Laboratory Analyzes Shrapnel to Look for Uranium

Military doctors here are investigative shrapnel taken from service members and veterans, looking for depleted uranium and other metals. The Joint Pathology Center’s Biophysical Toxicology and exhausted Uranium/Embedded Metal Fragment Laboratories branch is analyze the embedded fragments and as long as second opinions at military and Veterans Affairs medical centers to treat those who had retained shrapnel.

“Our goal is to get better the care of wounded warriors,” said Army Col. (Dr.) Thomas Baker, interim director of the Joint Pathology Center, the umbrella organization for the lab.“We advise [doctors] how to pursue up and what treatment is needed” to mitigate the potential effects of uranium and additional metals, he said.

The lab analyzes all combat-associated metal fragments taken from DOD personnel that might pose a long-term health risk, such as depleted uranium, which can give to kidney damage over time, Baker explained. The lab as well develops laboratory capabilities in metal toxicology to support the Defense Department, The Pathology Center and VA and Army programs that require exposure assessment to depleted uranium, embedded fragment analysis and analysis of sure metal alloys, officials said. The only one of its kind in the United States, Baker said, the lab keeps a registry of the remains for future re-evaluation.

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