Depleted uranium - the curse of modern warfare that refuses to go away - is creating a storm of controversy in Europe following the discovery of radioactive soil at several sites hit by NATO during the 1999 Kosovo war.
Scientists from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) confirmed Friday that they have found signs of radioactivity at eight of the 11 areas struck by NATO munitions, prompting one Yugoslav newspaper's headline: ``NATO was worse than Chernobyl.''
On that same day the British ministry of defence admitted it has known for 10 years that there were health risks from the depleted uranium ammunition used during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and then conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo.
And the 15-nation European Union has ordered its own inquiry to explore possible links between uranium-tipped ammunition and recent cancer deaths among Balkan veterans.
But Col. Ken Scott, director of medical policy for the Canadian Forces, said yesterday he's confident Canada has already explored the links and found nothing.
Three years ago Canada opened post-deployment clinics ``that were open to, not only Gulf War veterans, but veterans of any Canadian peacekeeping operation,'' Scott said.
Claims by some Canadian veterans that depleted uranium is to blame for their medical problems, Scott said, cannot be substantiated.
``The illnesses we were seeing in our Gulf War veterans were the same as in our Somali veterans, in our Rwandan veterans, in our Croatian veterans, in our Haitian veterans and in our Bosnian veterans,'' he said.
Depleted uranium, so named because it has been processed to remove the most radioactive isotopes for use in nuclear fuel or nuclear weapons, is used in anti-tank rounds and some types of missiles because it is extremely hard and much more effective in penetrating tank armour and concrete.
According to the British defence department, U.S. troops and aircraft fired some 860,000 depleted uranium rounds during the Persian Gulf War. American aircraft fired 10,800 rounds in Bosnia and about 31,000 in the Kosovo conflict.
The Canadian military has never used ammunition containing depleted uranium, Scott said, and the navy, which once had missiles tipped with depleted uranium, phased them out in 1998 because of storage - not health - considerations.
But because the depleted portion remains radioactive, military veterans have increasingly blamed it for causing a host of illnesses, including leukemia and other cancers, kidney disease and chronic fatigue.
Scott remains unconvinced.
``We have actually been evaluating returning personnel from the Balkans at post-deployment clinics for the past three years,'' he said.
``Canada was the first NATO country to establish post-deployment clinics specifically to look at returning peacekeepers.
Any who had complaints were referred to these clinics.''
In fact, he noted, a voluntary screening program carried out by the Canadian military has tested 101 Canadian veterans - about 90 Gulf War veterans, the remainder from the Balkans - and found no evidence of increased cancer levels.
No conclusive link exists between depleted uranium and sick soldiers, but European defence departments are taking no chances and have ordered their own exhaustive inquiries.
NATO, too, has launched an investigation into the effects of depleted uranium, sparked by concern over a number of unexplained deaths and illnesses among soldiers from France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Portugal after their return from the Balkans.
Portugal has urged soldiers who had served in the Balkans, and who were exhibiting certain symptoms, to report for radiation screening. Italy, Poland and Spain are also conducting tests on troops who served, or are serving, in the region.
Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato clearly is worried about depleted uranium's potential for harm among his military veterans.
``We've always known that (depleted uranium) was a danger only in absolutely exceptional circumstances like, for example, picking up a fragment with a hand on which there was an open wound,'' Amato said last week.
``But now we are starting to have a justified fear that things are not that simple.''
Concerns over depleted uranium reached new heights in Italy last month after the government announced it was investigating 30 cases of illness involving soldiers who served in the Balkans. Twelve soldiers developed cancer; five have died of leukemia.
Rui Miguel Alpanhao, one of four Portuguese soldiers whose illnesses are being investigated, told private television station TVI on Friday that he was diagnosed with leukemia last October, about a year after he returned from the Balkans.
And Spanish newspapers have reported that seven Spanish soldiers and a civilian volunteer who served in the Balkans had developed cancer. Two of them died.
In Germany, meanwhile, the defence ministry said yesterday there was no evidence a soldier who served in Mostar, Bosnia, from August to November, 1997, was sick because of the depleted uranium.
Nevertheless, the ministry said, it will investigate further.
The ministry said given that 50,000 soldiers had served in the Balkans, there was a statistical chance of six or seven soldiers contacting leukemia, and that there was no evidence of more than the average number of illnesses.
And in Britain, Gulf War veterans renewed their calls for an official inquiry after military documents exposing the dangers of depleted uranium were leaked to the media.
With files from Star wire services
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