time, declaring this link scientifically unproven. However, it has been well known and scientifically substantiated since World War II, that radioactive heavy metals, including uranium, cause health problems in humans. At that time, radioactive uranium isotopes were already known to be carcinogenic. Nevertheless, in 1997 Taylor and Taylor still considered the carcinogenic risk to be very low.5
Legal Milestone
In the War in Afghanistan from 2001 onwards, tons of depleted uranium (DU) munitions were demonstrably used. Together with Professor De Zayas and Professor Mohamed Daud Miraki, an Afghan political scientist and Middle East expert, we gave a presentation on the effects of DU at a UN symposium in June 2008. The symposium was chaired by Karen Parker, President of the NGO International Educational Development and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers. In this presentation, we pointed out the diverse toxic and radioactive health effects on humans, as well as on flora and fauna.6
It took 22 years for the scientific evidence to be legally accepted, now also in Serbia (see "Justice for victims of war contamination: The legal battle for the right to health and the environment"), that DU exposure, in whatever form, can cause cancer in humans. The Italian lawyer Angelo Fiore Tartaglia has already achieved great success in over 500 court cases he has represented on behalf of war veterans before Italian courts (see box). Through the extremely commendable and painstaking work of lawyer Dr Srđjan Aleksić, a Serbian court has secured a ruling that establishes a direct causal link between the lung cancer of a former Serbian army reservist during the 1999 Yugoslav Wars and exposure to depleted uranium (DU). This ruling is indeed “a legal milestone,” as Dr Aleksić himself states, and has far-reaching consequences regarding liability and, of course, for the countless victims of DU.7
Here it is worth recalling how many decades it took before the connection between lung cancer and nicotine consumption could no longer be legally denied. The tobacco lobby, against its better judgment and under oath, with the help of political support reaching the highest levels, denied the carcinogenic effects of cigarette consumption. However, I would like to add that there is a crucial difference between nicotine consumption and the DU problem. With smoking, individuals can decide for themselves whether or not they want to take this risk. With DU, this is not possible because in the event of widespread radioactive exposure, the civilian population cannot adequately protect themselves from contamination.
DU is being used in Ukraine in 2025
DU ammunition continues to be used! Tons of DU ammunition has demonstrably been used in the war in Ukraine. “Russia also reacted angrily when the UK announced in March it was sending depleted uranium shells to Ukraine for its Challenger 2 tanks. When President Vladimir Putin described the weapons as having a ‹nuclear component›, the UK Ministry of Defence said it had used depleted uranium in its armour-piercing shells for decades and accused Moscow of deliberately spreading misinformation.”8 This shows that the US and British militaries classify DU ammunition as perfectly normal, commonly used ammunition, like any other type of ammunition. “National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has described them as ‘a commonplace type of munition’ ”.9 It is apparently of no concern to the military experts that entire regions will in this way be radioactively contaminated for millennia – provided, one should probably add, that their own lands are not affected!
Depleted uranium (DU) munitions used
by Israel in the Lebanon and Gaza wars
A UN report from November 2006 denied suspicions that the Israeli military had used DU weapons against Hezbollah.10 However, investigations by Busby et al. subsequently showed that DU munitions were demonstrably used by the Israeli military in the 2006 Lebanon War: “[…] a high amount of total uranium and an enrichement signature in a single sample from a bomb crater in Khiam, Lebanon.”11
Chris Busby’s findings were questioned by official sources and also by the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW).12 But it is known that the Israeli military possesses DU munitions and also uses corresponding weapons for their deployment. “Nonetheless it should be noted that the Israeli military does have DU ammunition capable weapon platforms, […] which are capable of firing DU consisting […] ammunition from a M230 automatic gun mounted on the Apache helicopter.”13
Since 7 October 2023, Israel has used 25,000 tons of high-explosive munitions in Gaza. For comparison, the nuclear bomb sarcastically nicknamed “Little Boy,” which was dropped on Hiroshima by the US, contained 15,000 tons of high-explosive material.14 A report by the Syndicate of Chemists in Lebanon of 6 October 2024 states that massive destruction caused by Israeli DU bombs has been documented in Lebanon.15
The use of DU munitions
and DU weapons must
finally be outlawed and prohibited
This incomplete summary paints a grim picture of a dark chapter in the widespread military use of depleted uranium weapons. High-ranking British, American, and Israeli military officials are using depleted uranium (DU) weapons on an enormous scale against military as well as civilian targets, despite knowing full well that this will radioactively contaminate vast areas of land with its flora and fauna, and the people living there, for millions of years, causing horrific long-term health problems, including illness and death of fetuses. Those responsible downplay the radioactive damage caused by DU particles, deeming it minimal and insignificant.
