The war's littlest victim

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/236934p-2033=
26c.html

The war's littlest victim
Juan Gonzalez

Wednesday, September 29th, 2004

In early September 2003, Army National Guard Spec. Gerard Darren Matthew =
was=20
sent home from Iraq, stricken by a sudden illness.

One side of Matthew's face would swell up each morning. He had constant=20
migraine headaches, blurred vision, blackouts and a burning sensation whe=
never=20
he urinated.

The Army transferred him to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington=
 for=20
further tests, but doctors there could not explain what was wrong.

Shortly after his return, his wife, Janice, became pregnant. On June 29, =
she=20
gave birth to a baby girl, Victoria Claudette.

The baby was missing three fingers and most of her right hand.

Matthew and his wife believe Victoria's shocking deformity has something =
to do=20
with her father's illness and the war - especially since there is no hist=
ory=20
of birth defects in either of their families.

They have seen photos of Iraqi babies born with deformities that are eeri=
ly=20
similar.

In June, Matthew contacted the Daily News and asked us to arrange indepen=
dent=20
laboratory screening for his urine. This was after The News had reported =
that=20
four of seven soldiers from another National Guard unit, the 442nd Milita=
ry=20
Police, had tested positive for depleted uranium (DU).

The independent test of Matthew's urine found him positive for DU - low-l=
evel=20
radioactive waste produced in nuclear plants during the enrichment of nat=
ural=20
uranium.

Because it is twice as heavy as lead, DU has been used by the Pentagon si=
nce=20
the Persian Gulf War in certain types of "tank-buster" shells, as well as=
 for=20
armor-plating in Abrams tanks.

Exposure to radioactivity has been associated in some studies with birth=20
defects in the children of exposed parents.

"My husband went to Iraq to fight for his country," Janice Matthew said. =
"I=20
feel the Army should take responsibility for what's happened."

The couple first learned of the baby's missing fingers during a routine=20
sonogram of the fetus last April at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Matthew was a truck driver in Iraq with the 719th transport unit from Har=
lem.=20
His unit moved supplies from Army bases in Kuwait to the front lines and =
as=20
far as Baghdad. On several occasions, he says, he carried shot-up tanks a=
nd=20
destroyed vehicle parts on his flat-bed back to Kuwait.

After he learned of his unborn child's deformity, Matthew immediately ask=
ed=20
the Army to test his urine for DU. In April, he provided a 24-hour urine=20
sample to doctors at Fort Dix, N.J., where he was waiting to be deactivat=
ed.

In May, the Army granted him a 40% disability pension for his migraine=20
headaches and for a condition called idiopathic angioedema - unexplained=20
chronic swelling.

But Matthew never got the results of his Army test for DU. When he called=
 Fort=20
Dix last week, five months after he was tested, he was told there was no=20
record of any urine specimen from him.

Thankfully, Matthew did not rely solely on the Army bureaucracy - he went=
 to=20
The News.

Earlier this year, The News submitted urine samples from Guardsmen of the=
=20
442nd to former Army doctor Asaf Durakovic and Axel Gerdes, a geologist a=
t=20
Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. The German lab specializes in te=
sting=20
for minute quantities of uranium, a complicated procedure that costs up t=
o=20
$1,000 per test.

The lab is one of approximately 50 in the world that can detect quantitie=
s as=20
tiny as fentograms - one part per quadrillionth.

A few months ago, The News submitted a 24-hour urine sample from Matthew =
to=20
Gerdes. As a control, we also gave the lab 24-hour urine samples from two=
=20
Daily News reporters.

The three specimens were marked only with the letters A, B and C, so the =
lab=20
could not know which sample belonged to the soldier.

After analyzing all three, Gerdes reported that only sample A - Matthew's=
=20
urine - showed clear signs of DU. It contained a total uranium concentrat=
ion=20
that was "4 to 8 times higher" than specimens B and C, Gerdes reported.

"Those levels indicate pretty definitively that he's been exposed to the =
DU,"=20
said Leonard Dietz, a retired scientist who invented one of the instrumen=
ts=20
for measuring uranium isotopes.

According to Army guidelines, the total uranium concentration Gerdes foun=
d in=20
Matthew is within acceptable standards for most Americans.

But Gerdes questioned the Army's standards, noting that even minute level=
s of=20
DU are cause for concern.

"While the levels of DU in Matthew's urine are low," Gerdes said, "the DU=
 we=20
see in his urine could be 1,000 times higher in concentration in the lung=
s."

DU is not like natural uranium, which occurs in the environment. Natural=20
uranium can be ingested in food and drink but gets expelled from the body=
=20
within 24 hours.

DU-contaminated dust, however, is typically breathed into the lungs and c=
an=20
remain there for years, emitting constant low-level radiation.

"I'm upset and confused," Matthew said. "I just want answers. Are they [t=
he=20
Army] going to take care of my baby?"

We track soldiers' sickness

For the last five months, Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez has chronicl=
ed=20
the plight of soldiers who have returned from Iraq with mysterious illnes=
ses.

His exclusive groundbreaking investigation began with a front-page story =
on=20
April 4 that suggested depleted uranium contamination was far more widesp=
read=20
than the Pentagon would admit.

* At the request of The News, nine soldiers from a New York Army National=
=20
Guard company serving in Iraq were tested for radiation from depleted ura=
nium=20
shells - and four of the ailing G.I.s tested positive.

* The day after Gonzalez's story appeared, Army officials rushed to test =
all=20
returning members of the company, the 442nd Military Police, based in Roc=
kland=20
County.

* By week's end, the scandal had reverberated all the way to Albany, as G=
ov.=20
Pataki joined the list of politicians calling for the Pentagon to do a be=
tter=20
job of testing and treating sick soldiers returning from the war.

* Gonzalez's expos=E9 sparked a huge demand for testing. By mid-April, 80=
0 G.I.s=20
had given the Army urine samples, and hundreds more were waiting for=20
appointments.

* Two weeks later, the Pentagon claimed that none of the soldiers from th=
e=20
442nd had tested positive for depleted uranium. But The News' experts fou=
nd=20
significant problems with the testing methods.
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