THE HEALING ISLAND OR THE RADIOACTIVE DIE-LAND?

Radioactive Uranium, the wages of war.


(Hawaii) Nobody wants to think about the deadly invisible uranium particles spreading death and mutilation around the world, but the U. S. and other military forces are illegally using nuclear weapons that do just that. They threaten to spread "death by breath" everywhere – unless we tell the U.S. Army to stop! Now! In Hawaii!

If you think it has nothing to do with you, think again.

Longevity Specialist Dr. Gabriel Cousins is not exaggerating when he says Depleted Uranium "threatens to kill and destroy a whole world."

Hawaiian residents started thinking about the toxic wastes of war 60 years ago when the U. S. Military dumped 2000 fifty-five gallon drums of radioactive toxins off the coast of Oahu at Pearl Harbor. A mixed crew of Hawaiians – hula dancers as well as housewives, retired Marines as well as nurses -- are still thinking about the effects of war as they fight the U. S. Military in a David-and-Goliath confrontation they hope will change the fate of the world.

The group is Protect Hawaii (http://www.protecthawaii.ws) and the immediate threat is the U. S. Army, which plans to station about 320 19-ton vehicles and 4,000 soldiers in Hawaii. The Stryker Brigade Combat Team tanks carry Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons, which are Radioactive Uranium (RU). When these radioactive uranium munitions are fired, they spread aerosols into the nearby atmosphere, surface water, flora, fauna, and the entire food chain. Two to five years after exposure, local animals and humans often develop nerve disorders, bleeding, cancers, and tumors.

Then deadly uranium particles flow farther into the air, lifting higher into the troposphere, eventually spreading around the globe, resulting in multiple cancers, leukemia, and birth defects all over the planet.

The U. S. Army has admitted to using RU in Hawaii and contaminating at Schofield Barracks on Oahu in 45 separate locations. On the fragile tropical islands, almost 1000 different Superfund and toxic debris spills have been identified over the last half a century. Hawaiians want the U. S. Army to clean up its lethal pollution and stop using illegal weapons of mass destruction here and elsewhere.

Current medical problems found in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia where the U. S. uses weapons of mass destruction -- neurological disorders, cancers, birth defects, tumors, and bleeding gums -- are now showing up in Hawaii. On the islands of Oahu and the Big Island, known by native Hawaiians and tourists as the 'Healing Island,' animal tumors, nerve spasms, and other markers for radiation poisoning have alarmed residents.

"The entire Kona Coast has one of the two highest cancer rates in the state," says Shannon Rudolph, a resident who has been plagued with trigeminal neuralgia, a condition with symptoms similar to radiation poisoning. The other high-cancer area is Pearl Harbor, where the U. S. Military dumped toxins after World War II.

"We have no polluting industry here that would account for this," says Ms. Rudolph. "Tourists flock to the island for its beauty, and are shocked to learn that Kona Hospital nurses have seen an alarming increase in cancers, thyroid problems, and diabetes downwind of Pohakuloa," the U. S. Army Training Area where the Pentagon wants to station the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

The Strykers are massive military tanks that carry the huge 105mm cannon and multiple 25mm Bushmaster machine guns, both of which shoot DU ammunition. When fired, they discharge radioactive aerosols that affect local populations, like the Iraqi and Bosnian children whose leukemia rates soared 400% above normal after DU wars.

These costs are too high, says Hawaiian activist Jim Albertini. "Strykers contaminate the land forever and endanger our health and safety. Strykers cause fires, destroy ecosystems, and kill endangered species." Legal challenges to the transformation of Hawaiian lands are underway. The Strykers will cause the "largest military land grab in Hawaii since World War II," says one angry resident.

In a recent Hawaii Star-Bulletin poll, 75% of residents oppose stationing the Strykers here. Hawaiians are known by travelers worldwide as the keepers of Aloha, and locals believe that spreading the Aloha is a better health, ecological and economic choice for the islands.

When inhaled, D.U. particles lodge in the lungs and bathe the surrounding tissue with radioactive alpha radiation. Whether uranium weapons are fired in Iraq, Palestine, or Hawaii, aerosolized uranium particles rise in the atmosphere and ride on high-altitude currents to endanger the respiratory system of every living thing, no matter where we live.

Once DU exposure has occurred, genetic misinformation enters and burns the sperm, can be passed to one's mate during intercourse, and causes birth defects in children. It makes no difference to the particles as they follow their radioactive destiny, which lasts an astounding 45 billion years before uranium deteriorates to lead.

Hermann Joseph Mueller, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for his discovery of mutations resulting from X-ray irradiation, tracked genetic mutations for 40,000 generations. With no way for the human body to rid itself of these radioactive particles, the health damage is essentially permanent.

You cannot protect yourself from this hazard, as it penetrates protective gear, clothing, and gas masks.

Breathing radioactive particulate matter has long been known to cause lung cancer. Miners working in uranium mines and other types of mining where radioactivity is an occupational hazard have a higher incidence of lung cancer. This danger from airborne uranium is much greater than that found from cigarette smoking, and has more far-reaching implications.

Multiple malignancies, which have no effective therapies, are cropping up in Bosnia, where DU weapons were used. Physicians report seeing patients with three simultaneous malignancies, something never previously reported in medicine. Dr. James Howenstine, a Board-certified specialist in internal medicine, says, "Children in Iraq are dying in epidemic numbers from malignancies."

Death may seem like a blessing when compared to the newborn babies with genetic damage in the face, limbs and atrophied organs. In Bastra, Iraq, after Gulf War I, there was maybe one baby a week born with birth defects," says Dr. Cousins. "Now it is 10-12 a day. "

What's happening in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan as a result of the United States using DU weapons of mass destruction is a preview of coming attractions in Hawaii, and eventually all over the world, if we don't act now to stop it.

Nothing less than the genetic future of humanity is at risk.

The only way to fight DU is to prevent its use.


An important action you can take right now is to write the Army at….

CUT and PASTE this address:

PublicComments [at] aec.apgea.army.mil

AND A COPY TO: tenfingers10toes [at] yahoo.com

send an e-mail before October 30, 2007

Please say NO to Depleted Uranium. NO STRYKERS IN HAWAII.

YES to Aloha! YES to HAWAII DMZ.

Feel free to cut-and-paste any part of this article for your comment.

You can find the DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT,

A TRAVESTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, at http://www.sbct-seis.org/





http://www.dmzhawaii.org ~ http://www.protecthawaii.ws



READ WHY the Stryker Brigade must not stay in Hawaii!

Ten Reasons to Oppose the Stryker Brigade in Hawaii
http://www.dmzhawaii.org/stop_stryker_hawaii.pdf

Hawaiian Islands Are Radioactive
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/893755.shtml

Depleted Uranium Contamination By Strykers In Hawaii
http://www.indymedia.org/it/2007/09/893176.shtml

Death By Breath
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/893823.shtml

Hawaiian Islands Contaminated With Ballistic Uranium
http://www.rense.com/general78/hawa.htm

Army's Environmental Impact Statement for the Stryker Brigade Invasion of Hawaii:
http://www.sbct-seis.org/

Go to Protect Hawaii website:
http://www.protecthawaii.ws/