Depleted uranium’s toll on soldiers and Iraquis is kept secret

West covering up depleted uranium use in wars: Webre http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/12/05/338390/west-covering-up-depleted-uranium-use/  6 Dec 13 Press TV has conducted an interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre, an international lawyer in Vancouver, concerning the rising number of suicide rates among Canadian war veterans.

The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Webre, first of all, who would you blame for this rising trend that we are seeing among these war veterans? Is it because the situation is not being treated when they come back home? Can this issue even be pursued through legal channels?

Webre: Yes, the cause of this was very squarely pointed out in the final opinion of the Tokyo International Tribunal for war crimes in Afghanistan. In their final opinion, they stated that the US forces used depleted uranium weapons in Afghanistan in the manner that Zyklon B gas was used across Europe as a weapon of mass murder in Afghanistan calculated to destroy all the living species exposed.

And so what has been found is that exposure to the ionizing radiation in depleted uranium weapons has been felt both by the targeted victims of Afghanistan but also by the Canadian, by the US and by the UK troops who have had to handle the depleted uranium weapons and who have been in the proximity of the ionizing radiation there.

And it is now known that the [Persian] Gulf War syndrome was caused by large-scale use of depleted uranium weapons against Iraq in 1991 so that 70 percent of [Persian] Gulf War veterans have now had children born after the [Persian] Gulf War with mutations, deformities, genetic [dis]orders and suffer from the same syndromes that go on to produce suicides.

And so there are more that one million US veterans that are on total disability now because of exposure to depleted uranium so that all of the suicides in the Canadian armed forces from Afghanistan are from exposure to ionizing radiation of depleted uranium weapons to which they were not trained and the controllers of the allied armed forces used these depleted uranium weapons knowingly in the words of the International Tokyo Tribunal to cause crimes against humanity, genocide and omnicide. 

And omnicide is a word, the killing of all living things, the genome of all living things including humans, animals and plants and now this is coming home with the suicides of the Canadian forces and the suicides in the American and the British forces and all of the deformed babies and offspring in these soldiers but the greatest tragedy is in Iraq and Afghanistan itself.

Press TV: With what you are saying and the evidence to support it, do you think this issue can be raised in international courts? Or do you think the US could be standing accountable for the use of depleted uranium and the effects that it is having or is going to have?

Webre: Both Iraq and Afghanistan, in my judgment, should immediately go at the international level and break open the courts of justice at the International Criminal Court and other venues and we know those successful legal venues in international organizations to secure damages for what has been called a silent genocide.

This is a complete cover-up by the US, the UK and Canadian forces and also because Canadian uranium has been exported illegally against the Canadian nuclear commission regulations in which no Canadian uranium may be used in weapons and all depleted uranium in US and UK depleted uranium weapons is Canadian uranium and Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, has knowingly allowed this to go forward.

Censored – the health effects of depleted uranium

A factor rarely mentioned is the potential effects of DU on children yet to be born to U.S. Iraq war veterans, who served in places like Fallujah, Basra and Najaf.

HORRIFIC EFFECTS OF DEPLETED URANIUM STILL CENSORED BY U.S. MILITARY, MEDIA HTTPS://AMERICANFREEPRESS.NET/?P=13599 NOVEMBER 03, 2013 BY RICHARD WALKER In a move seen by medical experts worldwide as an effort to suppress the truth about the horrors of depleted uranium (DU) munitions, the United Nations (UN) health arm, the World Health Organization (WHO), along with the Ministry of Health of Iraq (MoH) on September 13, 2013, produced a report that was not even authored, meaning no experts attached their names to it, on birth defects among Iraqi babies in which DU was not even considered a factor.

The report was published on the WHO website at a time when birth defects among Iraqi babies have been rising steadily, especially in areas like Najaf and Fallujah, where DU shells were used indiscriminately, killing and injuring large numbers of civilians. Some estimates for the 2003 death toll in Iraq put the civilian casualties in Fallujah as high as 75% to 80%.

