Johnny Sharp's Dose of Thallium in the Graham Young Article

[jwillx]

The last page of this article claims, "Graham's 'relatively modest use of thallium' was nothing compared to its usage during the first gulf war, in which American forces bombarded the enemy with thallium-tipped shells."

This is completely wrong: No thallium ever would be used in warfare, even if chemical weapons for some reason were authorized: Thallium compounds are too weak and slow-acting to be of the same military effectiveness as, say, nerve gas or even chlorine. What is Mr. Sharp's claim, that soldiers shot thallium bullets down the enemy throats, then waited hours or days for them to get sick? The whole war was over in a week!

Possibly, Mr. Sharp has confused "thallium" with "tungsten", which might have been used in some armor-piercing projectiles. Uranium projectiles were used in the Gulf War for the same reason; and, yes, U is a toxic heavy metal, like thallium or tungsten or antimony or arsenic. None of these metals are of any military value because of their toxicological action. Tungsten is used for its hardness and density, and uranium for its density.

One should add that thallium has been used in pesticides and occasionally has been advanced as a factor in the "Gulf War Syndrome", which includes some symptoms of thallium poisoning. However, it is American veterans, not Iraqis, who have claimed these symptoms! And, no, there is no evidence that Saddam's troops ever were shooting thallium-tipped bullets into American soldiers' mouths.