Armor-piercing projectiles that are enhanced with DU form an aerosol of Uranium oxides when hitting their target. This aerosol can contaminate large areas and i

Armor-piercing projectiles that are enhanced with DU form an aerosol of Uranium oxides when hitting their target. This aerosol can contaminate large areas and is inhaled by military people and later by civilians, for instance by kids that play in abandoned tanks that were hit with such DU-enhanced projectiles. Since DU is an alpha emitter with a long half-life, it is dangerous to have it in your body, even when the radioactivity is comparably low. As a heavy metal, it will stay in your body pretty much forever, and there's the chemical toxicity as well. The long-term effects of inhaling Uranium oxides are heavily debated, as it will take usually many years for an illness to develop, and it is almost impossible to link a certain illness to DU with high certainty.