Environmental and health impact assessment of ammunition containing transuranic elements

Abstract

Some basic facts and knowledge on depleted uranium (DU) and characteristics and identification of ammunition used in the Balkans are summarized. The results of radioecological surveys at selected sites during the prewar period, immediately after bombing, occurrence since then and details of clean-up operations are presented. Uranium content measurements in different environmental (air, soil, water) and biological (lichens, earthworms, urine, blood) samples were performed using various techniques to distinguish natural from anthropogenic sources. The evidence for airborne transport, aqueous transport, and biological transport as the dominant mechanisms of environmental transport of DU are considered in relation to the Balkans. The long-term DU effects on the environment in the target areas and the various possible health hazards arising from its radioactivity and chemical toxicity are discussed. The ground water system has appeared to be over a long-time scale (several hundreds of years) the main risk for the population but this depends on various hydrogeological parameters that need to be evaluated at the site in question. Available scientific literature has been considered in regard to a relationship between uranium exposure of the body and increased incidence of cancer or genetic defects. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.