WHO doubts depleted uranium gave troops leukaemia

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Finally .. some well-respected organizations speak out against the 
recent "hysteria"

WHO doubts depleted uranium gave troops leukemia

GENEVA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - World Health Organisation experts said on 
Monday they doubted that depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by NATO 
in the Balkans over the past decade had caused blood cancer among 
troops from alliance countries. 

But they warned that children playing in former conflict areas where 
the weapons had exploded could be at risk and recommended that 
soldiers who had taken home DU shell parts as souvenirs should 
dispose of them promptly. 

"Based on our studies, and the evidence we have, it is unlikely that 
soldiers in Kosovo ran a high risk of contracting leukaemia from 
exposure to radiation from depleted uranium," WHO specialist Michael 
Repacholi told a news conference. 

Presenting preliminary conclusions of a WHO study to be issued next 
month, the Australian doctor made clear his remarks also applied to 
troops who served in Bosnia under both the flag of the United Nations 
and NATO. 

The news conference was called amid growing concern in countries of 
the Western alliance over reports that former soldiers and 
peacekeepers in both areas of ex-Yugoslavia were dying in increasing 
numbers of leukaemia, a blood disease. 

Although U.S. military chiefs and the NATO-led SFOR force in Bosnia 
said last week that DU weapons posed scant danger once they had been 
used, several alliance governments and European Commission President 
Romano Prodi have called for an inquiry. 

NATO foreign ministers -- including those from Italy, Greece and 
Portugal who have voiced particular alarm -- are due to discuss the 
issue at a meeting in Brussels this week. 

Shells tipped with depleted uranium, which increases their ability to 
penetrate armour, pulverise into dust on impact. They were used 
against Yugoslav army targets in Kosovo in 1999 and in Bosnia against 
Bosnian Serb targets in 1994-95. 

The WHO's Repacholi, who is the U.N. agency's coordinator for 
occupational and environmental health, said a study carried out over 
the past year had shown that in a worst-case scenario exposure of 
troops was only half that in the uranium industry. 

NO LEUKAEMIA RISE AFTER CHERNOBYL 

And the preliminary report said no radiation-related increases in 
leukaemia had been established in miners or workers milling uranium 
metal to make nuclear fuel elements. 

Repacholi also told the news conference that although 

millions of people had been exposed to uranium dust after the nuclear 
reactor explosion at Chernobyl in the then-Soviet Ukraine in 1986, no 
increase in the disease had been detected. 

Generally, several years and normally between 10 and 15 were needed 
after exposure to ionising radiation before leukaemia could be 
clinically detected in the human body, he added. 

Also speaking at the news conference, WHO policy adviser Daniel 
Tarantola said studies in Kosovo hospitals had so far shown no rise 
in average levels of leukaemia among the largely- Albanian civilian 
population of the Serbian province. 

But the preliminary report said that it did not have enough 

information on the overall possible exposure of NATO military 
personnel in Kosovo to make definitive conclusions on the cancer 
risks they ran. 

"Detailed surveys are needed to determine the numbers of soldiers 
exposed, the amount of DU used, how much exists on the surface, how 
much is buried in the ground....before better conclusions can be 
made," it declared. 

"Breathing ultra-fine particles could lead to a theoretical risk of 
cancer," it added. 

Tarantola said a U.N. task force was going to Iraq later this month 
to discuss official claims that thousands of Iraqi citizens had died 
of cancer and babies been born deformed following Western use of DU 
weapons in the 1991 Gulf War. 

U.S. and other groups of veterans of that conflict say DU weapons are 
partly to blame for a wide range of health problems among thousands 
of who fought there. The Pentagon said last month that such a link 
was "unlikely." 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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