The report will be studied by all 20 EU commissioners over the next month. EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstroem said the Commission would consider the study when discussing the need for further action on the health and environmental situation in the Balkans. The EU panel's findings support Nato's own investigations, which found that there was no link between DU ammunition and cancer among peacekeeping troops. Concerns arose in several European countries earlier this year when Italy started studying the illnesses of 30 veterans of Balkans peacekeeping missions, seven of whom died of cancer, including five cases of leukemia. Commission President Roman Prodi said he thought it should be banned.
Some experts remain unconvinced.
Any inhalation of insoluble depleted uranium is a health hazard. It emits alpha radiation. There is published work showing that there is no safety threshold for internal alpha radiation - one alpha particle is enough to cause a mutation in a gene. He questioned the EU experts' conclusions.