14.7.2017.

BBC News | Sci/Tech | Depleted uranium 'threatens Balkan cancer epidemic'

Front Page Friday, July 30, 1999 Published at 18:50 GMT 19:50 UK Sci/Tech Contents
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A-10 aircraft fired depleted uranium munitions Vaccine link to Gulf War
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Low Graphics 19 Mar 99 | Health
Help A British scientist says the Americans' use of depleted Depleted uranium 'low
uranium weapons in the war with Serbia is likely to risk' for Gulf veterans
cause 10,000 extra deaths from cancer. 02 Feb 99 | Health
Uranium blamed for Gulf
A British biologist, Roger Coghill, says he expects the
War Syndrome
depleted uranium (DU) weapons used by US aircraft
over Kosovo will cause more than 10,000 fatal cancer
cases.
Internet Links
Mr Coghill, who runs his own research laboratory in
MOD on Gulf War
south Wales, was speaking at a London conference
Illnesses
called to discuss the use by American and British forces
of DU in Iraq in the 1991 Gulf war. Depleted uranium
Military Toxics Project
High radiation levels
The BBC is not responsible for
He said there had been evidence in other parts of the the content of external internet
Balkans of elevated radiation levels during and soon sites.
after the war with Serbia.

In this section
In mid-June scientists at
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Kozani in northern Greece
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were reporting that radiation
levels were 25% above Scientists join forces to
normal whenever the wind study Arctic ozone
blew from the direction of
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Kosovo.
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And Bulgarian researchers From Business
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within Bulgaria itself, and up Who watches the pilots?
to 30 times higher in
Destruction may be followed by From Health
Yugoslavia.
cancer deaths Cold 'cure' comes one
DU is a by-product of the enrichment of uranium for step closer
making nuclear weapons and reactor fuel. It is 1.7 times
heavier than lead, and is used for making armour-
piercing rounds.

Safety controversy
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14.7.2017. BBC News | Sci/Tech | Depleted uranium 'threatens Balkan cancer epidemic'

Both the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence insist

that it poses no significant danger. But Mr Coghill says
that, while DU in its inert form is safe enough, when it
strikes a target it does become a real danger.

"In an impact DU catches fire, and much of the round is

turned into burning dust. The particles are extremely
small, they can travel up to 300 kilometres. They are
also beta-emitters, which are dangerous if inhaled."

The particles can then lodge in the lungs, resisting the

body's attempts to flush them out, and can wreak havoc
with the immune system. They can migrate to any tissue,
though they often make for the kidneys.

Using calculations based on the Pentagon's statement

that one in five of the rounds fired by its A-10 aircraft
over Kosovo were DU munitions, Mr Coghill estimates
that more than 500,000 DU rounds were fired, of which
half detonated.

He says that would have resulted in the release of about

one thirty-thousandth of the amount of radiation released
at Chernobyl in 1986. "But that was in the form of
caesium on the ground. This is free-floating particulate
matter."

Delayed effect

Mr Coghill says the maximum effect will be reached

about six months after the war, and he thinks the first
cancers - probably leukaemias - will start to show up
about a year after that.

"Throughout the Balkan region, I calculate that there will

be an extra 10,150 deaths from cancer because of the
use of DU. That will include local people, K-FOR
personnel, aid workers, everyone."

He accepts that doubts remain over the effects of DU,

and says it is vital to listen to critics who suggest that the
higher cancer rates seen in parts of Iraq may have been
caused by chemical weapons instead.

However, Mr Coghill notes that Bosnia, where DU

weapons were used in 1995, was not attacked with
chemical munitions, unlike Iraq.

"No epidemiological study can ever prove causality - all it

can do is show an association. For proof, you need
human, animal and cellular studies. All of those have
been carried out on DU, and they support the
association," says Mr Coghill.

"The total evidence is strong that DU is behind Gulf War

Syndrome, and the increased rates of disease in Iraq -
and in Bosnia.

"The birth deformities seen in the Gulf are identical to

those seen in Bosnia, and in the children of some US
service personnel who were exposed to DU."

He says there is telling confirmation of his distrust of DU.

It comes in the form of evidence submitted by radiation
physicists at the University of Maryland to the US
Department of Energy in April on the long-term use of
DU.

"They concluded that DU should never be used in a

battlefield scenario, because of its hazards to health."

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