"DU has a detrimental effect which has been documented on the people of Iraq, irrespective of who used it. To say otherwise is lunacy. - Stringsinger

Why only the people of Iraq? Why are there no great peaks in the incidence of these detrimental effects in the places where these munitions are made ( surely the fabrication process must produce DU laden dust that would be ingested) or more on a parallel with Iraq why are there no similar statistics to those in Iraq evident in the areas around the live fire ranges in the UK and in the USA where hundreds of thousands if not millions of these DU rounds have been fired at armoured targets in practice over the last three or four decades by aircraft, helicopters and the crews of MBTs and AFVs?

Can I offer a partial explanation?

Related to the areas around the ranges on the Solway and on the South coast of England (Bovington and Lulworth) we've had nobody manufacturing chemical and biological weapons and attempting to test them and get rid of them on the QT at either location as was the case in and around Fallujah. We've had nobody deliberately poisoning the ground water at either location as was the case down in Southern Iraq around Basra between 1991 and 2003.

Ah but of course in your book, as neither of those causes can be laid at the feet of the big bad USA they cannot be causes worthy of a mention - all detrimental effects have to be down to the use of DU.

Oh by the way the sum total of DU ammunition fired by UK forces during the invasion and occupation of Iraq (2003 to 2011)amounts to:

As far as 120mm munitions go - Full outfit of ammunition of not quite two Challenger II MBTs.

As far as 30mm munitions go - About 5 minutes firing of a CIWPS chain gun or Apache Helicopter cannon.