DU is a byproduct of the nuclear industry. It is added to munitions to increase penetration, as DU is significantly denser than steel. The side effect, though, is that, where DU is used, it pollutes everything in the area. While no exact figures exist for the amount of exploded DU in Iraq, it is believed to have been in the metric tons. It would not be the first time WHO has suppressed he truth about the use of DU weapons in Iraq. In 2004, a study co-authored by Dr. Keith Baverstock, a radiation expert hired by the WHO, was not published. According to Baverstock, it was censored because WHO was pressured by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was trying to promote nuclear power. Baverstock warned there was a danger in the dry atmosphere of Iraq that particles from exploding DU shells and missiles could be carried on the air and inhaled by people for years to come.

Baverstock pointed to the fact the United States and UK governments had consistently refused to provide data on the location where DU weapons were used during the Iraq war.

The Lancet, the renowned British medical journal, was confounded by the WHO failure to consider a linkage between toxic munitions and rising birth defects. Instead, the WHO report concluded the percentage of birth defects was either in keeping with, or even lower than international figures. That statement contradicted all previous evidence, including evidence the WHO had previously accepted from medical experts, who had studied the effects of DU in Iraq.

The Lancet pointed to Iraqi experts like Samira Alaani, a Fallujah pediatrician, whose 2011 report  found 15% of all babies born in the city since 2003 had “congenital malformations.” A similar study in Basra by another expert put the figure there at 17%.

A factor rarely mentioned is the potential effects of DU on children yet to be born to U.S. Iraq war veterans, who served in places like Fallujah, Basra and Najaf.

There is nothing new about the suppression of information on this topic. Serbians still press the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to disclose how many DU weapons were used in the 1999 79-day air campaign against the former Yugoslavia. According to Serbians, the weapons used have since resulted in birth defects.

Palestinians also have cause to ask the world why no one has condemned Israel for using DU weapons in the heavily populated Gaza strip. There is also the question of why Israel ignores evidence its Dimona nuclear weapons plant threatens the health of the surrounding population. Israel has so far been able to convince the locals that unusual medical issues are the result of Bedouin livestock.

Cancer victims had radioactive thorium and cesium in their bodies

The nuclear physicist Evandro Lodi Rizzini of Brescia University and CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) found elevated levels of radioactive thorium 232 and cerium (proving that the thorium was man-made) in the tissues of 15 of 18 bodies of Quirra-area shepherds who died of cancer between 1995 and 2000.

On March 24, 2012 Fiordalisi indicted twenty people on charges of “willful omission of precautions against injury and aggravated disasters or because they falsely certified the absence of pollution with the aim to “hide the environmental disaster.” The documents from Fiordalisi’s investigation have now been turned over to a tribunal for prosecution. Read More Here… http://www.nonukes.it/rna/nothorium/news200.html

Film on in situ mining of uranium

Hot Water: The Uranium Industry’s Dirty Little Story The only thing green about nuclear power are the people who think it’s safe. Lizabeth Rogers Activist Post 2 Oct 13, 

HOT WATER Documentary Trailer 

When you were growing up, how many people did you know who had cancer?
How many do you know today?
I began this odyssey, innocently enough in July 2009 when I led a filmmaking crew to South Dakota to investigate what we had heard was an abandoned uranium mine which had contaminated local groundwater and made local ranchers, their children and even their livestock sick. It was my own naïveté which kept me in the dark, and even though I had done a bit of research prior to leaving the driveway I still had no reasonable clue or expectation of the length and breadth of the problem, nor how many of us are affected by it every day.

I had no idea that there are more than 1,000 abandoned uranium mines in the southern Black Hills alone. There are countless abandoned mines elsewhere. I had no idea that there were over 4,000 abandoned test wells in the southern Black Hills…countless more elsewhere.

I had no idea, nor did any of the people I have interviewed, that the water that 38 million of us in the American southwest get from the Colorado River is filtered through 16 million tons of radioactive waste sitting less than 750 feet from the edge of the river in Moab, Utah.

None of these people, all of whom I would consider very “aware” individuals, knew anything about it, or that we taxpayers are paying for the cleanup because Atlas Mining Company filed for bankruptcy rather than try to address the problems they had created.