The tobacco lobby lied to our society for decades, using the same flimsy arguments to prevent the true extent of the damage from becoming public. Today, virtually everyone knows that smoking is harmful to health. The deleterious effects of even the smallest amounts of radioactive radiation on humans and animals are well-known and have been scientifically proven countless times since the investigations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.16 Therefore, there are absolutely no credible arguments against banning DU munitions from the international arsenal altogether.
In 1968, the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was initiated by the nuclear powers USA, Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Depleted uranium (DU) munitions must also be classified as nuclear weapons. Given the current, highly volatile global situation, these nuclear weapons must, by a common consensus, be banned and eliminated definitively and bindingly for all nations. •
1 Maeda, Akira et al. “The Excessive Use of Weapons and Banned Weapons”, Information Clearing House of 16 October 2015
2 ibid.
3 UNIDIR, Disarmament Forum, Vignard Kerstin et al., Uranium Weapons, October 2008
4 Maeda, Akira et al. “The Excessive Use of Weapons and Banned Weapons”, Information Clearing House, 16 October 2015
5 Taylor, D. M. and Taylor, S. K. 1997, “Environmental Uranium and Human Health,” Reviews on Environmental Health, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 147–157, and UNIDIR, Disarmament Forum, Vignard Kerstin et al., Uranium Weapons, October 2008
6 Kaiser, Thomas. “War in Afghanistan – a severe Violation of the UN Charter, Urgent Appeal to the UN Human Rights Council,” Güntert, Daniel. “Depleted Uranium – Human Health Effects,” 23 June 2008
7 Interview with Attorney Dr Srđjan Aleksić, in: Current Concerns of 15 July 2025, and in this issue
8 Wright, George. “Ukraine war: US to arm Kyiv with depleted uranium tank shells. The Human Component”
9 ibid
10 “Israel did not use depleted uranium during conflict with Hezbollah,” UN News of 8 November 2006
11 Busby, Chris et al. Research Gate; Evidence of enriched Uranium in guided weapons employed by the Israeli Military in Lebanon in July 2006
12 ICBUW-International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons. www.icbuw.org, Allegations of Depleted Uranium Use in Gaza, 4 September 2024
13 “Israel attacks on Gaza: The weapons and scale of destruction”; https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/11/9/israel-attacks-on-gaza-weapons-and-scale-of-destruction
14 Yakoota, Al Ahmad; Anadolu, Ajansi. Israel used internationally banned bombs in Lebanon – Syndicat of Chemists, 6 October 2024
15 ibid
16 Health Effects of Depleted Uranium, The International Coalition Ban Uranium Weapons, October 2004
Deadly dust – made in USA. Uranium ammunition contaminates the world
Although highly toxic and radioactive, uranium ammunition is a common component of US military operations. Since the 1991 Gulf War, the US military, with the tacit approval of its NATO allies, has been using uranium-hardened ammunition, bombs, and grenades. This occurred in Kosovo, as well as in Bosnia and Serbia, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria.
The projectiles are fabricated with depleted uranium-238, a waste product of the nuclear industry that incurs minimal production costs. In English, it is called depleted uranium (DU). DU is popular with the military due to its extremely high density, which allows the projectiles to penetrate reinforced concrete as well as the walls of tanks.
When uranium projectiles hit their target, the depleted uranium used burns into minute particles. This “death dust” can be inhaled and enter all organs because it is a hundred times smaller than red blood cells and can therefore even cross the mother-child barrier. In Iraq and wherever else these weapons have been used, the uranium particles are also contaminating the soil, air, and water. They cause cancer. For centuries, many generations will be harmed because their genetic code is altered.
Documentary filmmaker and author Frieder Wagner witnessed and recorded horrific scenes in Iraqi children’s hospitals. In his documentaries “Deadly Dust” (2007)1 and “The Doctor and the Contaminated Children of Basra” (2003), he reports on the cover-up strategies employed by the military, industry, and governments, as well as by the media and politicians. His years of research on the subject led him to the contaminated battlefields, where he, together with the German physician Siegwart-Horst Günther (1925–2015), uncovered crucial facts.
Frieder Wagner, born in 1942, is a German journalist and filmmaker. He has been awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize for his television work. Since 1982, he has produced his own television documentaries for ARD and ZDF, working as writer, cameraman, and director. His documentary “The Doctor and the Contaminated Children of Basra,” produced for the WDR series “Die Story,” about the consequences of the use of depleted uranium munitions, received the European Television Award in 2004.
Promedia Verlag Vienna 2019;
ISBN 978-3-85371-452-2
(from the publisher’s announcement, translation Current Concerns)
1 The research documentary “Deadly Dust – Depleted Uranium” by Frieder Wagner is available with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZjheXs6O0