>From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: NATO cancers attributed to depleted uranium
>Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 15:17:12
>
>[The upshot of another Clinton era "triumph."]
>
>NATO Will Probe Bosnia's Depleted Uranium Targets
>
>By Andrew Hobbs
>
>Brussels, Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson
>ordered an investigation of sites in Bosnia attacked by alliance planes
>using depleted uranium weapons, amid mounting concern in Europe about the
>long-term health risks to soldiers from such weapons, news reports said.
>
>In a letter to Italy's ambassador to NATO, Robertson said he "fully
>understands" the country's "deep concern" about such munitions after the
>deaths of seven Italian peacekeepers from leukemia since their return from
>Bosnia, Agence France-Presse reported.
>
>"I have asked the NATO military authorities to report as soon as possible
>on
>where the targets were attacked with munitions using depleted uranium (in
>Bosnia) and on the quantity of munitions involved," AFP quoted Robertson as
>saying.
>
>The deaths of at least 15 veterans from five European countries have been
>linked to the weapons, and eight countries have started testing the health
>of soldiers involved in the conflicts. Depleted uranium, a by-product of
>converting natural uranium for use as fuel, is used in anti-tank munitions
>because its high density makes it able to pierce armor. ...
>
>About 31,000 depleted uranium shells were fired by US A-10 aircraft during
>the 1999 bombardment of Serbia and Kosovo. About 1,000 rounds of ammunition
>containing depleted uranium were fired in the 1994-95 Bosnian conflict, the
>Financial Times said. That compares with more than 850,000 of the rounds
>fired during the 1991 Gulf War.
>
>Research has concentrated on the effects of inhaling particles created when
>the metal turns into a gas after its hits a hard target, the Financial
>Times
>said.
>
>Both the U.S. and the U.K. acknowledge that that can be dangerous if it's
>inhaled, though they say the danger is short-lived, localized and more
>likely to lead to chemical poisoning than irradiation, the British
>Broadcasting Corp. said.
>
>U.S. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon rejected an Italian call for a ban on
>the weapons, telling a news conference in Washington there was no "health
>reason to consider a moratorium now."
>
>The U.K. defense ministry said it won't test its veterans' health because
>the links to cancer are unproven.
>
>"It's not an illegal weapon, it's a very effective weapon," the BBC quoted
>NATO spokesman Mark Laity as saying. "The medical consensus is, it is not a
>problem."
>
>[Well, "no problemo" is most certainly the *US-UK* consensus, at least.]
>
>Carl
>
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