January 9, 2001. Copyright 2001. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

CALL FOR INVESTIGATION AFTER DEATHS OF BALKANS VETS

LONDON, January 9, Graphic News: EUROPEAN members of NATO are demanding an investigation into depleted uranium ammunition and a possible link to so-called ÒBalkan SyndromeÓ after 17 soldiers died of leukaemia or other cancers following exposure to the spent weapons while serving in the former Yugoslavia.

NATO, the United States and Britain say there is no evidence of a link -- a position backed by the World Health Organization -- but the United Nations announced on January 5 that it had found evidence of radioactivity at eight of 11 sites tested in Kosovo. The 11 sites were among 112 targets in Kosovo hit by depleted uranium (DU) rounds. A U.N. report in May 2000 warned thatÊKosovoÕs water could be so contaminated as to beÊunfit to drink.

Cancers have claimed the lives of six Italian soldiers, five Belgians, two Dutch nationals, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech, after tours in the Balkans. Four French soldiers and five Belgians are also suffering from leukaemia -- cancer of the blood.

Radiation levels from depleted uranium are much lower than natural uranium, a U.S. Defense Department report said last month. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, quoted in the report, said: ÒNo human cancer of any type has ever been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium.Ó

But scientists remain divided on the issue, and worry about the risk from breathing dust from the exploded munitions. Yugoslav experts and officials claim the depleted uranium will remain in the soil, filtering into ground water and moving into the food chain.

DU is the waste residue made from the uranium enrichment process. The most radioactive isotopes of uranium are extracted for use in nuclear weapons and civilian reactors. Left behind is the less radioactive isotope 238: depleted uranium.

The killing punch comes from a solid, depleted uranium metal rod in the shell which is 1.7 times as dense as lead. A 120 mm tank round contains about 4kg (10 lbs) of solid DU.

Many physicists and physicians believe that uranium-oxide dust inhaled or ingested by troops in the Gulf War is the cause, or a contributing cause, of ÒGulf-War SyndromeÓ. Over 100,000 European and U.S. Gulf War veterans complain they suffer from the syndrome. Cancer rates in southern Iraq have also increased dramatically, with ovarian cancer in women increasing 16-fold.

U.S. warplanes fired 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition against Serb targets during NATOÕs 1999 campaign to drive the Yugoslav army out of Kosovo. Some 10,000 rounds were fired in neighbouring Bosnia in 1994-5.

In Iraq the U.S. Airforce A-10 ÒTankbusterÓ aircraft fired approximately 940,000 armor piercing incendiary rounds during ÒOperation Desert Storm.Ó In addition 14,000 large caliber 105mm DU tank rounds were fired. By the end of the war over 270 tonnes (600,000 lbs) of uranium from spent rounds lay scattered across Iraq and Kuwait. 

The scale of the threat posed by depleted uranium is hotly disputed. But experts agree the toxic and radiological hazard is heightened by the tendency of depleted uranium to be pulverized on impact into a fine radioactive and toxic dust which can be ingested into the body.

One theory, by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, suggests some DU particles dissolve and enter the bloodstream, but most uranium is excreted from the body through the kidneys.

However, a fraction of the particles find their way to the bones. It is within the red bone marrow of the sternum, ribs, vertebrae, skull and pelvis that stem cells form red and white blood cells and platelets.

Here, weak alpha radiation -- which is normally stopped by the skin -- ionizes oxygen, forming Òfree radicals.Ó These oxygen radicals can penetrate stem cells and cause DNA damage which can result in leukaemia -- uncontrolled growth of mutated white blood cells.

The marrow often can no longer produce enough normal red and white blood cells and platelets. The lack of normal white cells impairs the bodyÕs ability to fight infections and a shortage of platelets results in bruising and easy bleeding.

Spain, Portugal, Finland, Belgium, Britain, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Turkey have announced plans to screen peacekeepers, but some donÕt believe the screening is worth the effort. Wendla Paile of the Finnish Center for Radiation and Nuclear Safety in Helsinki said such screening is Òpointless.Ó

ÒThe radiation from uranium depleted ammunition is so little that it could not explain these extra cases (of leukaemia),Ó Paile said.

Paul Beaver, an analyst at JaneÕs Defence Weekly, said the countries screening their troops have no idea what to look for.

ÒThe problem is there hasnÕt been any really good work done on it,Ó Beaver said. ÒThere is no concrete information. There has been research carried out by the U.S. Army, the British and the French as well, but it seems inconclusive. I've read all the literature I can find on it, but I have no straight answer.Ó
/ENDS
Sources: International Action Center , JaneÕs Defence Weekly, Reuters, Associated Press