From the SF Bayview.com: www.sfbayview.com/092204/gasmask092204.shtml

A soldier’s mom asks: “Can a gas mask shield against this (uranium) dust in Iraq, and can I provide my son with one is the question. ... I have been hearing a lot about this and it is terrifying.”

I get asked this question a lot. Parents of sons and daughters stationed in Iraq - or their wives, sisters, brothers, uncles and aunts and friends – want to help out Uncle Sam and their loved ones. They want to contribute to help buy the right gas mask to keep the soldier from breathing poisonous and radioactive uranium gas.

The truthful answer is “No, there is nothing you can buy. Your sons and daughters will have to take their chances in Iraq, just like everybody else. No amount of money will change the answer. What you want does not exist.”

This is the worst part of my work of writing about uranium munitions. Anybody who’s in Iraq and breathing is just as likely as the next person to get a whiff of poisonous uranium gas. Any dose at all is bad.

The higher the dose, the worse it is. Detached, dry, clinical, declassified Army memos written in 1943 talk about death occurring in three days from a heavy dose. It is like going into battle with your own side using an invisible, odorless, tasteless poison gas against both the enemy and you.

That, in fact, is exactly what the U.S. military is doing. It’s called uranium oxide gas, vapor and aerosols. That’s right. That date, 1943, is no typo. The U.S. military has known how poisonous this gas is for 61 years.

Welcome to the big city where all the Pentagon suits lie about uranium oxide! I don’t expect them to stop now. This practice of using uranium oxide is flat out wrong and they all, from President Bush on down, richly deserve a long term in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.

For the complete article, click on the link below:

www.sfbayview.com/092204/gasmask092204.shtml