DU radiation Citizen Action Demands -- Aug. 24, 2007 Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet
Hawaii Radiation Contamination!
A military contractor confirmed the presence of depleted uranium at the Army's Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) on the Big Island, the Army said in a news release dated Aug. 20, 2007. After years of official denial and the military being pressed by citizens doing their own radiation monitoring recording levels 3-4 times background the truth is now beginning to surface. See http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/08/ap_hawaiiuranium_070821/
Depleted Uranium (DU) is primarily U-238, the isotope of uranium that remains after the fissionable isotope, U-235, has been extracted from natural uranium ore. Over the years hundreds of thousands of tons of the stuff accumulated. DU has a 4.5 billion-year half-life and presents a long-term storage problem.
The military has used DU in spotting rounds for the Davy Crockett nuclear weapon system and these spotting rounds have been fired at Schofield Barracks on Oahu and at PTA on Hawaii Island, perhaps other firing ranges in Hawaii and elsewhere too. Other DU spotting rounds may have been fired. The military has no records on the issue. The U.S. used DU armor and bunker piercing weapons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. For more on DU weapons and its hazards see http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18242.htm
Call your elected representatives at all levels of government to support the following Citizen Action Demands.
CITIZEN ACTION DEMANDS
1. Immediate halt to all live-fire at Schofield Barracks, Pohakuloa and other military ranges in
Hawaii until there is a complete assessment and clean up of the DU present. Further live-fire could
result in the spread of airborne DU particles which are particularly hazardous if inhaled.
2. Citizen monitors, including Dr. Lorrin Pang MD, former attorney, OHA trustee, and nuclear
worker Clarence Ku Ching, and Jim Albertini or some other representative from the peace
movement to be involved in the DU assessment and monitoring process to assure transparency and
community confidence.
3. The establishment of permanent, continuous, high tech counts per minute (cpm) monitors (at the
Army's expense) but independently operated around range impact area where the real-time data
is available to the public on line.
4. Testing (at Army expense) for DU exposure of PTA and other military personnel, and members of
the civilian community who feel they may have been exposed to DU. (The U.S. is spending $2
billion a day on the military. There should be funds available to see if citizens are being
contaminated by its own radioactive weapons.)
5. Ongoing public balanced informational and Q & A meetings involving the Army, State Dept. of
Health, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Dr. Lorrin
Pang and other community resource people.
Military Clean-Up NOT Build Up!
1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination: anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world. Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB `Ola`a (Kurtistown), Hawai`i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
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