VANCOUVER --  The military's top doctor says Canadian soldiers are sick because they're worried about their health, not because of radioactive depleted uranium.

In an exclusive interview with Sun Media, Col. Ken Scott, the Canadian Forces director of medical policies, dismissed concerns by sick soldiers that they're suffering because they handled depleted uranium shells or destroyed military vehicles coated with the metal during service.

An undetermined number of soldiers are complaining of aching joints, vision deterioration, gastrointestinal problems and even leukemia.

Scott said depleted uranium is only mildly radioactive and even extensive U.S. studies on exposure and on soldiers hit by coated shrapnel haven't been able to link these illnesses to the heavy metal.

And two weeks ago, during an international conference on depleted uranium, a study on 50 soldiers hit by friendly fire during the Gulf War revealed they are still healthy and had fathered 38 healthy children.

Scott said the Canadian military hasn't found any depleted uranium in the urine or hair of the 107 soldiers tested by an independent lab.

They included vets who served in the Gulf War, Croatia, Cyprus, Somalia and even Haiti.

"We're not doing uranium testing because we expect to find elevated levels," he said.

"We're doing this testing because our veteran population is worried.

"We're doing it to offer reassurance to our worried veterans."

Scott said the tests, which began exactly one year ago and cost up to $1,000 per soldier, will continue until everyone who wants to discount depleted uranium as a cause for their suffering gets one.

"We will continue indefinitely," he said.

"We're suggesting to them that if they're worried, go see knowledgeable health-care workers. If at the end of it they wish to be tested, it's fine."

Scott said hebelieves that stress and worry cause illness, something he says western culture generally ridicules.

Scott believes some veterans are making themselves sick worrying that they might have been exposed to radioactive depleted uranium.

He dismissed the popular accusations that the military is trying to cover up the real reason soldiers are sick, which many believe is because of depleted uranium.

Dr. Fergal Nolan, head of the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada, urged the Canadian Forces not to dismiss depleted uranium as a major cause of illness simply because there's no scientific proof linking the two.

Nolan said the danger doesn't lie with handling depleted uranium; it lies in the ingestion or inhalation of the material or being hit with coated shrapnel.