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[casi] BBC radio File on 4 documentary on depleted uranium



Thoughtful documentary on depleted uranium from BBC Radio 4's
investigative programme File on 4.
Cathy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/fileon4/index.shtml
(Follow link under Listen Again to hear the programme - available for a
week, ie. until Monday 9 June)
------------

File on 4 - Tuesday 3 June 2003
Depleted uranium fears

In the Iraq war the Allies made extensive use of weapons containing
depleted uranium (DU) - a toxic and radioactive material that has been
the subject of heated controversy since it was used in the first
conflict in the Gulf 12 years ago.

Faced with increasing public concern, the Ministry of Defence is
offering a medical test to those who have been exposed to DU on the
battlefield.

But as Jenny Cuffe reports, some members of the government's DU
Oversight Board, a committee of scientists and officials from the MOD
and British Legion, say the testing does not [go] far enough.

Malcolm Hooper, a professor of medicine on the committee, says the plans
to test veterans' urine for high levels of uranium will not necessarily
detect people who have been exposed to DU.

"Uranium testing is not going to discover depleted uranium. It's not an
approach that's valid scientifically," he comments.

The MOD has said all troops were given strict instructions about how to
protect themselves from DU on the battlefield. Its safety guidance to
armed forces says they should reduce time spent close to stocks of DU
munitions and avoid areas contaminated by DU Oxide dust.

But File On 4 has learned that in some cases this advice was not
followed.

Alan Hopkins was in Basra as a member of the Territorial Army. He
recovered Iraqi tanks that came under fire and says during his training
in Germany, with about 70 other soldiers, DU was never mentioned.

He claims he had none of the protective clothing recommended by the MOD.
In fact, he says he never saw any soldier wearing it. It was only when
he returned home that he discovered on the internet what protection he
should have got.

In an interview for the programme, the Defence Minister Lewis Moonie
insisted that all troops were given adequate training and had the
necessary protective equipment.

"Anybody who was definitely going into a situation where DU was was
either being used or had been fired would have been given the briefing
and would know what to do."

The British and US governments have consistently said there is no
reliable evidence linking DU to health problems.

But now a study funded by the US government shows for the first time how
radiation from DU could damage chromosomes within cells and lead to
cancer. Other research shows chromosome damage in veterans of the first
Gulf conflict and in civilians in the Balkans.

Yet Defence Minister Lewis Moonie insists that DU weapons remain a
valuable part of Britain's armoury and says he has no plans to withdraw
them from use.

"There is no question of these weapons being illegal," he says. "We will
carry on using them until we have evidence."



--
Cathy Aitchison

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