Depleted uranium combusts into odorless radioactive glass particles that are inhaled unknowingly

Evidence

When a depleted-uranium warhead strikes a metal target, the depleted uranium spontaneously combusts, releasing minute glass particles in aerosol form. These so-called ceramic aerosols, despite the aesthetic elegance of that phrase, give off no scent, so troops and civilians alike inhale them unknowingly. Because ceramic aerosols emit radiation in potentially lethal doses, if they enter your lungs or if you ingest them or if they seep into a cut, you’re at grave risk of developing life-threatening renal carcinoma, leukemia, lymphomas, or any one of multiple cancers. Most cancers take five to thirty years to incubate. — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 634

Categorization

• XREF: The 5-to-30-year cancer incubation directly instantiates slow violence’s delayed temporality and the invisibility problem. — connects to: Nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands delivered slow-exposure harms out of sight — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 30; The euphemism ‘depleted’ masks uranium’s radioactive and chemical threat in munitions — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 603; A child can unknowingly absorb depleted-uranium particles through routine play — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 659
• SHARE: For anyone interested in weapons materials: DU rounds ignite on impact into fragrant-sounding ‘ceramic aerosols’ — odorless glass dust with a 5-30 year cancer lag.

Broader Connections

• A child can unknowingly absorb depleted-uranium particles through routine play #expands (0.82) — Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism…, 659