NOTE: The following editorial was posted on the CBS Television Network web-page. Although the originator of the article grants no permission to reproduce the attached, I feel compelled to post it anyway. These so-called experts have an agenda which, is not conducive to the health and welfare of those who have been afflicted.
As is typical with these “good” folks – we are considered dispensable. We submit this to you so that you may be aware of the ongoing murder of soldiers and military personel from all over the world.
Once again I say, take heed and take responsibility for yourselves. The following is part of an ongoing cover-up – just as was Agent Orange and Gulf War Illness. (Ed.)
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Feb. 1, 2001
(CBS) Scientific studies have not proven a link between exposure to depleted uranium used in NATO weapons and the onset of cancer or other illnesses, a team of U.N. experts said Thursday.
The four-member team of experts from the World Health Organization traveled to the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo after reports that soldiers serving with NATO-led peacekeepers in the Balkans had become ill. The former top U.N. administrator in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, requested the study.
NATO’s use of ammunition containing armor-piercing depleted uranium in bombing campaigns in Bosnia in 1995 and in Yugoslavia in 1999 has sparked fear across Europe that it may have caused serious illnesses in peacekeeping troops. NATO has repeatedly denied that the ammunition could cause cancer or other ailments.
The WHO team told reporters in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, that they found no firm evidence “to link individual medical cases in Kosovo to exposure to depleted uranium.” They acknowledged, however, that much more analysis was needed.
The team looked at data from hospitals and spoke with local groups and non-governmental organizations working on the issue in Kosovo. They also traveled to a handful of sites throughout the province where such ammunition was used, but did not say how many sites were checked or exactly where they were.
The team also concluded that currently the greater danger to health in Kosovo comes from exposure to other pollutants such as lead in the air and from an alarmingly high rate of traffic-related deaths.
The team’s final report will be released at WHO headquarters next week.
So far neither German nor Portuguese experts have found enhanced levels of radiation or any link of the ammunition to diseases.
Also Thursday, some 40 Italian experts started checking Italian peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia and their quarters for possible health hazards related to depleted uranium.
The experts from the Institute for Radiobiology in Rome, hired by the Italian military, started working in two groups, said Lt. Colonel Claudio Linda, a spokesman for the 1,600-strong Italian contingent. One group was to perform medical checks on troops while the other was measuring the level of radiation in the facilities they use.
No danger of radioactivity was found in five locations inspected earlier in the day, Linda said. He did not say how long the probe would take.
A heavy metal that is 40 percent less radioactive than natural uranium, depleted uranium was first used in combat against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War in armor-piercing shells fired at Saddam Hussein’s tanks. In the 1999 air war against the Serbs in Kosovo, A10 “tank buster” jets and other planes dropped 31,000 DU bombs on Slobodan Milosevic’s armor.
The shells cut right through tank armor, and on impact may release harmful particles that can be inhaled.
Depleted uranium’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
While the Pentagon has consistently denied any link between depleted uranium and illness, CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton reports Italy last month produced a 1999 Defense Department document that warned NATO allies to protect their troops against “possible health risks” from the radioactive material.
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.
“Because DOD (Department of Defense) and the services do not monitor DU training for deployments, Army and Marine Corps officials in Washington, D.C., and Europe were unable to tell us whether Army and Marine Corps troops who recently deployed to Kosovo had received DU training prior to or during the deployment,” the report found. “The services, therefore, need to do more to ensure that servicemembers receive safety training on how to properly operate in a DU-contaminated battlefield.”
A British Army report written almost four years ago said that soldiers exposed to dust from tank-busting depleted uranium shells might be at risk of developing cancers. However, the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense said that the report was “flawed” and did not reflect a scientific consensus.
© MMI Viacom Internet Services Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Originally published on DrKelley.info, February 2, 2001. (Ed. 12.28.10)
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml