US & UK Military Cause Uranium
Contamination in Food Chain

Global spread of Depleted Uranium reaches food chain

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/newsi.hts?section=News_id=15480

By Torcuil Crichton and Felicity Arbuthnot
Publication Date: Apr 15 2001

Depleted uranium from shells fired by British and American forces during the
Balkan wars has found its way into the food chain and has been detected
among the civilian populations of Kosovo and Bosnia.

A study of the local population in three locations in the two Balkan regions
has found samples of the highly radio active particles in the urine of all
those tested.

The investigation comes amid growing concern about the possible effects of
depleted uranium in the Balkans both on foreign troops and on the local
population.

A survey for the Sunday Herald has found that depleted-uranium weaponry has
been used or tested in 41 countries worldwide. They range from Britain -
where DU shells are test-fired on the Solway Firth - to Japan, where
unauthorised firing by the United States military led to a massive clean-up
operation. Eleven of the countries affected by DU are in the Balkans.

Nato warplanes dropped 10,000 rounds of DU ammunition in Bosnia in 1994 and
1995. Soldiers from several troop-contributing countries - including Italy,
Portugal and France - have fallen ill with what is being called Balkan
syndrome but this is the first time that the civilian population has been
tested for contamination.

Spain has reported at least eight cases of cancer among personnel deployed
in Bosnia and Kosovo. Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland are
among other countries to have acknowledged a problem. There was an outcry in
Portugal when Hugo Paulino, a young corporal, died of cancer three weeks
after returning from duty in Kosovo.

The health of returning Italian personnel was of such concern that five
different regions have appointed senior judiciary to open inquiries.

The civilian study was carried out by Professor Nick Priest of Middlesex
University, for E~rpa, BBC Scotland's European-affairs programme. It looked
at people in one location in Bosnia and two locations in Kosovo.

"So far, all the results for every single one of the samples collected in
Kosovo is showing some depleted uranium in the urine," he said. "That is
completely abnormal because normally you would expect no DU to be in the
urine samples."

Priest's conclusion was that it was likely that the metal was present in the
food chain. The study did not investigate possible health problems.

Previous studies have found no evidence of a link, although a recent United
Nations report acknowledged that there remain "considerable scientific
uncertainties".

Despite that concern, a proposed voluntary testing programme for Kosovan
civilians has been shelved following the intervention of the World Health
Organisation.

Campaigners against the use of DU, which will remain radioactive for
four-and-a-half billion years, argue the tiny particles of DU dust emitted
from shell explosions will still be mutating genetics of fauna, flora and
humanity "when the sun goes out". Teenager Vlora Marleku told the programme
makers: "I am worried. I don't know what to say. This is something that
touches you very deeply."

Civilian populations and refugees returning to the Balkans are also
experiencing severe health problems, according to local reports.

Journalist Svetlana Stankovic Lala of Greece's Athens News said: "In
Kosovska Mitrovica, [in the] north of Kosovo, the number of malignant
diseases increased 200% in 2000 compared to 1998, the year before the
bombing."

Doctors in the area estimate that birth deformities have increased by 250%
over 1998 figures.

Dr Aleksandra Veljovic, of the Cancer Foundation in Yugoslavia, talked of "a
doubling of incidence of cancer" by June 2000 - exactly a year after the
war's end.

In January 2000, she said, "almost 2000 people died from a flu pandemic,
corpses [remained unburied] for 10 or more days and in numbers from
pneumonia".

Like Iraq, medication and facilities were unavailable due to sanctions. Like
Iraq, an epidemic occurred shortly after the bombing. In Iraq, at least 5000
people died of measles within months of the end of the Gulf war. Radiation
damages the immune system - a link that the Gulf veterans have made with
their proven immune deficiencies.

No studies have been made in bordering countries, although there are
concerns that radiation travels via the wind, water and fauna.

An A-10 Thunderbolt, which carries DU weapons, crashed in Albania. A missile
thought to be carrying DU landed in Bulgaria. Another landed in Macedonia,
which has hosted nearly one million refugees and has already removed 10
tonnes of DU-contaminated topsoil from its border region.

Britain's Ministry of Defence insisted that the levels of depleted uranium
found in the tests for the E~rpa programme posed no risk to public health
and represent only a tiny fraction of naturally occurring background
radiation. Defence minister Dr Lewis Moonie said: "It is a very interesting
result and one that needs to be followed up."

New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
P. O. Box 545
Brattleboro VT 05302-0545
(802) 257-0336
necnp@necnp.org
<http://www.necnp.org/>www.necnp.org