Whatever munition you choose, it will lead to heavy metal poisoning.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
205 points (100.0% liked)
World News
1034 readers
40 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
depleted uranium is much worse than conventional ammo.
Being invaded is worse.
The quickest way to save the most amount of lives is whatever gets rid rid of Russia the quickest.
No question.
Depleted Uranium is hardly dangerous.
Another booby trapped mine with a grenade underneath gets placed by Russians every 4 minutes.
Another Ukrainian citizen is tortured.
And now there are reports of Ukrainian children being tortured.
Bring on the napalm.
Depleted Uranium is dangerous for anyone exposed to it. It will be a persistant environmental pollutant that could render large areas unsuitable for agriculture. Downplaying the effects is stupid and dangerous.
We need to talk about the effects and weigh the military benefit vs. the long term problems. Also for the military benefit you cannot take the shortcut of assuming no AP munitions to be used otherwise. Also the question is whether stronger AP abilities are needed, as Abrams should make quick work of T64s and probably T72s with normal AP rounds too.
So we have to weigh a potentially marginal benefit with a significant long term health effect. I trust the Ukranian army and government to make that decision, but again the issues shouldn't be downplayed. Because of downplaying and ignoring the issues with it there is thousands of American and British vets that suffer from diseases and birth defects in their children, struggling to get it recognised and properly compensated.
Depleted uranium is not much different from lead. Heavy metals are unhealthy. It is barely radioactive as it is made from the rather stable uranium isotopes. (Hence depleted)
Uranium is pretty toxic compared to lead. LD50 is roughly 114 mg/kg vs. 4665 mg/kg depending on source. If you happen to get that dust inside your body, the radiation isn’t going to help you stay healthy either.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
I'm sure Ukrainian soldiers on the front line are worried about cancer and birth defects.
It's not about them. It's the children who find the spent ammo later.
This crap is the reason that there are birth defects spikes anywhere the US military operates.
The amount of Ukrainians dying right now will pale in comparison to those effected by the munitions.
The controversy around depleted uranium rounds is way overblown.
Even in Iraq the evidence is super inconclusive. And yes birth defects rose however the entire country basically collapsed for years and nothing clearly indicates it was the DU used.
Don't get me wrong, it's nasty stuff. But this is war, more people are getting killed by bombs then any DU related cancer can cause.
In Basra the rate of leukemia in children rose dramatically and that is too specific of a disease to not be linked to DU exposure due to the heavy use of it in surrounding tank battles.
- correlation ≠ causation. 2) if the disease is caused by DU, is it due to the radioactivity or the fact that DU is a heavy metal?
i never said it had to be because of radiation. Even just in its effect as a heavy metal it seems to be much worse. Also it could be that it becomes airborn more easily than other metals such as lead, so the wreckage of tanks shot with DU are more dangerous to the people cleaning them up.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Ok but the alternatives are not environmentally conscious either, finally the people who’s land it is should be the ones making choices about the conditions of that land
But which people? Government or the people who actually own the land?
And I guess, their favourite choice of "Don't use any weapons on my land and just clear off voluntairily" is not an option.
I don't get why people hate on the Ukraine for using weapons to defend themselves. Not like they chose to be attacked.
This makes sense.
I imagine there's a lot more reasons for birth defect spikes post US mil ops in addition to this. The military isn't exactly an environmentally conscious operation. ☠️
Sure, burn pits and other crap will help.
But this kind of ammo, kids will find and hang on to. They bring it home, add it to their collection of other cool shit they've scavenged...and then their brothers and sisters are born with malformed limbs, mishaped heads, etc.
There have been a lot of stories written about it over the years. The one I read was specifically about Iraq I believe, but it was a while ago.
To be fair, the impact of DU is mostly because of heavy metal poisoning, not radioactivity.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Agent orange is what plants crave
Is ammo made from lead that much better? I honestly don't know. Sure the radiation sucks but Uranium, at least the isotope they're sending is "barely" radioactive. It's the same Uranium people had in their plates etc. The toxicity is probably the far more relevant factor but I don't know how Uranium compares to lead.
Depleted uranium is not really that radioactive. Everything is technically radioactive eventually though. Depleted uranium is what's left behind when you seperate the radioactive stuff out. It's a heavy metal still, so isn't good for you, but heavy metals will always be involved. Trying to have a war using only healthy, organic, ethically sourced munitions isn't going to happen.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Everyone should worry. Depleted uranium will contaminate large crop production areas and later these grains will be sold all around the world. Everybody will eat some.
