Everyone who's been/going to the Sandbox needs to hear this:

[Falstaff]

Depleted Uranium discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX864QpDkk4

[rero360]

Don't play in and around blown up tanks, follow that and you'll be pretty much fine.

[AJAX22]

I'd actually love to see some background radiation data from the guys over there that are serving

Anyone have a Scintilating radiation detector?

[rero360]

Hey, you come up with a detector and I'll let you scan me, although I spent pretty much my entire tour in down town baghdad, not sure how much DU munitions were used inside the city itself. I really don't think I've been affected but I'm interested none the less in what the results would be.

[rero360]

I did get my head blasted with a pretty heavy dose of microwaves though, unintential friendly fire I guess you could say. If I have any long term issues its probably from that, or from breathing all the toxic fumes from the locals open air burn pit just outside the wire.

[TKM]

Won't the autism vaccines kill you long before the DU?

[AJAX22]

Hey, you come up with a detector and I'll let you scan me, although I spent pretty much my entire tour in down town baghdad, not sure how much DU munitions were used inside the city itself. I really don't think I've been affected but I'm interested none the less in what the results would be.

Highly unlikly that you would have injested enough for it to be noticable.

The problem with alpha emitters is that pretty much anything stops the radiation (even a sheet of paper) but it does NASTY things when its inside you..



You won't glow in the dark, but the statistical liklihood of you experiancing bone decay, lukemia, kidney disorders etc. all go through the roof...

If you want to see what can happen when you ingest alpha emitters, google the radium girls.

[rero360]

and thats why its not a good idea to crack open your night sites and drink the contents lol.

[AJAX22]

and thats why its not a good idea to crack open your night sites and drink the contents lol.

Tritium is a lot safer than radium/uranium...... but yeah... still not a good idea..

[The Bacon Eater]

This is an interesting topic. I brought this up to my welding instructor years ago about sharpening the tungsten rods to weld with. I asked about career welders that tig weld over a long period of time and if the radioactivity could impact their health (if the fumes from welding metals is not enough). He said it would not be enough to hurt anyone, but with this DU controversy brewing i wonder how much they have researched it. In that video he comments that DU is being used in commercial concrete, so they can eliminate metal rebar for reinforcement. What happens when they start to demolish these buildings/structures? As many of you know when you demolish or break up concrete its messy. Thanks for the great video i really enjoyed it.

[rero360]

My mom is a civil engineer, works for NY building and designing bridges, I've learned a few things over the years from her when it comes to concrete, like the importance of slump tests and all that.

I don't see how powdered DU mixed in with concrete can possibly replace rebar, the whole point of rebar is that you put force on the steel, stretching it out, then you pour the concrete and once it has hardened you release the steel, thus creating a compression load on the concrete. You can't put a compression load on the concrete using a powder. All I can see the DU doing is making the concrete denser and heavier, great for stuff like industrial floor slabs or for say use in conjunction with rebar in constructing a vault, horrible for infrastructure.

Ok, just talked with her, Concrete cannot handle tension loads, thus in stuff like ceiling and bridge spans, the rebar takes up the tension load by compressing the concrete.