Poisoning Eden: Nuclear Weapons, Energy and Depleted Uranium

2005 Speaking Tour by Dr Chris Busby

Auckland Monday 11 April 2-3pm Functions Room, Auckland University Students Association (above cafeteria) 7.30pm Auckland University Engineering School, Room 3.407 Contact: Marion Hancock 09-373-2379

Wellington Wednesday 13 April 12.30pm Lecture Theatre 2 (LT2) in Old Government House 7.30pm Royal Society Lecture, Science House, 11 Turnbull Street Contact: Bob Rigg 04-977-2908

Christchurch Friday 15 April 12.30pm Canterbury University, Commerce Room 113 7.30pm ‘Our City’, Worcester Street/Oxford Terrace Contact: Lois Griffiths 03-355-4715

In response to reported health effects following use of Depleted Uranium (DU) weapons by US and UK forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, a group of concerned Christchurch citizens called the DU Education Team (DUET) was established in May 2004 and has met regularly since then at the Peace Foundation’s Disarmament & Security Centre ( http://www.disarmsecure.org). DUET decided that, with New Zealand defence forces deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, there was a need to educate the public about DU. In September 2004, the Government was sufficiently concerned to arrange for all defence personnel deployed to Iraq to be tested for DU exposure on their return.

DUET obtained Peace and Disarmament Education Trust funding to invite Dr Chris Busby, a British expert on low-level radiation and DU, to conduct a national speaking tour from 11-15 April 2005. His mission is to raise awareness among key political leaders, their advisers, opinion-formers and the general public about the health effects of low-level radiation with specific reference to DU and other radioactive waste from nuclear electricity generation. He will be the first expert to speak publicly on this issue in New Zealand. DU has the potential to become the Agent Orange of the 21st century, with wider health implications for not just New Zealand defence personnel but all New Zealanders working in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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