贫化铀的环境污染影响及其对人体健康的危害

贫化铀是铀富集过程中产生的副产品。由于其独特的物理特性，被广泛开发利用到民用和军事用途。“海湾战争综合症”和“巴尔干综合症”引起了人们对贫铀使用后，对环境污染的影响和对人体健康效应研究的重视。贫铀的危害来自化学毒性和放射性毒性两个方面。由于贫铀的放射性比活度低，而且主要发射α粒子，所以来自贫铀的辐射伤害主要是吸入贫铀气溶胶后对肺和其他器官较长时间的内照射。

IMPACT OF DEPLETED URANIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN HEALTH

Depleted Uranium (DU), a byproduct of uranium enrichment, has various civilian and military applications because of its specific physics properties. The Gulf War Syndrome and the Balkan Syndrome led to renewed efforts to assess the environmental consequences and health impact of the use of DU. The health hazard from DU is ascribed to chemotoxicity and radiotoxicity. Due to its low specific radioactivity and dominance of alpha radiation, the main risk from DU is by aerosol inhalation, which leads to a protracted internal exposure of the lung and other organs.