I, nor any of the people I interviewed knew that this waste is more toxic than the ore itself, with half lives of millions of years. Most of these people don’t know what a half life is…I didn’t when I started this project.

None of these people know that this is just one of thousands of these sites all over the U.S leaching radioactive waste into our groundwater and aquifers. Nor do they know that if the sites are being cleaned up at all, that the taxpayer is picking up the tab.

Tragically, our naïveté continues to cost us the lives and health of the innocent. We allow the environmental carnage to continue as we approve new uranium mining operations with no guarantee that the sites will be reclaimed to pre-mining condition. In-situ leach mines leak into our aquifers while mining companies claim that they are innocent of the cause, and none of the mining company executives would consider allowing their own children to drink the groundwater from one of these areas.

The mining companies know that if the leaching solution breaks into an aquifer, the water is contaminated and cannot be corrected. They cannot and will not guarantee it but will only promise to use the best available technology and make the best possible effort to correct the problem. Then as always, they will walk away with the ore and the profits and leave local residents and federal taxpayers to deal with the aftermath. As Powertech fights local residents of South Dakota over rights to drill new in-situ mines, facts are ignored as fantasy and false promises take center stage in Rapid City courtrooms…….http://www.activistpost.com/2013/10/hot-water-uranium-industrys-dirty.html

No uranium mining in Black Hills, Colorado – say 50 medical groups

The acceptance by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that “the restoration of an ISL-mined aquifer to pre-mining water quality is … an impossibility.”

 “the loss of large volumes of water in such mining operations is not in the public interest” when “considering the projected future scarcity of uncontaminated fresh water in our semi-arid region.”

SD medical association unanimously against uranium mining in Hills http://www.bhpioneer.com/local_news/article_833ccd96-2536-11e3-b6be-0019bb2963f4.html 24 Sept 13, 

Group hopes to work with Colorado Medical Society, bring petition to AMA By Adam Hurlburt Black Hills Pioneer

CHAMBERLAIN — The South Dakota State Medical Association has come out in opposition of uranium mining in the Black Hills in direct response to Powertech USA’s proposed in situ leach (ISL) uranium mining project in Fall River County, making it the second statewide medical association to publicly oppose uranium mining in response to a Powertech ISL uranium mining proposal in the past six years.

At a recent meeting held in Chamberlain, the SDSMA’s 78-member Council of Physicians unanimously voted to support a petition opposing not only Powertech’s proposed Dewey-Burdock ISL uranium mining project in the Southern Hills, but uranium mining of any type in the Black Hills Area.

World Health Organisation keeping wraps on Iraqi birth defects research

WHO Refuses to Publish Report on Cancers and Birth Defects in Iraq Caused by Depleted Uranium Ammunition http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-refuses-to-publish-report-on-cancers-and-birth-defects-in-iraq-caused-by-depleted-uranium-ammunition/5349556 By Denis Halliday Global Research, September 13, 2013 The World Health Organisation (WHO)  has categorically refused in defiance of its own mandate to share evidence uncovered in Iraq that US military use of Depleted Uranium and other weapons have not only killed many civilians, but continue to result in the birth of deformed babies.

This issue was first brought to light in 2004 in a WHO expert report “on the long-term health of Iraq’s civilian population resulting from depleted uranium (DU) weapons”. This earlier report was “held secret”, namely suppressed by the WHO:

The study by three leading radiation scientists cautioned that children and adults could contract cancer after breathing in dust containing DU, which is radioactive and chemically toxic. But it was blocked from publication by the World Health Organization (WHO), which employed the main author, Dr Keith Baverstock, as a senior radiation advisor. He alleges that it was deliberately suppressed, though this is denied by WHO. (See Rob Edwards, WHO ‘Suppressed’ Scientific Study Into Depleted Uranium Cancer Fears in Iraq,  The Sunday Herald, February 24, 2004)

Almost nine years later,  a joint WHO- Iraqi Ministry of Health Report on cancers and birth defect in Iraq was to be released in November 2012. “It has been delayed repeatedly and now has no release date whatsoever.”

To this date the WHO study remains “classified”.

