Children playing in US bomb craters - Cancer/poison risk?

[dArKeR]

An Iraqi boy walks through the crater left after an overnight airstrike in the restive city of Falluja on September 2, 2004. A U.S. air strike on Falluja killed at least 14 people including a woman and three children, Iraqi doctors said. The U.S. military said in a separate statement it had 'conducted a precision attack' against two safe houses used by associates of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in southwest Falluja, a city in the Sunni triangle west of Baghdad. (Mohammed Khodor/Reuters)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040902/photos_ts/mdf684300

There has to be some seriously toxic/radioactive residue chemicals here. aWol and the GOP leadership should have been publicly warning children to stay out of these areas. This is just more evidence of the immorality of murderous Bush. This not only is immoral it is UnAmerican and UnChristian. Jesus bless Bush and his Gestapo.

[Cocoa]

1. an environmental catastrophe

toxic metals like DU, destroyed sanitation infrastructure, oil fires and spills, etc. etc.

[RivetJoint]

2. Could be toxic,

not radioactive though.

I'm sure there is some data out there somewhere on the toxicity left by ordance exploding. I guess it also depends on what it hit, since I'm not aware of any toxins inherent in the bombs we use.

[LibLabUK]

4. Hmm..toxins...

Short of biochemical weapons, there are absolutely no toxins in any ordanance used by the US or UK.

DU is not a toxin.
Cyanide is not a toxin.
Arsenic is not a toxin.
Lead is not a toxin.

C. diphtheriae, B. anthracis and V. cholerae are three examples of bacteria which produce toxins that cause symptoms (diphtheria, anthrax and cholera).

Toxins are high molecular weight, antigenic proteins produced by certain higher plants, animals, fungi and bacteria, which are highly poisonous to other organisms.

Toxins are poisons, but not all poisons are toxins.

So, if you're going to talk about this subject, at least get the terminology correct.

[RivetJoint]

5. My point was

it depended on where the bomb LANDED. The bombs themselves do not carry toxic materials, but the CRATER created by the bomb could be laden with toxins (if, for example, the bomb severed a sewage line or destroyed some waste treament facility)

So, if you're going to correct someone, at least read their effing post.

[LibLabUK]

6. Sorry..

I replied to the wrong post.

My apologies.

[Worst Username Ever]

3. Armor-piercing rounds can have DU, which has low levels of radioactivity

and has been blamed for all kinds of sicknesses, but a regular bomb crater would not be radioactive. There could be other residue from the conventional explosive though, I suppose.