DESPITE REPORTS that six Italian soldiers who served in the Balkans died of leukemia on their return home, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said that the U.S. military has found “no link between depleted uranium munitions and any illness.”
       Earlier on Thursday, European Commission President Romano Prodi said that European countries wanted to know the truth about the impact of depleted uranium in the Balkans.
       Italy had demanded that NATO discuss the issue at the alliance’s political committee meeting on Tuesday, the Italian foreign ministry said.
       Last week, Italy said it would investigate illnesses among its soldiers who were deployed in Kosovo after NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999.
       The announcement set off a chain reaction, with Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Finland saying they would screen their Kosovo veterans.
 
U.S. CITES STUDIES
       According to the U.S. military, several Pentagon and independent health studies on Gulf War illness, including one released last month, found no connection between depleted uranium rounds fired during the Gulf War and any adverse health effects reported by Gulf War vets, NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reported.
 
         Bacon said that depleted uranium used in some armor-piercing rounds contains 40 percent less radioactivity than natural uranium. Depleted uranium rounds fired from A-10 planes and depleted uranium armor in Abrams tanks are actually encased in steel, he said.
       Uranium is best known in its enriched form, which is used for nuclear power plant fuel and in nuclear weapons. A byproduct of the enrichment process is depleted uranium which, as its name implies, is depleted of much of its radioactivity. Because depleted uranium is extremely dense, it is unusually effective in penetrating conventional tank armor.
       A 1999 Rand Corp. review of scientific literature on uranium found no studies indicating adverse health effects on humans from exposure to or ingestion of uranium compounds. Rand, which analyzes national security issues for the Pentagon, recommended more research on the subject because the use of depleted uranium munitions is expected to grow.
 
        Of the two major health concerns associated with depleted uranium in military uses — chemical toxicity and radiation effects — the toxicity is generally considered to be greater, Rand said. When a depleted uranium round strikes armor or burns, it produces uranium dust or aerosol particles, which can be inhaled. Once internalized, a fraction of the particles dissolve and enter the bloodstream, where most uranium is excreted from the body through the kidneys.
       Pentagon officials acknowledged there could be a health risk if someone were to inhale depleted uranium. For that reason, U.S. troops working around an armored vehicle that has been recently struck by depleted uranium are instructed to wear protective face masks.
       However, Bacon said that even the “atomized” depleted uranium is normally quickly dispersed and does not present a health risk over an extended period of time.
 
ITALY CHASTISED
       Bacon specifically refuted claims by the Italian military that linked depleted uranium rounds to leukemia in some of its troops.
       In one case, the Italians said that one soldier died of leukemia only three weeks after returning from a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. Bacon said there is no evidence anywhere that links depleted uranium to leukemia, and that leukemia develops over a longer period of time.
       Bacon also said that of 33 American troops hit by friendly fire during the Gulf war, 15 who actually still carry depleted uranium shrapnel in their bodies are periodically monitored and have still shown no ill health effects.
       Bacon said that no U.S. troops serving as peacekeepers in Bosnia or Kosovo have suffered any ill effects that could be attributed to contact with depleted uranium.
 
ABOLITION OF WEAPONS
       In an interview with Italian state radio RAI, the European Commission’s Prodi said that even if there was a minimal risk for soldiers or civilians, the weapons should be abolished. “And even if this risk was not there, I don’t like the idea of using these particular weapons,” he said.
 
        Prodi said he was not only concerned about the “Balkan syndrome” but also about the environmental damage caused by the wars in Bosnia and Yugoslavia.
       “As Commission president, I propose starting immediate contacts with the governments of Bosnia and Serbia to discuss pollution and the problems linked to depleted uranium,” he told the radio.
       Italy said that the six soldiers who died since returning from the Balkans all suffered leukemia. The latest was a 24-year-old soldier from Sicily who died in November after serving twice in Bosnia but never in Kosovo.
       Doctors have said there is insufficient evidence to link the deaths to exposure to uranium bullets — used to pierce armor — but Italian media have claimed the number of deaths is too high to be coincidental.
       Some 60,000 Italian soldiers and 15,000 civilians served in the Balkans during the 1990s.
       According to Italian media reports, NATO used around 31,500 bullets and shells capped with uranium during the campaign to end Serb repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.
 
       NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski in Washington, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.