http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=261057&section=Kosovo

WHO Sends Team to Kosovo to Probe Uranium Scare

GENEVA, Jan 19, 2001 -- (Reuters) The World Health Organization (WHO)
said on Friday it was sending a fact-finding mission to Kosovo next week to
study
the effects of depleted uranium ammunition and other "environmental
contaminants" on civilians.

Four experts from the United Nations agency will examine registries kept in the
Yugoslav province on cancer and leukemia cases to see whether they show any
increases "which might be related to environmental exposure to depleted uranium
(DU) and other toxic agents", WHO said in a statement.

The WHO team will try to identify potential health risks to Kosovo civilians who
may have been exposed to toxic agents and require medical monitoring, it added.

WHO is carrying out the investigation at the request of Kosovo's former UN
chief, Bernard Kouchner, after some media reports suggested a number of
NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans had fallen ill or died after being exposed to
depleted uranium ammunition.

However, the team's mandate does not cover military personnel, WHO's Dr
Michael Repacholi told a news briefing.

"It is a fact-finding mission to find out what is in the environment and
secondly
what the general health of the population is from the registries available," he
said.

"Obviously we would like to do follow-up studies of military, but it has to be
done
by invitation," Repacholi added.

The week-long visit will allow the agency to advise the UN interim
administration
mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on measures to prevent further exposure, if any, to
toxic agents, WHO said.

Last week, Repacholi and other experts at the Geneva-based WHO said they
doubted the DU ammunition used by NATO had caused blood cancer among
troops from alliance countries.

But WHO has called for a cordoning off of sites where the armor-piercing shells
landed and the cleaning up of fragments which could still be radioactive.

"We certainly recommend large fragments be cleaned up. It is virtually
impossible
to clean up the dust, but the radioactivity of the dust is relatively low, not
much
above background radiation," Repacholi said.

"Maybe twice the normal background level would be acceptable. Many people in
the world are living with up to four times as much as normal background
radiation," he added.