§ Lord Ironsideasked Her Majesty's Government:
To what extent the Ministry of Defence, in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense, have examined the possible health hazards attributable to exposure of personnel to the effects of using depleted uranium in battlefield weaponry; and whether they will place their reported findings in the Library of the House.[HL1745]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert)The hazards of depleted uranium, DU, are well understood on both sides of the Atlantic and are well documented in the scientific literature. In 1993, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency's Radiation Protection Service, then known as the Defence Radiological Protection Service, DRPS, published a summary of its assessment of the radiological and chemical hazards of DU. The summary report, copies of which have already been placed in the Library of the House, explained that there are two types of hazard posed by the use of DU: a radiation hazard, although DU is a low specific activity material, as defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency; and a chemical toxicity hazard, which is similar to that posed by other heavy metals, such as lead. The Ministry of Defence would, of course, always be very interested to see any new relevant information on this subject.
The 1990–91 Gulf conflict marked the first battlefield use by the UK of DU-based ammunition, and the MoD is aware that a link has been suggested between possible exposure to DU and the illnesses being experienced by some Gulf veterans. However, this is only one of a number of factors which have been suggested as causes of Gulf veterans' illnesses and, pending further medical and scientific evidence, the MoD is keeping an open mind on this issue. The DRPS report, to which I have referred above, concluded that there was no indication that any British troops had been subjected to harmful over-exposure to DU during the Gulf conflict.
On 19 March, my honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces published a detailed paper Testing for the presence of depleted uranium in UK veterans of the Gulf conflict: The Current Position. The paper, copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House, describes the scenarios in which UK troops may have been exposed to DU in the Gulf and the possible health effects of such exposures.
The MoD liaises very closely with the US Government on all aspects of Gulf veterans' illnesses.