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Old 08-18-08, 05:06 AM   #33
Platapus
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Being exposed to Depleted Uranium can cause a multitude of health risks, but radiation is not one of them.

Depleted Uranium is about 0.6 as radioactive as natural Uranium. So hanging around granite buildings will probably be more of a radioactive hazard than being around DU.

The amount of Alpha Radiation emitted from DU is pretty small. Inhaling large amounts of DU dust can have a significant radiological effect on a human.

What is gonna get you is the toxicity of Depleted Uranium. DU affects your immune system, neurological system, causes cancer (especially Leukemia), and it that aint enough, causes birth defects so the joy is shared with your unborn children.

The WHO states that the safe daily exposure to Depleted Uranium (specifically soluble Uranium Salts) is 0.5 µg/kg body weight. That is an itty bitty amount.

So DU is a killer, but it is not the radiation that will kill you, it is the toxicity that will kill you.

Of course when you are dead, this becomes a moot point.
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