What does the "depleted" part of depleted uranium mean?
Depleted means that the radioactive isotope is lower in concentration. It still is somehow radioactive (it's almost fine if not ingested) and still remains a heavy and toxic metal.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
No it won't
Yes, Ukrainian soldiers on front line are worried about cancer and birth defects. They are rational human beings who hope to return to their homes and live long lives and grow healthy children, not some subhumans with only intent to kill, kill, kill, as you wish to think.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Oh well... The amount of health risks that these rounds would cause would pale in comparison to the mines that the Orcs have planted everywhere. Anything to drive out the invaders!
is this a /s or a fr moment
A fr moment
The amount of ruscist sympathisers in this thread is depressing. Are depleted uranium munitions fucked up? Yeah and they shouldn't be used. But that isn't an excuse to bootlick a fascist invader that is already performing ethnic cleansing on territories they took last year
Yeah, I use threads like these to block users. Can't wait for lemmy to implement user level instance blocking like mastodon has.
Edit: don't downvote me, tell me what issue you have with this.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Tankies shaking in their boots over that Abrams 120mm DU APFSDS slicing though Russian steel like butter.
It's so easy to trigger tankie bridgades. How many posts yall got about me now? Tagged me in a few!
From what I've read depleted uranium is not proven to cause cancer, nor is it not proven (With the exception that you inhale it or eat it).
In Iraq it's still up to debate if it causes cancer or birth defects, since burning buildings and other burning stuff also causes a lot of nasty things to humans.
From what I've read they were also used in Bosnia, and they haven't had similiar effects to Iraq.
So let the Ukrainians have their depleted uranium.
Why though? Can't imagine that these rounds are going to change the course of the war, so why? Are they out of non-Uranium ones?
They are harder and penetrate armour better. So yes they will provide an advantage.
The sooner Russian occupiers are no longer murdering Ukrainians and dropping mines over every square meter of land, the less harm comes to Ukrainians.
No individual measure aside from troops on the ground or nukes is going to change the course of the war by itself.
The ammunition is very effective at punching through the armor. But the Ukrainians will be fucked when in 5 years Leukemia in children is skyrocketing
Maybe but if they lose the war will that be better?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The rounds, which could help destroy Russian tanks, are part of a new military aid package for Ukraine set to be unveiled in the next week.
The munitions can be fired from U.S. Abrams tanks that, according to a person familiar with the matter, are expected be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
It follows an earlier decision by the Biden administration to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite concerns over the dangers such weapons pose to civilians.
The United States used depleted uranium munitions in massive quantities in the 1990 and 2003 Gulf Wars and the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia in 1999.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, says that studies in former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, Iraq and Lebanon "indicated that the existence of depleted uranium residues dispersed in the environment does not pose a radiological hazard to the population of the affected regions."
Parts of the country are already strewn with unexploded ordnance from cluster bombs and other munitions and hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel mines.
The original article contains 499 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Depleted utanium is a war crime
Depleted utanium is a war crime
Actually, it's not. Quoted from the British article about the DU rounds they're shipping for the Challenger 2s:
The UK MoD insists that the depleted uranium shells it is sending to Ukraine are not prohibited by any international agreement.
It says that under Article 36 of the First Protocol of 1977 Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the UK's depleted uranium shells are "capable of being used lawfully in international armed conflict".
President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the UK does send depleted uranium shells to Ukraine, "Russia will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component".
The MoD replied in a statement: "The British Army has used depleted uranium in its armour-piercing shells for decades. Russia knows this, but is deliberately trying to disinform."
Stating the use of DU is a war crime is just Russian mouthpieces repeating Kremlin lies.
Whatever weapon the enemy is using is a war crime!
load more comments
(5 replies)
Saying things are war crimes doesn't make it so! Also Anti-Flag sucks.
Recharged utanium, however, is a war benevolence
load more comments
(1 replies)
Seems a little strange considering their refusal to provide M1 Abrams tanks from their stockpile as these have depleted uranium armor.
Maybe there are way more secrets in making armor with depleted uranium (and certainly other things layered in) than just shaping a shell with it?
They'll receive their first 14 M1A1 by Sept. 25. I don't think any foreign countries get the reactive armor except for the US.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm just glad that as an Adult in the room, I'm on the right side of history. Arming Ukranian Nazis with depleted uranium is actually the least evil option and anyone who doesn't understand that is a child.
Another 50 billion for the cause!
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›