2006Northern Arizona University Study In April2006, Northern Arizona University released astudy illustrating that depleted uranium maydamage DNA. In Iraq, depleted uraniumdeposits have already had effects on thepopulation, including a 600 rise in bothleukemia rates in children and birth defectrates. Northern Arizona University,biochemist Diane Stearns and her studentsare the first to show that when cells areexposed to uranium, the uranium binds to DNAand the cells acquire mutations. Whenuranium affixes to DNA, the genetic code inthe cells of living organisms can change.Therefore, the DNA can make the wrongprotein or wrong amounts of protein, whichaffects how cells grow. Some of these cellscan grow to become cancer. Their findingswere published recently in the journalsMutagenesis and MolecularCarcinogenesis