The Stars and Stripes
http://www.pstripes.com/ed102300b.html
Monday, October 23, 2000
Spent uranium rounds'health effects debated
By Ward Sanderson
Macedonia bureau

PEC, Kosovo - Italian authorities are investigating whether depleted uranium anti-armor rounds, toxic souvenirs of the allied pounding of Kosovo, threaten their peacekeepers. So far, the answer is no. Italy's environmental undersecretary, Valerio Calzolaio, announced Thursday that months of study have found no cases of cancer or other illnesses connected to the spent rounds that litter their sector of western Kosovo."There is no danger for the troops," Calzolaio said in the prepared statement. Nonetheless, a group of paramilitary hazardous-material experts are preparing a new uranium investigation from their headquarters in Pristina. For its part, the Pentagon already has decided that depleted uranium poses little threat to troops or the environment - though some veterans and environmentalists disagree. The rounds were used by American A-10 "Warthogs" because of their armor-piercing properties: Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead. The rounds fly fast and tear through tanks as if they were Tonka toys. They ignite on impact, spewing molten metal and radioactive dust into their armored targets. Depleted uranium also is used to stabilize cruise missiles. The material includes waste left over from reactors or the manufacture of nuclear weapons. It is "depleted" because it is half as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium. Italian worries began in March, when reports circulated that Italian soldiers were coming down with leukemia because of uranium exposure. Two died - but neither, it turned out, had actually spent time in Kosovo. "We have no proof of soldiers being sick with radiation," said Lt. Col. Gianfranco Scalas, spokesman for the Italian-led brigade in Kosovo.Scalas said one of the soldiers who died did duty in Bosnia; the other had never been to the Balkans. "The guy who died in Sardinia, I knew personally," Scalas said. "He was from my village." The reason Italians continue to investigate, however, is the sheer quantity of the shells fired into their sector. Almost half of the 112 sites targeted by the shells are in the Italian sector - it was home to key roads to Albania and the airport of Djackovica. In some cases, more than 900 rounds were fired into a target area. The road to Pec bears grim witness to the bombardment. Homes have no roofs, brick hotels gape hollow through broken windows, blown bridges threaten to launch the unwary driver into oblivion.

The rounds used were also fired during the Gulf War by both the United States and Britain. Some veterans have complained the radioactivity is responsible for Gulf War illnesses. The Pentagon, however, says the depleted uranium is only as dangerous as any other heavy metal, such as lead or mercury, and is only marginally radioactive. According to the Veterans Administration, depleted uranium is only dangerous when it is breathed as dust or enters the body as shrapnel. "It's not uranium like a radiation weapon," said German Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz, a NATO spokesman, during a bombing press conference last year. He said it's similar to material found in "rocks, soil, everywhere."But though the solid shells are of little concern, those that find their marks explode into a toxic cloud.Critics say that dust can cause cancer or kidney damage. Scalas said his troops are told not to touch destroyed armored vehicles or found rounds. But he also refers to the uranium worry as a "phantom" problem. Before sitting down to an espresso, he joked: "It contains depleted uranium." Still, he said all is not ecologically well: Lead is a common construction material in Kosovo. His troops had to empty an office building in Pec that was used to store trash."It was like a dump here," he said. "Really like a dump." During one cleanup, his troops hauled away 70 truckloads of trash. "These," he said, "are the ecological bombs." In the past 16 months, 112 out of 4,800 Italians have gone home sick or injured. Scalas said none was a victim of toxic uranium. He said any problems caused by the uranium will, unfortunately, more than likely be those of the local Kosovars. The Italian investigations are ongoing. The Italian environmental agency continues to fly in experts for periodic studies. And the hazardous materials unit of the Carabinieri - or paramilitary police - are just gearing up an investigation of their own. One of the investigators in Pristina, Alfonso Trincone, said their hazmat gear has not arrived and that he could not go into details about the investigation. Their testing equipment should arrive before late November. Whatever the risks of depleted uranium, whether real or imagined, the shells are likely to furrow brows again. And they might soon be fired by foreign forces with varying concern for the ecology of the countries they target. "U.S. forces continue to use [depleted-uranium] munitions and may employ them in the future," a Veterans Administration report reads. "[Depleted-uranium] penetrators are now available in international arms markets, and may become widely available to armies around the globe."