Military Training Using Depleted Uranium Weaponry in Schofield Hawaii

Depleted Uranium used in the discharge of military weapons which then becomes airborne radiation. Military continues to deny that it is more than 'heavy metal', and experts continue to say otherwise - that it is indeed radioactive once discharged and airborne. In Hawaii there has been effort by peace/activist movement to file an injunction against use of the weapons at the military training ground in Hawaii near Schofield Barracks.



read more 'Doubts Remain About Depleted Uranium',
By William Cole Military Writer at The Honolulu Advertiser

excerpt:

The Army says its Stryker armored vehicles have never fired depleted uranium rounds in Hawai'i, and there is no intent for them to ever do so.

That leaves Dr. Lorrin Pang unsatisfied.

"I guess the community is a little bit worried about (the Army's) credibility, so they would like to set up for monitoring," said Pang, the state Health Department's district officer for Maui County.

Pang, who also spent 24 years in the Army and was a preventive medicine officer at Tripler Army Medical Center in the late 1980s — and speaking as a private citizen and not in his official capacity — supported a bill that would have required regular soil testing at Schofield Barracks for the presence of depleted uranium.

The bill died in conference committee this past legislative session.

The revelation in January 2006 that the Army had found 15 tail assemblies from depleted uranium aiming rounds used in a 1960s weapon, coupled with the Stryker vehicle's ability to fire rounds with the weakly radioactive material, is spreading new concerns that the Army says are unfounded, and some community members say amount to a potential health risk.