According to Hans von Sponeck, former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations,

“The US government sought to prevent the WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where depleted uranium had been used and caused serious health and environmental dangers.” (quoted in Mozhgan Savabieasfahani Rise of Cancers and Birth Defects in Iraq: World Health Organization Refuses to Release Data, Global Research, July 31, 2013

This tragedy in Iraq reminds one of US Chemical Weapons used in Vietnam. And that the US has failed to acknowledge or pay compensation or provide medical assistance to thousands of deformed children born and still being born due to American military use of Agent Orange throughout the country.

The millions of gallons of this chemical dumped on rural Vietnam were eagerly manufactured and sold to the Pentagon by companies Dupont, Monsanto and others greedy for huge profits.

Given the US record of failing to acknowledge its atrocities in warfare, I fear those mothers in Najaf and other Iraqi cities and towns advised not to attempt the birth of more children will never receive solace or help.

A United Nations that is no longer corrupted by the five Permanent Members of the Security Council is what is needed.

Depleted uranium spreads its health effects around the world

Dangers and Health Effects of Depleted Uranium, Disabled World,  4 Sept 13  Thomas C. Weiss

Summary: Information relating to Depleted Uranium (DU) a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal potentially hazardous to human health.

“Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues.”

Document Detail: Depleted Uranium (DU) is a waste product, one that is left over when uranium is enriched to create fissionable material for nuclear weapons and reactors. DU consists of uranium from which most of the fissionable isotopes, uranium 235 and 234, have been removed. DU contains 99.5% Uranium 238.

The term, ‘depleted,’ carries with it the implication that it is not particularly dangerous; however, DU is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal and because of this it is potentially hazardous to a person’s health. It is believed by many that exposure to depleted uranium (DU), especially when a person inhales or ingests it as a particulate, causes severe and long-term health effects. The size and effect, as well as the political significance of it, remain in dispute at this time. DU is an extremely dense material, 1.7 times as dense as lead, and is also, ‘pyrophoric,’ and is combustible when it comes in contact with air.

DU is being used by the defense industry in the creation of armor piercing munitions and anti-tank projectiles, as well as in the manufacture of tank armor.

Around 17 nations are thought to have weapon systems containing DU in their arsenals to include:

• The United States of America
• The United Kingdom
• Saudi Arabia
• Thailand
• Pakistan
• Bahrain
• Taiwan
• Greece
• France
• Kuwait
• Turkey
• Oman
• Egypt
• China
• Russia
• Israel
• India

A number of these nations were sold DU ammunition by the United States of America, while others – to include Russia, France, India and Pakistan, are believe to have developed it on their own. DU is increasingly showing up in a number of civilian products as well. It is used as ballast in airplanes and ships, in flywheels and boat keels, and in helicopter rotors and gyroscopes. DU is also used as radiation shielding in radioactive material transport containers.http://www.disabled-world.com/health/uranium.php

USA soldiers made ill by depleted uranium

USA’s cover-up of effects of depleted uranium on US soldiers

The U.S. Army’s own contractor, Doug Rokke, who headed a clean up of depleted uranium (DU) after the first Gulf War stated, “Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.” Mr. Rokke went on to state that when his crew went to the Gulf they were all very healthy people, yet after performing clean up operations, 30 members of his staff died and the majority of the others, to include Mr. Rokke himself, “developed serious health problems.

The military is aware of depleted uranium’s harmful effects on the human genetic code.

The U.S. Military does not want the rest of the world to find out what we have done

Dangers and Health Effects of Depleted Uranium, Disabled World,  Thomas C. Weiss, 4 Sept 13 “…….According to an article by Robert C. Koehler in 2007, the Veterans Administration presented figures of 205,000 soldiers who returned from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of these soldiers, one-third have sought medical care for issues such as:

Perhaps the most compelling evidence of all is the sheer number of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts suffering physical ailments. In an April 12, 2007 article, Robert C. Koehler examined the issue:

• Malignant tumors (1,584)
• Mental disorders (73,157)
• Mystery conditions (67,743)
• Nervous system diseases (61,524)
• Musculoskeletal diseases (87,590)
• Digestive system diseases (63,002)
• Endocrinal and metabolic diseases (36,409)

Many times these conditions are lumped together under the convenient catch all heading of, ‘Gulf War Syndrome.’ It is very likely that at least some of these illnesses are caused by exposure to depleted uranium (DU). The effects of DU contamination may take up to 10 years to manifest and it is likely the number of veterans who will need medical care will be higher than from prior conflicts.

Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, Director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra, Iraq stated in a conference in Japan, “Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient. For example, leukemia and cancer of the stomach. We had one patient with 2 cancers – one in his stomach and kidney. Months later, primary cancer was developing in his other kidney–he had three different cancer types. The second is the clustering of cancer in families. We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer. Dr Yasin, a general Surgeon here has two uncles, a sister and cousin affected with cancer. Dr Mazen, another specialist, has six family members suffering from cancer. My wife has nine members of her family with cancer. Children in particular are susceptible to DU poisoning. They have a much higher absorption rate as their blood is being used to build and nourish their bones and they have a lot of soft tissues. Bone cancer and leukemia used to be diseases affecting them the most, however, cancer of the lymph system which can develop anywhere on the body, and has rarely been seen before the age of 12 is now also common.”

The U.S. Army’s own contractor, Doug Rokke, who headed a clean up of depleted uranium (DU) after the first Gulf War stated, “Depleted uranium is a crime against God and humanity.” Mr. Rokke went on to state that when his crew went to the Gulf they were all very healthy people, yet after performing clean up operations, 30 members of his staff died and the majority of the others, to include Mr. Rokke himself, “developed serious health problems.”Mr. Rokke has reactive airway disease now, as well as neurological damage, kidney issues, and cataracts………

A special advisor to the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Ahmad Hardan, documented the effects of depleted uranium (DU) use in Iraq. Dr. Hardan stated, “American forces admit to using over 300 tons of DU weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800. This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tons more in Bagdad alone during the recent invasion. ”

The military is aware of depleted uranium’s harmful effects on the human genetic code. A study performed in 2001 related to DU’s effect on DNA was done by Dr. Alexandra C. Miller of the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. And indicates that DU’s chemical instability causes 1 Million times more genetic damage than would be expected from its radiation effect alone. We are poisoning the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, yet we are making a concerted effort to keep out specialists from other nations who can help. The U.S. Military does not want the rest of the world to find out what we have done………….http://www.disabled-world.com/health/uranium.php

 

Relentless health impacts of depleted uranium

Dangers and Health Effects of Depleted Uranium, Disabled World,  Thomas C. Weiss, 4 Sept 13  ”…………Health concerns and DU center around the effect on the human body of nano-sized ceramic particles of uranium oxide (U238) that are released into the air when DU munitions are used in battle. Dr. Rosalie Bertell presented a concise explanation of the potential dangers of exposure to depleted uranium (DU). Dr. Bertell stated, “Uranium oxide and its aerosol form are insoluble in water. The aerosol resists gravity, and is able to travel tens of kilometres in air. Once on the ground, it can be resuspended when the sand is disturbed by motion or wind. Once breathed in, the very small particles of uranium oxide, those which are 2.5 microns (one micron = one millionth of a meter) or less in diameter, could reside in the lungs for years, slowly passing through the lung tissue into the blood.”

Another doctor, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, who founded the Uranium Medical Research Center, stated that over the course of a year 1 milligram of DU emits 390 million alpha particles, 780 million beta particles, as well as associated gamma rays for a total of more than one billion high energy, ionizing, radioactive particles and rays that may produce extensive biological damage to a person’s ovaries, kidneys, lungs, lymph nodes, blood, bones, breasts, stomach, and to fetuses. The health concerns, especially for people who live in Iraq, are particularly acute because of the young ages of the people being exposed.

The Department of Defense continues to deny health risks associated with the use of DU’s, yet it’s own actions belie their claims. May 15th of 2003 found Scott Peterson of the Christian Science Monitor reporting that in Iraq, “Six American vehicles struck with DU “friendly fire” in 1991 were deemed to be too contaminated to take home, and were buried in Saudi Arabia. Of 16 more brought back to a purpose-built facility in South Carolina, six had to be buried in a low-level radioactive waste dump.”

