Copyright 2001 Associated Press
AP Worldstream
February 2, 2001; Friday 3:05 PM Eastern Time
Scientists say closer look at NATO ammunition used in Kosovo necessary
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news2001/nn11016.htm
EMMA ROSS
LONDON

The possibility that U.S. tank-piercing ammunition used in the Balkans conflicts contained more than just depleted uranium has prompted scientists to re-examine their skepticism about health risks to veterans.

Experts' opinion that cancers reported by European veterans of Kosovo and Bosnia could not be linked to depleted uranium has been based on the assumption that the depleted uranium came from raw ore. But now the Pentagon has said shells used in the 1999 Kosovo conflict were tainted with traces of plutonium, neptunium and americium, byproducts of nuclear reactors that are much more radioactive than depleted uranium.

''If it has been through a reactor, it does change our idea on depleted uranium,'' said Dr. Michael Repacholi, the World Health Organizaiton's radiation expert. ''It all depends on the amounts.''

The main new concern, experts say, is plutonium, a highly toxic radioactive metal.

On Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson reiterated NATO's position that Balkans peacekeepers have not been shown to suffer health damage from depleted uranium. U.S. officials have said the shells contained mere traces of plutonium, not enough to cause harm.

But WHO experts asked the U.S. government this week to clarify exactly how much plutonium and other radioactive material was in the ammunition.

Countries that sent peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo have been looking for links between the depleted uranium ammunition and illnesses later contracted by veterans. A wave of fear swept across Europe and beyond after Italy announced it was screening its soldiers because 30 Balkans veterans had become ill since serving, including five who died of leukemia.

Scores of countries began testing soldiers for radiation poisoning.

UN environmental experts are examining radiation levels at sites targeted by NATO in the Balkans and NATO has set up a special committee to investigate claims of a link. The WHO expects to start new studies in the next six months.

''Minds have to be kept open on this,'' said Malcolm Grimson, a radiation expert at London's Imperial College of Medicine. ''We're in a different ballpark here than where we were when we thought we were dealing with depleted uranium from the ground. You have to do all your calculations again.''

Experts must first establish whether cancers are more common than normal among troops before they go on to investigate why. So far, there is no confirmed increase in cancer rates, said WHO's Repacholi.

Lung cancer is the main danger from the radiation, but experts say it is far too early for that to surface. It takes several decades for lung cancer to develop from radiation exposure.

It is just about possible for leukemia cases to start showing up two years after exposure to radiation, but they are less likely to occur than lung cancer and it would take a massive dose, experts say.

''You would die of suffocation before you could inhale enough of the dust to cause cancer, and even then there's a low probability of cancer,'' Repacholi said.

That opinion is based largely on studies of survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he said. Leukemias started to appear there after two or three years.

Depleted uranium mainly contains alpha rays, which are far less toxic than the gamma rays produced by atomic bombs.

Among the Japanese bomb survivors, ''there's virtually no place where you get leukemia from something less than gamma radiation,'' Repacholi said.

Plutonium releases gamma rays, but some scientists believe that while the revelation that the ammunition was tainted raises new concern, it doesn't raise enormous concern.

''I can't imagine anyone in Kosovo got exposed to anything remotely like,'' the radiation produced by the bombs in Japan, said leukemia expert Mel Greaves, a professor of cellular biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. ''It's entirely related to dose.''

That's why WHO officials need to know exactly how tainted the ammunition was.

When uranium is extracted from the ground it is made up mostly of three forms, or isotopes. Two of them, uranium-234 and uranium-235, are highly radioactive and are capable of generating a nuclear explosion or nuclear power, while the other, uranium-238, is not.

The isotopes are separated so that only the uranium-234 and uranium-235 are put into nuclear processing plants. What is left over is pure depleted uranium-238, which is about half as radioactive as natural uranium. That is what is used to fortify airplanes and make ammunition.

Uranium that goes through a nuclear processing plant splits into several substances, including depleted uranium-238, plutonium and other radioactive wastes. If the elements are not separated properly, the depleted uranium can be contaminated.

It is unclear where the depleted uranium in the Kosovo weapons came from.

(er/bg)

LOAD-DATE: February 2, 2001