학문은 고갈된 우라늄에서 암 모험을 건의한다

제임스 Randerson

기갑 관통 탄약에서 이용되는, 고갈된 우라늄은 인간 폐 세포에 대한 금속의 효력의 학문에 따르면 폐암으로 이끌어 낼 수 있던 DNA에 대폭적인 손상을, 초래한다. 학문은 DU가 전장에 건강 문제를 오랫동안 일으킨ㄴ다는 것을 성장 기록에 전쟁이 정지한 후에 추가한다.

DU는 원자력을 위한 우라늄 세렬의 부산물이다. 그것은 지도의 다른 우라늄 동위원소 및 그것의 고밀도 - 두번 저것 - 보다는 매우 보다 적게 방사성 제작 기갑과 기갑 날카로운 포탄을 위해 유용한 그것 이다. It has been used in conflicts including Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq and there have been increasing concerns about the health effects of DU dust left on the battlefield. In November, the Ministry of Defence was forced to counteract claims that apparent increases in cancers and birth defects among Iraqis in southern Iraq were due to DU in weapons.

Now researchers at the University of Southern Maine have shown that DU damages DNA in human lung cells. The team, led by John Pierce Wise, exposed cultures of the cells to uranium compounds at different concentrations.

The compounds caused breaks in the chromosomes within cells and stopped them from growing and dividing healthily. “These data suggest that exposure to particulate DU may pose a significant [DNA damage] risk and could possibly result in lung cancer,” the team wrote in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Previous studies have shown that uranium miners are at higher risk of lung cancer, but this has often been put down to the fact that miners are also exposed to radon, another cancer-causing chemical.

Prof Wise said it is too early to say whether DU causes lung cancer in people exposed on the battlefield because the disease takes several decades to develop.

“Our data suggest that it should be monitored as the potential risk is there,” he said.

Prof Wise and his team believe that microscopic particles of dust created during the explosion of a DU weapon stay on the battlefield and can be breathed in by soldiers and people returning after the conflict.

Once they are lodged in the lung even low levels of radioactivity would damage DNA in cells close by. “The real question is whether the level of exposure is sufficient to cause health effects. The answer to that question is still unclear,” he said, adding that there has as yet been little research on the effects of DU on civilians in combat zones. “Funding for DU studies is very sparse and so defining the disadvantages is hard,” he added.

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