Studies performed by The Uranium Medical Research Center in Afghanistan show very high levels of, ‘non-depleted,’ uranium in not only bomb craters, but people. Of the 700,000 United States Veterans from the first Gulf War, greater than 240,000 are on permanent medical disability and 11,000 have died. An investigation by Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News found 4 of 9 soldiers of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New York Army National Guard returning from Iraq tested positive for depleted uranium (DU) contamination; they are the first confirmed cases of inhaled depleted uranium exposure from the Iraq war.

A study performed in April of 2007 by researchers at the University of Southern Maine concluded that, “exposure to particulate DU may pose a significant genotoxic risk (risk of genetic mutation) and could possibly result in lung cancer.” A paper published in the same year in the scientific journal, ‘Science of the Total Environment,’ found high concentrations of DU particles in soil, stream sediments, as well as household dust in the vicinity of a DU weapons factory in Colonie, New York 23 years after the plant had closed and despite massive efforts at clean up by the U.S. Army Corp of engineers. It also presented the fact that traces of DU contamination still remain in the urine of former workers and neighbors of the plant…………http://www.disabled-world.com/health/uranium.php

Niger and other countries cop health impacts of foreign-owned uranium mines

Health hazards posed by uranium mining IPP MEDIA  5th July 2013“……..History has it that uranium mining companies had never solved problems associated with extraction of uranium and also never employed good practice of settling uranium radioactive waste seriously after the mining activity is complete.

Of course, these foreign companies have their eyes fixed on maximising profits against corresponding safe infrastructure investment. Some of the companies run away from implementing this social cooperative responsibility to the poor ignorant communities.

This happens in countries where local atomic energy commissions are non-existent, or if present are under- equipped with the necessary human and material resources for effective supervision, monitoring and control of the foreign mining companies for radiation protection to the miners and the environment.

The whole population in the area surrounding the mines is endangered with the diseases mentioned above, lung cancer being the most serious for miners due to inhalation of radon gas in the pits and in the dusty atmosphere of the processing mills.

Uranium radioactive waste stored close to the mines can leach into ground water and contaminate drinking water. Other possibilities of radioactivity reaching humans and environment are a result of deficient radioactive waste management practices by the mining companies, coupled with other unavoidable natural carriers of the radionuclides like wind, rain, floods, fire, dam failure, earthquakes etc.

Radioactive waste contaminated water and substances are incorporated in the human body through both the respiratory and the digestive systems. The polluted water kills residents, animals, insects, natural vegetation of the affected environment.

Open pit mines can be hundreds of meters wide and deep and can entail destruction of the local ecosystem. The environment is polluted with radioactive materials either in solid, liquid and gaseous state. Water shortages can be caused by uranium mining and refining which need the input of large quantities of water, leading to water shortages, making it worse in other sectors of the society in many places in Africa where water supply is already problematic. The large consumption of water as well as the direct health hazards of the contaminated water, damages the mining region both ecologically and economically – and therefore in-turn human health.

The extraction of water leads to a reduction of ground water table and desertification. Plants and animals die, the traditional means of subsistence for the local people and animals is thus destroyed. Here consider uranium mines located in the neighbourhood of exotic game reserves.

The immense amount of water that is used by the uranium mining represents another problem. For instance, the NGO network of Niger and France, examined the effects of uranium mines in Niger. They concluded that among other things, the mines consumed 270 billion litres of water, over 40 years of operation.

After use in the uranium mines, the contaminated water was dumped back into rivers and lakes. The consequence is the materials getting into the digestive system of the innocent and unaware local people. Many of the residents will die of cancer and related diseases. Even when the uranium is no longer extracted, the health risks remain. Usually unused mines are flooded with water contaminated with radioactivity and heavy metals which keep seeping into ground water and into drinking water. The author of this study reports that the waste rock from mines is used for improving roads and building houses in Niger. Radioactive metals and articles from the mines are used for making cooking utensils……http://www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=56725