The concerns expressed related to the radioactive dust that results when such a shell explodes. The British Ministry of Defence and their Canadian counterparts first maintained that there was nothing to be alarmed about because the attendant risk was negligible. In each case, within twenty-four hours, those bodies reversed themselves and said that all servicemen involved in the Balkans would be offered screening. It is highly unlikely that new scientific evidence came to light within such a short period, an event that would have changed the scientific advice the respective ministries would have received. The only rational explanation that one could think of would be that political advice was given to yield to the rising demands of the media chorus.
Uranium poses very little risk as long as it is outside the body.
It is much more dangerous when inhaled as dust. The depleted uranium shells, which vaporize on impact, are very effective at creating such a dust though depleted uranium is much less radioactive than the natural uranium normally found in soil or rocks. Professor Jaworowski calculated also that the total amount of uranium distributed in this way around Kosovo was some 25 tons. Local concentrations of depleted uranium may well be higher than that average of course and some of it may be re-suspended in the air from where it may also enter the food chain. It was not felt however that this would lead to any observable medical consequences.