SOLDIERS DON'T USE URANIUM PROTECTION MASKS - ASSOC PRESIDEN
AGI) - Rome, Italy,
Wednesday February 18, 2004
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Feb. 16 - Italian
soldiers deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq do not wear protective masks
that impede inhalation of depleted uranium dust, wrote Falco Accame,
president of the Armed Forces Victims Association, in a letter to the
Italian president. According to Accame, norms were issued by the United
States in 1993 for the use of masks in order
to "impede the inhalation of uranium oxide that deposits in the soil
of areas bombarded by weapons containing depleted uranium, which can
be carried by the wind." These norms are in effect for Italian forces
since 1999. Accame also said that Italy has
had "twenty deaths for suspected uranium contamination, and around 200
illnesses." (AGI) -
