Letter: DU ammunition
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: I greatly admire Robert Fisk's reporting but I think he is in danger of making too much of depleted uranium (DU) munitions ("US 'lost count of uranium shells fired in Kosovo' ", 22 November).
Undoubtedly, US A-10 aircraft used DU cannon shells in some of their attacks on Serb armour. But the A-10 is designed for close air support of ground forces and the range of its GAU-8 cannon is around 1, 250 metres. As Robert Fisk acknowledges, however, most of Nato's aircraft, including those that tragically bombed the Kosovo Albanian refugees, were flying at heights of 5,000 metres in order to avoid any injury to the pilots. They would not use their cannons at this height.
He also mentions unnamed "Nato sources in Kosovo" who say that DU was used in the warheads of some cruise missiles. In several months of research on the DU issue I have found no authoritative evidence that DU is used in currently deployed conventionally armed cruise missiles.
Finally, I refer to an article in the latest edition of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, written by Steve Fetter and Frank von Hippel, which states: "The health risks associated with radiation from exposures to depleted uranium are relatively low - so low as to be statistically undetectable, with one exception: radiation doses for soldiers with embedded fragments of depleted uranium may be troublesome.... Radiation from depleted uranium is highly unlikely to have been responsible in any way for 'Gulf War syndrome' among veterans or for any of the variety of illnesses observed in the Iraqi population since the war."
DAVE ANDREWS
Wrexham
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments