Depleted Uranium
Friday, March 16th 2007 - 1:35 PM
I've had really bad toothache for the last few days. It's been absolute agony at times, and has kept me awake at night sometimes. I don't trust dentists at the best of times and i've very reluctant to go to one here.
When i left Australia, six months ago, my teeth were in good condition. But when i checked them out in the mirror, with a torch, the other day, i was shocked at how bad they are now. There seems to be cavities in half a dozen of them and one of them's a kind of translucent grey colour. This is an incredible deterioration in just six months.
I suspect the main cause is not enough calcium. I don't eat dairy (yuk!) and normally my main source of calcium is unhulled (whole) tahini. But you can't get that here - or, at least, i haven't found any yet. Yesterday i bought some calcium tablets and i'm hoping that will fix up my teeth. Hopefully it's not too late!
But it's started me worrying about depleted uranium in the ground water - and in the vast amount of dust that's in the air almost all the time in Kabul. DU was certainly used here during the US-led invasion, and it doesn't go away. There's guaranteed to be higher than normal concentrations of it in the ground water - in at least some parts of Kabul - and there must be some in the dust, too. I've been in the habit of drinking a lot of green tea at work, which they make with well water.
One of the effects of DU is to displace calcium in your teeth and bones. I'm seriously hoping that the state of my teeth isn't a symptom of DU poisoning. I doubt it, as i don't seem to have any of the other effects, but it's a bit of a worry. I don't think i should stay here too long, anyway!
You can see some of my photos of Afganistan at
WillKemp-Photos.com/afghanistan