http://www.nandotimes.com) - NATO and the European Union will examine potential health risks of depleted uranium ammunition used in the Balkans, and the U.N. administrator in Kosovo on Monday made an "urgent appeal" for help to the World Health Organization.

NATO's political committee and the EU's political and security committee scheduled talks for Tuesday. The use of depleted uranium has led to rising fears in Europe since Italy began investigating soldiers who have become ill since serving in the Balkans. Twelve have cancer and five have died of leukemia.

In France, four soldiers are being treated for leukemia. One Portuguese soldier has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from Kosovo. Several other European countries have begun screening soldiers who served in the Balkans, with many civilian aid agencies doing the same.  European officials cautioned that determining a link, if there is one, between any particular illness and depleted uranium - a dense metal used against armored vehicles because of its penetrating power - may take a long while.

"It's not easy to find a definitive conclusion to this problem, but the process will start tomorrow," said Sweden's Defense Minister Bjoern von Sydow, whose country holds the EU presidency.

The United States, the only country to use depleted uranium munitions during the 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 and in Bosnia during 1994 and 1995, insists the ammunition poses no significant health threat.

Radiation levels from depleted uranium are much lower than natural uranium, a U.S. Defense Department report said last month. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, quoted in the report, said: "No human cancer of any type has ever been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium."

Scientists remain divided on the issue, and worry about the risk from breathing dust from the exploded munitions. Yugoslav experts and officials claim the depleted uranium will remain in the soil, filtering into ground water and moving into the food chain.

The German Defense Ministry confirmed Sunday that in July 1999, NATO warned of possible dangers from depleted uranium ammunition in the Balkans and called for proper precautionary steps to be taken. Many countries whose troops are serving in Kosovo have sent or are now sending medical teams to examine soldiers for ill effects. The outgoing U.N. administrator in Kosovo sought help gauging what effects, if any, the depleted uranium may be having on civilians.  Bernard Kouchner made an "urgent appeal" to the World Health Organization to send public health experts to monitor the possible health risks, U.N. spokeswoman Susan Manuel said. On Monday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on NATO to release all available information on the use and effects of depleted uranium ammunition.

"We want frank information about where the ammunition was used and with what consequences," Schroeder said. He added, however, that he harbored a "healthy skepticism" that the ammunition caused the illnesses. While depleted uranium fears spread, others advised caution.

Ljerka Obradovic, a hematologist in the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia, said the leukemia rate among the 500,000 residents of that section was the same as before the Bosnian war.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said that according to initial findings by WHO and the Kosovo Department of Health, "there has been no increase of incidents of leukemia among adults over the last four years."

WHO said Monday that soldiers and civilians exposed to depleted uranium in the Balkans probably did not receive large enough doses of radiation to cause leukemia. The U.N. health body agreed that radioactive dust from the exploded munitions could end up in the body, but said the amount would have been low.

Dr. Mike Repacholi, WHO's coordinator for occupational and environmental health, stressed that the organization's position was based on a review of existing research and could not say whether areas bombed by depleted uranium now are safe.

"If parents have children playing in contaminated areas, they should be careful about this. There are going to be radioactive fragments," Repacholi said.

A Serb health official said Monday that ethnic Albanian villagers were letting cattle graze on soil contaminated by depleted uranium, putting people at risk of consuming milk or meat that could become toxic.  Villagers in Bratoselce removed a fence sealing off contaminated land, said Miroslav Simic, a health official in Vranje, 180 miles southeast of Belgrade.

U.N. scientists who visited 11 of 112 Kosovo sites identified by NATO as having been targeted with ordnance containing depleted uranium found higher radiation levels at eight of them. The U.N. team intends to visit more sites in the spring.

"Once we have concluded the tests we will know precisely what environmental and health damage the uranium weapons posed, if any," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.

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