Letter: Uranium weapons

Sir: Dave Andrews (letter, 23 November) has not kept up with the debate over health effects of uranium-tipped weapons.

We have pointed out at two recent conferences that the microscopic glassy beads created by the impact of uranium munitions can deliver protracted doses of alpha radiation to the tissues in which they lodge. The lymph nodes near the lungs are the main target, and local doses are many times higher than natural background. The alpha radiation from these particles does not travel more than about 30 microns in tissue, so calculating the radiation dose as if it affected the whole body is a fundamental nonsense - a trap into which the article Dave Andrews quoted has fallen.

The persistence and high mobility of these ceramic radioactive aerosols means that they affect civilians far removed from the battlefield. International law bans the use of weapons with such indiscriminate effects.

RICHARD BRAMHALL

Low Level Radiation Campaign

Llandrindod, Powys