VFP56 HOME | ABOUT VFP | EVENTS | VEOP | DU-WMD-Drones | ARCHIVES | LINKS | CONTACT
REQUIRED PRE-DEPLOYMENT
SAFETY TRAINING
Failure to provide mandatory pre-deployment DU safety training is documented here:
United States General Accounting Office, Report to Congressional Requesters March 2000 Gulf War Illnesses Understanding of Health Effects From Depleted Uranium Evolving but Safety Training Needed. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ns00070.pdf [pg 5, Results In Brief]. GAO Congressional Report to Congress:
“The Congressional report bluntly criticized the Army for neglecting to inform Gulf War soldiers about the battlefield hazards of DU, and failing to monitor the health of veterans wounded by, or otherwise exposed to DU on the battlefield."
"The lack of DU training and delays in providing it have been long-standing issues for the services."
In January, 1998, the U.S. Dept of Defense expressed its first & only admission of responsibility for Gulf War Uranium Exposures:
“Our investigations into potential health hazards of depleted uranium point to serious deficiencies in what our troop understood about the health effects posed on the battlefield…Combat troops or those carrying out support functions generally did not know that DU contaminated equipment, such as enemy vehicles struck by DU rounds, require special handling…The failure to properly disseminate such information to troops at all levels may have resulted in thousands of unnecessary exposures.”
Annual report of the Office of the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses: Jan 8, 1998: p29.
Government failure to impart DU safety information, required by active DOD regulation, together with their coordinated failure to teach soldiers HOW they may be exposed combine to explain WHY ALMOST NO VETERANS OF WARS IN THE GULF, AFGHANISTAN OR THE BALKANS KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT DU, and therefore don’t know to request screening or testing, or they may have been exposed to DU.