UNMIK/PR/463
UNMIK, the World Health Organization and the Department of Public Health and Social Welfare have been closely monitoring reports of illnesses allegedly due to contact with depleted uranium. Although no scientific link has been established between depleted uranium and blood cancers, UNMIK is taking the issue extremely seriously.
Recently WHO and the Department of Health and Public Welfare have looked into the incidence of leukemia in Kosovo. Records at Pristina Hospital for the past four years were examined and doctors from district hospitals have been interviewed.
The initial survey indicated that the incidence of leukemia in Kosovo has not increased: In fact there was a slight decrease in leukemia in the year 2000 as compared with 1997 and 1998. However, WHO and the Department of Health and Social Welfare point out that this assessment is not final and that more results will be announced next week. UNMIK is putting into place further mechanisms to increase its capacity to monitor any possible impact on the population all over Kosovo.
WHO and UNMIK have been aware of the presence of depleted uranium in Kosovo since the bombardments of 1999. However after consultation with nuclear and health experts, international health professionals in Kosovo determined that the potential public health hazards related to DU exposure were not high, and they decided to devote their major efforts to rebuilding the Kosovo health system, launching a vaccination programme and implementing other urgently needed public health projects.
Nevertheless, the United Nations has been determined that more must be learned about the presence of depleted uranium. In November 2000, UNMIK invited a team of scientists gathered by the United Nations Environment Program to study the possible presence of radioactivity in and around sites where DU was dropped. NATO, through KFOR, provided maps noting 112 such sites, most of them in southern and western Kosovo.
UNEP gave its initial assessments of the situation in a press briefing at UNMIK in November, at which the team noted that “at some of the DU locations, the radiation level is slightly higher than normal.” The final report is due in late February.
The UNEP team leader Pekka Haavisto agreed that further study was needed and that “it would be an unnecessary risk to the population to be in direct contact with any remnants of DU ammunition or with the spots where those have been found.”
UNMIK, WHO and the Department of Public Heath reiterate warnings to the public to avoid contact with armaments, shrapnel and other forms of weaponry dropped here during the war.