The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Uranium cause for worldwide pollution

In a speech on campus, the co-director of a peace and environmental action group accused the United States of polluting areas around the globe with more than 700,000 tons of radioactive uranium since 1991.

John LaForge, peace activist and co-director of Nukewatch, a Wisconsin-based peace and environmental action group, spoke Thursday on the dangers of depleted uranium weapons at the first of three "Deconstructing Violence" lectures sponsored by Jesuit University Students Together in Concerned Empowerment.

Thursday's lecture was sponsored by both JUSTICE and Students for an Environmentally Active Campus.

LaForge lives with nine other antiwar activists on the Anathoth Community Farm near Luck, Wis., where Nukewatch is based. Living in such a community has taught him about the importance of nonviolence and peaceful living, he said.

The United States has been "shooting radioactive waste at people all over the world since 1991," LaForge said.

There are 700,000 tons of Uranium-238 waste all over the world. It is "toxic to the liver and kidneys" within minutes, LaForge said.

"The U.S. Army has been accused of polluting areas of Iraq and Kosovo," among others, "where these weapons were used, and they claim that it's only mildly radioactive," he said.

When the chemical smashes it turns to powder and dust, which can contaminate water and soil for 45 billion years, he said.

"We point to rapid increase of childhood leukemia and childhood deformities since 1991 in Iraq as evidence as to how dangerous U-238 is," he said.

However, there are many cancer-causing factors in the environment, making it hard to prove that Uranium-238 has caused the increases, he said.

In 1998, veterans of the Gulf War were tested for Uranium-238, La Forge said. Eight years after the war, the veterans were "still passing U-238 in their urine," he said.

There are two goals of the movement against depleted uranium weapons. The first is to confront the factories that produce these weapons, and the second is to pursue legal action against the use of the weapons, LaForge said.

LaForge said people working in the corporations do not always realize what they are producing.

"It helps to make people more aware of it," he said. "We want to work toward peace without having anyone lose their job."

LaForge said "there's always the feeling we're not doing enough."

"Now, our soldiers are coming home having injected U-238," he said. "We're hurting even our own people. Are we really supporting our troops by exposing them to this kind of poison?"

Dominique George, a College of Engineering junior, said she thought the lecture was "very interesting."

"It was not something I'd heard about before," she said. "It's not brought to the popular media."

Logan Adams, a College of Arts & Sciences sophomore, said the talk was "very well-delivered."

"It's terrifying," he said. "These are nuclear weapons and we're using them against people."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 15 2005.

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