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McDermott Introduces Amendment Calling for a Comprehensive Study of the Effects of Depleted Uranium on U.S. Soldiers
House of Representatives - May 11, 2006

Mr. Chairman, I rise to protect and defend the U.S. soldiers who protect and defend us. I urge the House to pass my amendment calling for a comprehensive study on possible health effects on soldiers from exposure to depleted uranium.

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I am a medical doctor. Like every doctor, I took an oath to use all my knowledge and skill to heal the sick. I was trained to listen to the patient and to use science, not conjecture, to make a diagnosis. I have been listening to soldiers, and I am greatly troubled.

We need to do a study on the effects of depleted uranium. My amendment includes a comprehensive study of the effects on our soldiers from exposure to DU, and also includes the children of our soldiers born after exposure.

I recognize there have been a number of studies done on this exposure, but they do not answer all the questions. There has been no comprehensive study of cancer rates in relationship to DU exposure in gulf war veterans.

The VA has a volunteer medical DU follow-up program that has been tracking about 60 veterans who signed themselves up for the study. These veterans were all friendly fire victims who have DU imbedded in their body, and I am heartened that the VA has been keeping track of them. But 60 veterans is not enough to catch cancers that have a rate of one in 1,000. This sample is not large enough to be statistically reliable.

There are about 900 gulf war veterans who have had level one or level two exposure to DU. We should be studying all of them and keeping track of all their health. There has been no comprehensive study of the Gulf War Syndrome in relation to exposure to DU. No definitive cause has been established for Gulf War Syndrome.

Presently, between 150,000 and 200,000 soldiers who served in Gulf War I could have Gulf War Syndrome. We need to study the possible relationship between depleted uranium and Gulf War Syndrome. Any link between these two or other negative health effects has not been conclusively established or refuted.

I urge my colleagues on both sides to stand with me and protect and defend the soldiers whom we send out to protect and defend us.

For me, this is a personal, not a political, quest. My professional life turned from medicine to politics after my service in the United States Navy during the 1960s when I treated combat soldiers returning from Vietnam. Back then, the Pentagon denied that Agent Orange posed any threat to soldiers who were exposed. Decades later, the truth began to emerge. Agent Orange harmed our soldiers; it made thousands sick and some died.

During all those years of denial, we stood by and did nothing while our soldiers suffered, and for me there can be no more Agent Orange. We have to think of that in terms of this DU. If DU poses no danger, we need to prove it statistically and with independent, scientific studies. If DU harms our soldiers, we all need to know it and act quickly, as any doctor would, to use all of our power to heal the sick. We owe our soldiers a full measure of the truth, wherever that leads us.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to pass this amendment.