APPENDIX 14
Memorandum submitted by The Foreign and
Commonwealth Office
During his evidence to the Committee on 27 February,
Mr Vaz undertook to provide a note about the independent studies
supported by the British Government to assess objectively the
possible health risks of depleted uranium on civilian populations
in the Balkans. The Government have assisted the two main studies
on depleted uranium by the United Nations and the European Commission
that have recently been published.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
published its report on the effects of the use of depleted uranium
munitions in Kosovo on 13 March. The report gave results of the
tests carried out on samples taken during field surveys of sites
where depleted uranium munitions were used. It concluded that
there are minor risks to health and environment in the Kosovo
region, but no major threat to the civilian population. It recommended
that precautions should be taken against dust and unexploded ordnance,
but concluded that no large scale decontamination was necessary.
It also recommended a public awareness campaign to protect the
civilian population, and regular quality control checks by local
authorities on water and soil. The full text of the report is
available on the Internetat www.unep.ch/balkans.
The Government had donated £55,000 for
the UNEP investigation into the wider environmental effects of
the Kosovo conflict, and assisted UNEP by encouraging NATO to
give UNEP full details of where depleted uranium ammunition was
used in Kosovo.
The European Commission report, prepared by
a group of EURATOM experts including a British expert, concluded
that exposure to depleted uranium (other than from embedded shrapnel)
constitutes little or no threat to personnel. The study found
no observable effect on health at the low doses found, compared
to the baseline incidence of ill health in the population at large.
Nor did it see fit to propose stricter requirements for the uses
of depleted uranium in basic safety standards for the radiation
protection of workers and members of the public. The full text
of the report can be accessed on the Internet at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/radprot/opinion.pdf.
Although there are the only studies to which
the Government has provided direct assistance, the Government
remains in contact with governments in the regionvia NATO's Ad
Hoc Working Group on depleted uranium. The Ministry of Defence
also intends to carry out further environmental monitoring in
Kosovo in line with the statement by the Minister for the Armed
Forces on 9 January. While this will focus on sites occupied by
British forces, there will be benefits to local civilians. The
monitoring, based on protocols produced in consultation with independent
bodies, will be published and results made available to the authorities
in Kosovo.
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