Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-234"
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"en.20030212.7.3-234"2
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". – Mr President, perhaps I might deal with a few of the issues that were addressed, particularly in relation to health matters.
This issue, as I indicated earlier, has been considered not just by the Commission, and not just by the Council of Ministers, but also by Parliament. As I mentioned earlier, the STOA report of May 2001 concluded, among other things, that in the light of the epidemiological studies on persons exposed to depleted uranium in Iraq and the Balkans, among a relatively small group of soldiers, who evidently had been exposed to depleted uranium during the Gulf War, no health problems attributable to depleted uranium could be found. Among the British Gulf War veterans neither the overall death rate nor the occurrence of specific causes of death, such as cancer, are significantly different from those of a reference population. No association between the health problems of many Gulf War veterans, that is Gulf War Syndrome, and suspected depleted uranium exposure could be found.
In the case of German Kfor soldiers in Kosovo potentially exposed to depleted uranium, it could be demonstrated that no significant intake had occurred. Preliminary results of a medical expertise show that the incidence of leukaemia among the Italian Kfor troops is not significantly higher than the incidence in a reference population.
Thus, it can be concluded that, so far, there is no scientific evidence of health damage among army personnel or civilian populations as a consequence of the use of DU ammunition in the Gulf War or the war in the Balkans.
Controversial information and reports about the dramatic health effects of DU among soldiers of the Iraqi and Yugoslav armies, and among the civilian population in the area concerned, do not withstand a peer review. The Commission came to exactly the same view when it considered these issues and studies, as did the Council. The STOA report went on to say that 'having comprehensively reviewed and cross-examined most of the specialised scientific literature, in particular the medical literature, judged reliable and trustworthy. Having in mind the results provided by the medical observation over decades of workers in the uranium industry, as well as by the experiments with animals. Taking into account the results of the recent investigations in Iraq and in the Balkans, of the effect on man and on the environment following the use of DU', the use of DU ammunition in Iraq and the Balkans 'neither has led to a serious widespread contamination of the environment nor represents an acute or appreciable long-term hazard for man's health'.
It then it goes on to give a number of recommendations, none of which coincide with the views that have been expressed by the largely Green Members of Parliament who have spoken here this evening.
I should say that having regard to all of these scientific studies, the seriousness and comprehensiveness of the work that has been undertaken –including by representatives of this House, the Council and the Commission – it seems to me that those who have adopted the approach we have taken must – I say this in response to Mrs Ahern – have a clear conscience. The same, I suspect, cannot be said of those who make allegations that are unfounded against people who are doing their best to provide proper answers to these questions."@en1
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