ABSTRACT
A number of US veterans of the Operation Desert Storm have fragments of depleted uranium metal containing 0.75% titanium embedded in their tissues. Several dozen of these veterans are in a medical surveillance program of the US Department of Veterans Affairs to detect any untoward health effects. The chemical toxicity of uranium compounds is well known when compared to the toxicity of most other compounds. In 1824, a treatise described uranium salts as “feeble poisons” when given by mouth to animals. Industrial processes, such as mining or milling of uranium ore and nuclear manufacturing facilities, can increase the uranium concentrations present in the air, resulting in potential occupational exposures to uranium. The three isotopes of uranium, all radioactive, occur together in both natural and depleted uranium: U-238, U-234, and U-235. The chemistry of these isotopes, which is identical, determines the reactions of the isotopes within the environment as well their transport and reactions within the body.
