2018

The Scientific Legacy of Dr. Asaf Duraković - An Anthology of Key Advances and Publications on the Medical Effects of Depleted Uranium, Ionizing Radiation, and Internal Contamination with Actinides

Duraković, Asaf (author); Bell, D.E. and Bell, M. (editors)

(WLIPH), Medina, NY, USA 2018.

2017 

Medical Effects of a Transuranic "Dirty Bomb"

Duraković, Asaf

US Journal of Military Medicine, 182, April, 2017.

Article in Military Medicine magazine

DOI:  10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00256

Abstract

The modern military battlefields are characterized by the use of nonconventional weapons such as encountered in the conflicts of the Gulf War I and Gulf War II. Recent warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkans has introduced radioactive weapons to the modern war zone scenarios. This presents the military medicine with a new area of radioactive warfare with the potential large scale contamination of military and civilian targets with the variety of radioactive isotopes further enhanced by the clandestine use of radioactive materials in the terrorist radioactive warfare. Radioactive dispersal devices (RDDs), including the "dirty bomb," involve the use of organotropic radioisotopes such as iodine 131, cesium 137, strontium 90, and transuranic elements. Some of the current studies of RDDs involve large-scale medical effects, social and economic disruption of the society, logistics of casualty management, cleanup, and transportation preparedness, still insufficiently addressed by the environmental and mass casualty medicine. The consequences of a dirty bomb, particularly in the terrorist use in urban areas, are a subject of international studies of multiple agencies involved in the management of disaster medicine. The long-term somatic and genetic impact of some from among over 400 radioisotopes released in the nuclear fission include somatic and transgenerational genetic effects with the potential challenges of the genomic stability of the biosphere. The global contamination is additionally heightened by the presence of transuranic elements in the modern warzone, including depleted uranium recently found to contain plutonium 239, possibly the most dangerous substance known to man with one pound of plutonium capable of causing 8 billion cancers. The planning for the consequences of radioactive dirty bomb are being currently studied in reference to the alkaline earths, osteotropic, and stem cell hazards of internally deposited radioactive isotopes, in particular uranium and transuranic elements. The spread of radioactive materials in the area of the impact would expose both military and civilian personnel to the blast and dust with both inhalational, somatic, and gastrointestinal exposure, in the aftermath of the deployment of RDDs. The quantities of radioactive materials have proliferated from the original quantity of plutonium first isolated in 1941 from 0.5 mg to the current tens of thousands of kilograms in the strategic nuclear arsenal with the obvious potential consequences to the biosphere and mankind. In an event of RDD employment, the immediate goal of disaster and mass casualty medicine would be a synchronized effort to contain the scope of the event, followed by cleanup and treatment procedures. A pragmatic approach to this problem is not always possible because of unpredictability of the terrorist-use scenarios.

DOI: 10.7205/MILMED-D-16-00256

2016

The Specter of Plutonium in Modern Warfare

Duraković, Asaf

Journal: Stem Cell and Translational Investigation                                                  

2016; 3: e1359. doi: 10.14800/scti.1359.

Medical effects of internal contamination with actinides: further controversy on depleted uranium and radioactive warfare,

Duraković, Asaf

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 1-7. DOI:10.1007/S12199-016-0524-4, 2016.

2009

Estimating the Lung Burden from Exposure to Aerosols of Depleted Uranium

Valdés, Marcelo

Radiation Protection Dosimetry Radiat Prot Dosimetry 2009 Feb;134(1):23-9. doi: 10.1093/rpd/ncp056. Epub 2009 Apr 4.

2006

The Analysis of the Uranium Isotopes Abundance and Ratios in the Civilian Population of the Eastern Afghanistan as the Consequence of the Use of Radioactive Weapons in Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

A. Duraković,  A. Gerdes, F. Klimaschewski, I. Zimmerman

World Journal of Nuclear Medicine, No. 5, Supp. 1, No. 2103, p. S48, Oct. 2006. 

The Analysis of Uranium Isotopes Abundance in the Civilian Populations of the Different Regions of Iraq as a Consequence of the Use of  Radioactive Weapons in Gulf War II Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)

​A. Duraković, A. Gerdes, F. Klimaschewski, I. Zimmerman

World Journal of Nuclear Medicine, No. 5, Supp. 1, No. 3120, p. S114, Oct. 2006.

2005 

The Quantitative Analysis of Uranium Isotopes in the Urine of the Civilian Population of Eastern Afghanistan after Operation Enduring Freedom

Duraković, Asaf

US Journal of Military Medicine, 170, April, 2005.

Mil Med 2005 Apr;170(4):277-84.

2003

Evaluation of the Carcinogenic Risk of Depleted Uranium in the Lungs of Gulf War Veterans 

Duraković, Asaf; Dietz, Lenn; Zimmerman, Isaac

submitted for publication, AMSUS, US Journal of Military Medicine, October, 2003. 

Undiagnosed Illness and Radioactive Warfare

Duraković, Asaf

Croatian Medical Journal. 44(5):520532, 2003.

2002

New Concepts in CBRN Warfare

Duraković, Asaf

Military Medicine, 2002.

The Quantitative Analysis of Depleted Uranium in British, Canadian and US Gulf War Veterans

Duraković, Asaf; Horan, Patricia; Dietz, Lenn

US Journal of Military Medicine, 2002.

2001

On Depleted Uranium, the Gulf War and Balkan Syndrome

Duraković, Asaf

Croatian Medical Journal. 42(2):130-134, 2001.

1999

Medical Effects of Internal Contamination with Uranium

Duraković, Asaf

Croatian Medical Journal. 40 (1), 1999.

1995

Medicine in the Current Nuclear Age

Duraković, Asaf

Medicinski Vjesnik, Osijek, 27 (1 2), 77-82, 1995.

Medical Concerns of the Current Nuclear Reality

Duraković, Asaf

Croatian Medical Journal, 36, No.3., 147-156, 1995.