Answer to Question #12321 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Consumer Products

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

Q

I would like to ask if is safe to wear military clothing that was used in Afghanistan five years ago by an American soldier. I bought them at a bazaar, but I am afraid of depleted uranium. Could a washing machine remove depleted uranium (DU) from clothing? 

A


You ask two questions:

  1. Is it safe to wear military clothing which was used in Afghanistan five years ago by American soldier?
  2. Could a washing machine remove DU from clothing?

The short answer to both of your questions is yes, but our questions deserve some background information. You should have no cause for concern for the following reasons:

  1. The United States invasion of Afghanistan occurred on 7 October 2001, which marks the beginning of the War in Afghanistan. The United States and other coalition forces have not used DU munitions in Afghanistan in the last five years. The likelihood of DU contamination of your purchased military clothing is very small. The form of DU contamination in clothing, if any, would be dust. Brushing the clothing removes most of such contamination. Further, machine laundering removes virtually all dust and dirt, including DU contamination.
  2. The United States Department of Defense provides laundry services to its military members in combat zones. We can presume that your military clothing has gone through such laundering if a service member wore it in Afghanistan.
  3. The United States Department of Veteran Affairs has stated,1 "So far no health problems associated with DU exposure have been found in Veterans exposed to DU." Some of these Veterans still have tiny DU fragments in their bodies and have shown no apparent health effects due to those fragments, other than elevated uranium concentrations in their blood and urine.2 You should expect that you also would show no health effects.

Bob Cherry, PhD, CHP
______________________

1 Available at: https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/depleted_uranium/index.asp. Accessed 16 May 2018.

2 "The published results of . . . medical evaluations conclude that the presence of retained DU fragments is the only scenario predictive of a high urine uranium value, and those with retained DU fragments continue to have elevated urine uranium levels nine years after the incident. It is unlikely that an individual would have an elevated urine uranium result, and consequently any uranium-related health effects, in the absence of retained DU fragments. . . . Those DU-exposed friendly fire individuals with elevated levels of urinary uranium nine years after the Gulf War have not developed kidney abnormalities, leukemia, bone or lung cancer, or any classical uranium-related adverse outcome." Available at https://www.warrelatedillness.va.gov/education/factsheets/depleted-uranium.pdf. Accessed 16 May 2018.

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