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July 21 1996 MoD 'kept risk of cancer secret'

by David Leppard and Tim Kelsey

THE government is under renewed pressure to explain why it failed to alert British troops and Kuwaiti officials to the potential danger posed by thousands of uranium-tipped tank shells fired by allied forces during the Gulf war. Confidential documents reveal that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was secretly warned in 1991 that radioactive anti-tank ammunition could pose a "significant" cancer risk.

Two years later Jeremy Hanley, then defence minister, told the Commons the risk was "infinitesimal".

The MoD and the Pentagon revealed last week that thousands of shells tipped with depleted uranium (DU) still litter the former Kuwaiti battlefields. It also emerged that Britain had not told the Kuwaitis about the potential risks. Basem Al-Loughani, director of the London-based Kuwaiti Information Centre, confirmed his government had not been told. "If there is anything at all, we would be very concerned."

Depleted uranium, a form of recycled radioactive waste, was used for the first time in the Gulf war. It makes the tips of shells 2 1/2 times as dense as the hardest steel and capable of piercing all known tank armour.

Confidential correspondence seen by The Sunday Times confirms that the MoD was made aware of the health implications. A letter from Paddy Bartholomew, a senior executive with the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA), the government's advisory body on nuclear safety, proposed telling the Kuwaitis of the risks. Bartholomew wrote to a colleague at Royal Ordnance, a British defence company: "It is necessary to inform the Kuwait government of the problem in a tactful way." Bartholomew wrote that he had discussed the matter with Alastair Parker, a senior MoD official, who had recommended approaching Kuwait through the British ambassador.

The correspondence shows that the MoD was aware of an AEA report, entitled Kuwait ð Depleted Uranium Contamination, which said: "Handling of the heavy metal munitions does pose some potential hazards, as does the possibility of the spread of radioactive and toxic contamination as a result of firing in battle."

It revealed that more than 50,000lb of radioactive tank ammunition was used during the conflict and that much more was fired from aircraft.

It concluded that, according to international risk estimates, this quantity of depleted uranium, if inhaled, could cause 500,000 deaths from cancer. The report added: "The problem will not go away and should be tackled before it becomes a political problem created by the environment lobby."

The Gulf Veterans' Association has claimed that unwitting exposure to depleted uranium could be a cause of "Gulf war syndrome ". Simon Woodcock, its vice-chairman, said he would be demanding new information about the long-term effects. "They have kept this secret for more than five years," he said.