The final report of a commission
on depleted uranium said Italian soldiers had been exposed to
"shocking" levels of it in Italy and on foreign missions, and
that it had "helped sow deaths and illnesses".
However, the doctor whose expert opinion informed the panel's
conclusions denied a link between uranium and cancer, promoting
the Italian defence ministry to call the panels' charges
"unacceptable".
Levels of uranium in the sectors of security and workplace
health for soldiers had been toxic and deadly, said the report
from the parliamentary commission of inquiry.
The report highlighted that military chiefs had been in
"denial" on the phenomenon, and also stressed the "deafening
silences maintained by government authorities."
Experts heard by the panel had verified the links between
exposure to depleted uranium and tumours, the report said.
Commission Chair Gian Piero Scanu of the Democratic Party
said "repeated judicial sentences have consistently affirmed the
existence of a causal link between exposure to depleted uranium
and the pathologies cited by the soldiers: this is a milestone
and now those who were exposed will have the possibility of
getting justice without having to struggle as they have done so
far".
But the Italian doctor whose expert testimony was cited by
the commission as evidence that depleted uranium caused cancer
in soldiers denied "ever saying that".
"That is absolutely not my thinking, I never said that
depleted uranium is responsible for the tumours found in the
soldiers," said Giorgio Trenta of the Italian association for
medical radioprotection.
Trenta's report was cited by the panel as proof of the causal
link between depleted uranium and cancer.
In response to Trenta's statement, panel chair Scanu said the
cancer expert had denied what he told the parliamentary
commission of inquiry.
Scanu said Trenta' s former statements about the link were
contained in sworn testimony made at an Abruzzo audit court and
in his evidence to the panel on March 23 2016.
"He was asked twice," Scanu said, "if he confirmed that
version and he did not deny having issued it. I can't understand
why the professor now wants to deny the responsibility of such
(uranium-tipped) projectiles in generating the nanoparticles
that are the real cause of many forms of cancer".
The past president of the Italian association of medical
oncology (AIOM), Carmine Pinto, told ANSA Wednesday there is a
potential link between exposure to depleted uranium and cancer.
"Potentially the continuous low-dosage exposure to uranium
can be carcinogenic," Pinto said.
This type of exposure, "continuous and at low doses", is
exactly what could be determined by soldiers in missions and
exercises", using uranium-tipped shells.
The defence chief of staff said Wednesday that the
parliamentary commission of inquiry had come out with
"unacceptable" charges and there is no link to cancer.
Speaking after Trenta disowned his past testimony, the
defence chief of staff said "also in light of the statements
from Professor Trenta the armed forces firmly reject the
unacceptable accusations" from the panel and reiterated "the
most complete availability to collaborate, as was shown at the
technical negotiating table with the Commission, and stress the
absolute transparency of all their activities".
The relatives of soldiers who died of alleged uranium-linked
cancer have been suing the government for years and pursuing
cases in the courts, amid denials from military authorities.
In 2016 a Rome appeals court upheld a guilty verdict for the
defence ministry in the 1999 death from leukemia due to depleted
uranium exposure of 23-year-old Corporal Salvatore Vacca who
handled uranium-tipped munitions during a 150-day mission in
Bosnia in 1998-99.
The court found the ministry guilty of not having protected
Vacca.
It ordered the ministry to pay more than one and a half
million euros in compensation to Vacca's family.
The families of other victims are suing the ministry for
deaths allegedly due to depleted uranium exposure on several
Italian missions.
Domenico Leggiero of the Military Observatory group said
the sentence was "historic, because it confirms that the
ministry was aware of the danger the soldiers sent to those
zones were subject to".
He said "I am sure Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti will
bear this ruling in mind when she appears before the
parliamentary depleted uranium commission".
Italian authorities consistently played down the uranium
risks.
photo: Fulvio Pazzi, who died after uranium exposure in Bosnia
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