Veteran's mysterious maladies: studies continue to examine the effects of depleted uranium on returning soldiers.

• Author: Nelson, Christina

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As soldiers return home after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, many look forward to enjoying the simple pleasures of a "normal" life again. But complicating this readjustment to the daily routine are the lingering pains of war some combat veterans experience. Not only can there be residual physical injury or mental stress, some ailments have no definition, leaving diagnosis and treatment options scarce.

"On the outside, I look perfectly healthy. On the inside, my body is literally destroying itself," testified Melissa Sterry, a veteran of Desert Storm, before the Connecticut Select Committee on Veterans' Affairs in February 2005. "From blood in my urine to blood in my stool, to upper respiratory infections, to chronic pneumonia, to myriad medications. At the age of 29 I could run two miles in 16 minutes and 8 seconds.... At the age of 30, I can't walk around the block."

Since the Persian Gulf War of the early 1990s, inexplicable ailments from chronic fatigue to memory loss to nervous system disorders have been studied in connection with exposure to hazardous agents during service. Of the nearly 700,000 U.S. troops who served in the Gulf War, more than 100,000 have registered health concerns with the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Of those, 15,000 reported symptoms that could not be diagnosed.

Studies continue today on potential exposures of U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard members returning from the Middle East to such things as vaccines and medications to smoke from burning oil wells to materials used in the very weapons and shielding meant to protect the troops. One substance unique to combat since the first Persian Gulf War, and on the radar screens of at least 20 states in 2007, is depleted uranium.

DEPLETED URANIUM

Lingering illness from service in war is not new. "Thirty years ago, returning Vietnam veterans were reporting symptoms that were later found to be caused by Agent Orange," says Wisconsin Representative Tom Nelson. "Today's veterans are reporting similar life-threatening medical symptoms, caused not by Agent Orange but by another substance, depleted uranium."

Depleted uranium is a toxic heavy metal that is 40 percent less radioactive than naturally occurring uranium. It is a by-product of enriching uranium to create nuclear reactor fuel or weapons-grade material. It was first used in battle in 1991, and is very dense, making it attractive for tank armor and munitions...