NATO casts doubt on DU-cancer link

LONDON, England -- NATO has said scientific results support its contention that there is no proven link between depleted uranium (DU) and cancer.

"Scientist after scientist after scientist has been coming out saying they do not see a link between leukaemia and depleted uranium," NATO spokesman Mark Laity said on Monday.

He was speaking as senior medical officers of the 19-member NATO alliance met in Brussels to examine reports of health problems after the weapons were linked to illnesses among peacekeepers who served in the Balkans.

The crisis deepened on Monday when the UK Atomic Energy Authority confirmed that a 1991 report warned that DU shells left in Kuwait after the Gulf War were potentially harmful.

The findings from the Brussels meeting will be passed on to NATO's newly created Ad Hoc Committee on Depleted Uranium which is due to hold its first meeting on Tuesday.

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Officials said the aim was to exchange information about the incidence of serious illness among peacekeeping troops who may have been exposed to DU debris and alleged links to the substance's radioactivity or toxicity.

Laity, appealing for calm, said outside the meeting that "facts and science" were needed.

"They have been getting a briefing on the latest information and they have also been sharing ... the current state of play within their own national governments," he said.

"There's quite a lot of screening going on and studies going on. I would caution people against expecting very firm conclusions" at this point.

DU weapons have been linked -- although there is no solid scientific proof -- to illnesses among peacekeepers who served in the Balkans.

But France also cast doubt on allegations that exposure to the armour-piercing ammunition may have triggered cancer in its troops.

The Defence Ministry in Paris said tests on five French soldiers, who served in the Balkans and who are now suffering from cancer and other malignant illnesses, did not reveal any traces of depleted uranium. Tests on a sixth ill soldier were continuing.

Fears for soldiers were first raised last month after Italy said it was investigating illnesses in 30 Balkan veterans, including seven soldiers who have died of cancer.

About 100,000 French soldiers have served in Balkan peacekeeping missions in partnership with the Western defence alliance, of which nearly 5,000 remain in the area.

Last week, German Defence Minister Rudolph Scharping said he stood by the results of independent examinations in 1999 of German troops returning from Kosovo.

Health tests on soldiers sent to Kosovo and those never deployed there showed no differences, he said.

The Defence Ministry said the incidence of two cancers -- leukaemia and lymphoma -- among German soldiers was no higher than among the general population in 1999.

Scharping has called for a moratorium on using depleted uranium weapons so more research can be carried out, but he also has criticised media-generated "hysteria" on the issue.

DU, used in the tips of missiles, shells and bullets to boost their ability to penetrate armour can be turned on impact into a toxic radioactive dust, some defence experts say.

The Pentagon says 31,000 rounds were fired during the 1999 war over Kosovo. In U.S.-led airstrikes in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, about 10,800 rounds were fired around Sarajevo.

Switzerland's defence ministry said on Sunday it planned to check the health implications of DU weapons test-fired in central Switzerland 30 years ago.

Russia, meanwhile, is calling for an international conference of specialists to look at the problem within the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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UN Environment Programme: Balkans
World Health Organisation
U.S. Dept of Energy: Depleted Uranium
NATO
UK Ministry of Defence
UK Atomic Energy Authority

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