Massachusetts Institute of Technology
				Depleted Uranium Weapons: Toxic Contaminant or Necessary Technology?
		DU home schedule about the speakers links and resources press room location contact sponsors		Press Release, Cambridge, MA, February 5, 2004 For immediate release March 6 at MIT. Depleted Uranium Weapons: Toxic Contaminant or Necessary Technology? The United States has used depleted uranium (DU) ammunitions on a large scale in Puerto Rico, Iraq, the Balkans, and Afghanistan. Incomplete and often contradictory information has polarized debate on the use of DU weapons. There is widespread controversy over whether the DU weapons residue poses a health threat to soldiers, local inhabitants, and ecosystems, or is simply the byproduct of an effective military technology. On March 6 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, six science and policy experts will address the environmental impact, health effects, and related policy issues surrounding DU weapons. The goal of this conference is to answer questions and dispel myths, report on the current state on the science, and discuss the ramifications of continued DU use by the US military. Date: Saturday March 6, 2004 Location: Building 34, Room 101, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 50 Vassar St Cambridge, Massachusetts Contacts: Sam Arey (arey@mit.edu) Julia Steinberger (julias@mit.edu) Schedule 1-2 pm The first science panel will focus on the environmental transport and potential for adverse exposures resulting from DU. The speakers will be a DU contamination expert from Aberdeen Proving Grounds and a United Nations Environment Programme scientist leading investigations of DU contamination in Kosovo. 2:15-3:15 pm A second science panel will focus on the known health effects of DU. The speakers will be a DU toxicology specialist from the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, and a pathologist from Mount Sinai hospital. 3:30-5 pm A policy discussion will address issues such as the history of DU use, possible links between DU exposure and Gulf War syndrome, and facts versus fiction surrounding the DU controversy. The speakers will be a Department of Defense spokesperson on Deployment Health and a former board member of the National Gulf War Resource Center. Specific infrmation about the speakers follows. Science Panel Speakers Tanya Palmateer Oxenberg is a Health Physicist at the U.S. Army Developmental Test Command at Aberdeen Proving Grounds who has extensive experience with DU contamination and monitoring at firing ranges. She is currently at Johns Hopkins University studying DU transport in the environment resulting from spent ordnance. Jan Snihs is a researcher at the Swedish Radiation Protection Institute, and is currently the scientific leader of the United Nations Environmental Programme field investigations of DU contamination and health effects in Kosovo. Alexandra Miller is currently a radiobiologist at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Maryland. She has published several papers on the chemical and radiological toxicology and carcinogenicity of uranium and DU in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Thomas Fasy is an Associate Professor of pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. His background includes research on environmental mutagenesis. He traveled to Iraq twice in 2003 and met several times with Professor Alim Yacoub, the Iraqi epidemiologist investigating childhood cancer and birth defects in Southern Iraq. Jonathan King (moderator) is a Professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has a long history of involvement in assessing the social and environmental consequences of scientific and military programs. Professor King was the recipient of MIT's Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Leadership Award in 2003. Policy Discussion Speakers Michael Kilpatrick is Deputy Director of Deployment Health Support in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. He is a leading US Department of Defense spokesperson on US veteran health issues related to depleted uranium. Dan Fahey is a policy analyst and graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and served in the Persian Gulf in July 1991. He has extensively researched the role of DU from spent munitions in Gulf War veterans' health problems. Jim Walsh (moderator) is Executive Director of the Managing the Atom Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His research and writings focus on weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Middle East. Sponsorship This event was sponsored by the following Massachusetts Institute of Technology departments and programs: Civil and Environmental Engineering; Center for International Studies; Nuclear Engineering; Laboratory for Energy and the Environment; Physics; Science, Technology and Society program; the Technology and Culture Forum; and Program for Human Rights and Justice. This event was organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Student Pugwash and Students for Global Sustainability group.