IngentaConnect Health Effects of Depleted Uranium on Exposed Gulf War Veterans: ...

Authors: McDiarmid M.¹; Engelhardt S.²; Oliver M.¹; Gucer P.¹; Wilson P.D.³; Kane R.⁴; Kabat M.⁴; Kaup B.⁴; Anderson L.⁵; Hoover D.⁵; Brown L.⁴; Handwerger B.¹; Albertini R.⁶; Jacobson-Kram D.⁴; Thorne C.¹; Squibb K.³

Source: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part A, Volume 67, Number 4, June 2004 , pp. 277-296(20)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

Abstract:

Medical surveillance of a group of U.S. Gulf War veterans who were victims of depleted uranium (DU) "friendly fire" has been carried out since the early 1990s. Findings to date reveal a persistent elevation of urine uranium, more than 10 yr after exposure, in those veterans with retained shrapnel fragments. The excretion is presumably from ongoing mobilization of DU from fragments oxidizing in situ. Other clinical outcomes related to urine uranium measures have revealed few abnormalities. Renal function is normal despite the kidney's expected involvement as the "critical" target organ of uranium toxicity. Subtle perturbations in some proximal tubular parameters may suggest early although not clinically significant effects of uranium exposure. A mixed picture of genotoxic outcomes is also observed, including an association of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (HPRT) mutation frequency with high urine uranium levels. Findings observed in this chronically exposed cohort offer guidance for predicting future health effects in other potentially exposed populations and provide helpful data for hazard communication for future deployed personnel.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 2: Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 3: Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 4: BioReliance Rockville, Maryland, USA 5: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and Program of Human Health and the Environment, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA 6: Department of Pathology, University of Vermont, Bington, Vermont, USA

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Health Effects of Depleted Uranium on Exposed Gulf War Veterans: A 10-Year Follow-Up