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TESTS FOR DEPLETED URANIUM ON HAWAII FIND AIR
IS
"NORMAL" -- Testing aimed at quelling
residents' concerns
about the possible presence of DU from military
munitions.
Story here...
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.
com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=
/20070613/NEWS08/7061
30407/1001/NEWS
Story below:
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Radiation tests find air on Big Island 'normal'
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
New state testing has found that radiation levels in the air near
Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island are "normal," despite
residents' concerns about the possible presence of depleted uranium from
military munitions.
Concern that depleted uranium from a 1960s weapon system might be
getting kicked up and spread on the wind led to the testing. The Army
this summer plans to conduct its own radiological testing at Pohakuloa,
Schofield Barracks and Makua Military Reservation.
"The levels were all between three and eight microroentgens per hour —
that means it's normal," said Russell Takata, program manager for the
state Health Department's Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality
Branch.
Takata said the readings include cosmic and geologic radiation normally
found in nature.
But Dr. Lorrin Pang, the state Health Department's district officer for
Maui County, said testing the air alone is not enough. If the air is
measured, "a lot of times it (radiation) is not there ... you won't get
anything, so the most consistent thing is to measure soil samples," Pang
said.
A plume of dust carrying elevated radiation levels may be present during
military training — when dust is kicked up — but not at other times,
said Pang, who spent 24 years in the Army and was a preventive medicine
officer at Tripler Army Medical Center in the late 1980s.
Pang, who had lent his support to a failed state bill that would have
required regular soil testing at Schofield Barracks for radioactive
material, has spoken out on the issue as a private citizen and not in
his official capacity.
According to the Health Physics Society, the average person in the
United States gets about 365 milliroentgens a year from natural and
medical X-ray exposure, including exposure to natural radon gas in the
air. One thousand microroentgens equals one milliroentgen.
SCHOFIELD, TOO
In January 2006, the Army confirmed it had found 15 tailfin assemblies
that contained depleted uranium at a Schofield range. The heavy metal
was used in aiming rounds that simulated the trajectory of the Davy
Crockett, a recoilless rifle that could fire a 76-pound nuclear bomb.
Recently, the Army said it had found more depleted uranium fragments at
Schofield, and that the aiming rounds also may have been fired at Makua
and Pohakuloa.
Takata said the state testing was done at five or six sites on May 16
from Kealakekua to Waiki'i on the Big Island. The testing was not done
on the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area itself, but downwind from
the base.
"We're looking at the populated areas (for testing), obviously, because
if people are living in an area, working in an area, that's where we
should be looking," Takata said.
Takata said his staff will conduct periodic testing outside Pohakuloa
and is setting up testing in Wai'anae.
"Everyone's talking about Makua and Schofield, so I might as well get
those readings, too (in Wai'anae)," Takata said.
RISKY IF INHALED
Pang said the real danger with depleted uranium comes with the vaporized
or aerosolized form, which occurs on impact.
"Once it's vaporized and breathed in, the alpha-particle emitters are
the most dangerous form of radiation of all, because it's up in close
and it sticks to the cells of your lung," he said.
The World Health Organization said inhaled uranium particles may lead to
irradiation damage of the lung. Measurements at sites where depleted
uranium munitions were used indicate only localized contamination within
a few yards of the impact site, the organization said.
OTHER USES
A radiation dose from depleted uranium would be about 60 percent of that
from purified natural uranium. Civilian uses for depleted uranium
include counterweights in aircraft and shielding in medical radiation.
Depleted uranium is used in armor-penetrating military ordinance because
of its high density.
"From the amount that the Army disclosed (that it used in Hawai'i), it
looks like a small amount," Takata said. "Even at (Pohakuloa), they are
saying it's a small amount. Until they (the military) actually do the
assessment, we won't know."
Some residents have called for independent testing.
Reach William Cole at
wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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Larry Scott --
