Depleted uranium from shells fired by British and American forces during the Balkan wars has found its way into the food chain and has been detected among the civilian populations of Kosovo and Bosnia.
A study of the local population in three locations in the two Balkan regions has found samples of the highly radio active particles in the urine of all those tested.
The investigation comes amid growing concern about the possible effects of depleted uranium in the Balkans both on foreign troops and on the local population.
A survey for the Sunday Herald has found that depleted-uranium weaponry has been used or tested in 41 countries worldwide. They range from Britain - where DU shells are test-fired on the Solway Firth - to Japan, where unauthorised firing by the United States military led to a massive clean-up operation. Eleven of the countries affected by DU are in the Balkans.
Nato warplanes dropped 10,000 rounds of DU ammunition in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995. Soldiers from several troop-contributing countries - including Italy, Portugal and France - have fallen ill with what is being called Balkan syndrome but this is the first time that the civilian population has been tested for contamination.
Spain has reported at least eight cases of cancer among personnel deployed in Bosnia and Kosovo. Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Poland are among other countries to have acknowledged a problem. There was an outcry in Portugal when Hugo Paulino, a young corporal, died of cancer three weeks after returning from duty in Kosovo.
The health of returning Italian personnel was of such concern that five different regions have appointed senior judiciary to open inquiries.
The civilian study was carried out by Professor Nick Priest of Middlesex University, for E~rpa, BBC Scotland's European-affairs programme. It looked at people in one location in Bosnia and two locations in Kosovo.
"So far, all the results for every single one of the samples collected in Kosovo is showing some depleted uranium in the urine," he said. "That is completely abnormal because normally you would expect no DU to be in the urine samples."
Priest's conclusion was that it was likely that the metal was present in the food chain. The study did not investigate possible health problems.
Previous studies have found no evidence of a link, although a recent United Nations report acknowledged that there remain "considerable scientific uncertainties".
Despite that concern, a proposed voluntary testing programme for Kosovan civilians has been shelved following the intervention of the World Health Organisation.
Campaigners against the use of DU, which will remain radioactive for four-and-a-half billion years, argue the tiny particles of DU dust emitted from shell explosions will still be mutating genetics of fauna, flora and humanity "when the sun goes out". Teenager Vlora Marleku told the programme makers: "I am worried. I don't know what to say. This is something that touches you very deeply."
Civilian populations and refugees returning to the Balkans are also experiencing severe health problems, according to local reports.
Journalist Svetlana Stankovic Lala of Greece's Athens News said: "In Kosovska Mitrovica, [in the] north of Kosovo, the number of malignant diseases increased 200% in 2000 compared to 1998, the year before the bombing."
Doctors in the area estimate that birth deformities have increased by 250% over 1998 figures.
Dr Aleksandra Veljovic, of the Cancer Foundation in Yugoslavia, talked of "a doubling of incidence of cancer" by June 2000 - exactly a year after the war's end.
In January 2000, she said, "almost 2000 people died from a flu pandemic, corpses [remained unburied] for 10 or more days and in numbers from pneumonia".
Like Iraq, medication and facilities were unavailable due to sanctions. Like Iraq, an epidemic occurred shortly after the bombing. In Iraq, at least 5000 people died of measles within months of the end of the Gulf war. Radiation damages the immune system - a link that the Gulf veterans have made with their proven immune deficiencies.
No studies have been made in bordering countries, although there are concerns that radiation travels via the wind, water and fauna.
An A-10 Thunderbolt, which carries DU weapons, crashed in Albania. A missile thought to be carrying DU landed in Bulgaria. Another landed in Macedonia, which has hosted nearly one million refugees and has already removed 10 tonnes of DU-contaminated topsoil from its border region.
Britain's Ministry of Defence insisted that the levels of depleted uranium found in the tests for the E~rpa programme posed no risk to public health and represent only a tiny fraction of naturally occurring background radiation. Defence minister Dr Lewis Moonie said: "It is a very interesting result and one that needs to be followed up."