World

Report: Kosovo Not Contaminated

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 3, 2001 / 8:41 PM EST / CBS

United Nations environmental investigators said Tuesday an analysis of 355 samples of oil, water and plants in Kosovo showed "no cause for alarm" over the radiation risks from depleted uranium ammunition.

But the report from the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) called for precautionary measures, including cleaning up all 112 sites hit by NATO air strikes and monitoring drinking water.

UNEP officials conceded that the report left open questions about the possible long-term adverse effects on human health and the environment from exposure to radiation and chemicals.

UNEP also recommended studies be done in Bosnia where some three tons or 10,800 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition were used in 1994 and 1995, officials said.

"Although the mission findings show no cause for alarm, the report describes specific situations where risks could be significant," UNEP said in its 153-page report, Depleted Uranium in Kosovo: Post-Conflict Environmental Assessment.

"There are also scientific uncertainties relating to the longer-term behavior of DU in the environment," it added.

The findings were based on UNEP's mission to Kosovo in November, 2000, which followed fears that depleted uranium (DU) was to blame for leukemia affecting some soldiers who had served there in 1999 and in Bosnia in the mid-1990s.

NATO dropped 10 tons of DU, which hardens armor-piercing ammunition, in Kosovo, where it was trying to halt Serb forces accused of killing ethnic Albanians. U.S. aircraft also used DU munitions in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995.

A number of European nations also use munitions containing DU, which has about 40 percent less radiation that natural uranium, which itself is not considered a health hazard.

Concerns arose in several European countries earlier this year when Italy started studying the illnesses of 30 veterans of Balkans peacekeeping missions. Seven of the veterans died of cancer, including five from leukemia.

UNEP experts visited 11 of the 112 Kosovo sites identified by NATO as having been targeted by 30,000 rounds of ordnance containing DU. The sites were in south and western Kosovo, five in the Italian sector and six in the German sector.

"There was no detectable, widespread contamination of the ground surface by depleted uranium," UNEP said.

"Therefore, the corresponding radiological and chemical risks are insignificant and even non-existent," it added.

UNEP said some slightly radioactive artillery, penetrators and jackets, may still lie underground and "constitute a risk of future DU contamination of groundwater and drinking water."

Wells and drinking water should be monitored to ensure uranium concentrations do not exceed WHO standards, UNEP said.

"At this very moment there are no signs of DU contamination in groundwaters or drinking waters. So we can say at this moment drinking water is safe at all of these areas," Pekka Haavisto who led thUNEP team, told a news conference.

"But we know something from science about the migration of uranium in the soil. It might take several years when it goes down in the soil and probably then goes into the groundwaters," added Haavisto, a former Finnish environment minister.

A report issued Tuesday by the World Health Organization, whose experts visited Kosovo in January concurred with the UNEP findings.

In a statement, NATO said the UNEP report showed that risks to NATO peacekeepers as well as the civilian population were negligible, as NATO had consistently said during a public furor over fears that the substance could cause cancer.

DU was first used in combat against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War in armor-piercing shells fired at Saddam Hussein's tanks. The shells cut right through tank armor, and on impact may release harmful particles that can be inhaled.

DU's main health risk has been believed to be its chemical composition, since heavy metals like DU are often toxic. But since the Gulf War, the Pentagon has denied a connection between the radioactive dust and a host of illnesses, including cancer

A March, 2000 report by the Government Accounting Office concluded that "the scientific understanding of depleted uranium's effect on health is still evolving," and cited lapses in the Pentagon's system for training soldiers how to handle spent DU rounds.