U.S. Allies Worry About 'Balkans Syndrome'

L O N D O N, Jan. 9, 2001 -- The Clinton administration is downplaying the danger to NATO soldiers of using depleted uranium in weapons, despite their allies’ concerns that the weapons may be causing cancer in those who served in Kosovo and in the Gulf War.

During the Kosovo war, U.S. aircraft fired more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition containing depleted uranium.

The Pentagon used it because it is a heavy metal that can penetrate the armor that protects tanks.

On impact, it leaves a cloud of low-level radioactive dust, but the United States has always insisted it poses no health risk.

Europe Takes ActionToday, Britain said it will offer screening to veterans of the Kosovo and Bosnian conflicts for signs of illness.

The announcement followed a wave of concern across Europe, sparked by Italy’s decision last month to investigate illnesses among 30 of its soldiers who had served in the Balkans, including five who have died of leukemia.

Since then, investigations or screening programs have been announced in a number of other European countries, with many civilian aid agencies also checking workers. Ireland and Denmark announced screening plans today.

One Italian who served Kosovo — and now has cancer — said: “I was on the border and [the Americans] bombed that area.”

“The wind could have blown the dust toward us.”

The Italian military reports 12 soldiers who went to Kosovo have cancer. Six have since died. Belgium says they have five soldiers with cancer, Spain, three. And France says four of its veterans have leukemia.

The American Case AgainstThe United States, which has thousands of soldiers in Kosovo, is now the only NATO country that denies even the possibility of a link between depleted uranium and Balkan war syndrome.

At her valedictory press conference today, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters: “As far as I have been told, there is no scientific evidence that would link this to health hazards. But what I think is very important is for the facts to be made known and not to have hysteria and emotion take over.”

Another senior administration official was more brusque: “This is just the typical irrational European response without any basis in scientific fact.”

Experts say it is unlikely that any cancer currently detected in Balkan veterans would be connected to depleted uranium because the disease would not have emerged so soon. Kidney damage would be expected earlier.

Depleted uranium has not been widely studied and experts say they don’t know exactly how much must be consumed to be harmful. The few studies that have been conducted on veterans of the Gulf War — where depleted uranium ammunition was used in much higher amounts — have found no evidence of a connection to cancer or anyother illness reported by troops.

Some 300 tons or depleted uranium was fired by NATO forces in the Gulf War, compared to 9 tons in Kosovo and 3 tons in Bosnia, according to Britain’s Armed Forces Minister John Spellar.

For all the public assurances, the Pentagon sent its allies a warning in 1999, saying soldiers should not enter armored vehicles hit by depleted uranium weapons unless absolutely necessary because of possible health risks.

Now, U.N. scientists have recommended more than 100 bomb sites where depleted uranium was used to be cordoned off until everyone is sure that what the United States has been saying about its weapons is true.

ABCNEWS’s Richard Gizbert in London and The Associated Press contributed to this report.