The Syndicate of Chemists in Lebanon (SCL) warned yesterday that the extent of destruction and the depth of damage to buildings and the ground confirms the use of internationally banned bombs containing depleted uranium by Israeli forces, warning of the risk of contracting many diseases as a result of inhaling the dust caused by the bombing.
It said in a “very important warning” that it condemns “the barbaric aggression against civilians in Lebanon and the massacres being committed against the Lebanese people,” noting that the warning aims “to raise awareness about the effects of inhaling the dust from Israeli bombings in several Lebanese areas.”
“The extent of destruction and the penetration of buildings and ground by dozens of metres is evidence of the use of bombs containing depleted uranium, which has tremendous penetrating power,” it added.
The SCL stressed that “the use of such types of internationally banned weapons, especially in densely populated Beirut, leads to massive destruction, and their dust causes many diseases, especially when inhaled.”
The SCL called on “the international community to stop the aggression against Lebanon, and to stop the use of internationally banned bombs.”
It also called on the Lebanese state to file a lawsuit with the UN Security Council “against the violations taking place on Lebanese soil and the attempted mass killings of innocent civilians.”
Citizens, it added, should not “approach the bombed areas within a radius of more than two kilometres,” while those forced to approach these areas must “wear protective clothing”.
The SCL confirmed that it “closely monitors the enemy’s use of internationally banned weapons.”
The most prominent use of these anti-fortification bombs was during the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September, in addition to attempts to kill his successor, Hashem Safieddine.
Israel has killed 1,204 people in Lebanon since it launched its most vicious attack on the country in nearly 20 years on 23 September. More than 1.2 million have been displaced.
Most of the confirmed DU in Yugoslavia was not from bombs, but from the 30mm rounds fired by the A10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft’s Gatling gun. Approximately 10 000 rounds were estimated to have been fired by A-10s during the conflict, with around 8 192 of these being confirmed by NATO and Yugoslav reports. That accounts for approximately 3 metric tonnes of DU confirmed to have been fired at Yugoslavia, as each individual round contained between 280-300g of DU.
The rest of the DU accounted in estimates of between 9-11 total metric tonnes, is said to have come from Tomahawk cruise missiles. This estimate assumes that every Tomahawk cruise missile fired contained a total of 20kg of DU each. This is calculated by taking the total weight of the missile minus the booster stage at 1300kg, and subtracting the estimated weight of the airframe (400kg) and the weight of the explosives in the warhead (450kg). This leaves 450kg of weight left, of which 430kg is calculated to be fuel for the engine, based on a flight time of 2 hours at an average speed of 800kph/500mph, and the engines fuel consumption of 215kg of fuel per hour at 3.1KN of thrust. This leaves 20kg of weight that is unaccounted for, which was guessed to be all DU. While this is mathematically possible, I don’t find such an estimate to be convincing as the 20kg could easily be attributed to other systems. What this does prove is that estimates of tomahawk missiles containing more than 20kg of DU are not feasible unless the entire explosive warhead is forgone for a DU penetrator, which is unrealistic for a cruise missile with a median error radius of 10m.