No health risk from uranium shells, says Pentagon
The Pentagon has denied that peacekeeping forces in the Balkans are having their health put at risk from the remnants of US weapons containing depleted uranium.
The assurance comes after a rising tide of European concern over cancer and other serious illnesses suffered by veterans.
"We have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to depleted uranium," Kenneth Bacon, chief spokesman for Defence Secretary William Cohen, said.
"We're pretty confident of what we've said, which is we have found no direct link."
The Pentagon has been investigating the issue since the 1991 Gulf War, when armour-piercing shells made from depleted uranium were used in combat for the first time.
The UN last year sent a team of experts to Kosovo, where depleted uranium weapons were fired by US Air Force A-10 aircraft in missions against Serb armoured vehicles. Mr Bacon said the team took soil and water samples that are now being evaluated by five laboratories. The results are expected this spring.
In several European countries, questions are being raised about whether depleted uranium exposure may pose a cancer risk.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the European Union said the 15-nation group would conduct an inquiry, and Mr Bacon said the issue was expected to be raised by European allies at a Nato meeting next week.
Last week, Italy began investigating possible links between depleted uranium weapons and about 30 cases of serious illness among soldiers who served in Kosovo and Bosnia.
Mr Bacon said 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium munitions were fired by American aircraft during the 1999 war in Kosovo. In US-led Nato air strikes against Bosnia in 1994 and 1995, about 10,800 rounds were fired around Sarajevo, he said.
Questions about possible health risks have persisted, particularly among some veterans groups, since shortly after the Gulf War. Some in Europe have raised the possibility that exposure to depleted uranium could cause cancers such as leukaemia.
