Causality between Uranium dust and cancer acknowledged by a Florence court
bha. The Italian Ministry of Defense was sentenced to pay half a million euro by a court in Florence. This sum constitutes compensation to a soldier who was contaminated and fell ill from radioactive substances – Uranium – that he had come in contact with during the IBIS operation in Somalia. The court’s decision states causality between the inhaled uranium dust and the development of a Hodgkin lymphoma. The causality is presented in the publication of the judgment (www.vittimeuranio.org), well elaborated by a medical-legal advisor of the court.
The court said it was an offence, that the principle of precaution was not applied by the Italian Ministry of Defense. The US troops had worn protective suits, protective masks, gloves and eyeglasses in Somalia with weather conditions like 40 degrees Celsius in the shade, while the Italian soldiers walked around in short trousers and undershirts. Falco Accame, who founded an association of soldiers – Anavafaf – who had become ill from radioactive uranium ammunition, comments on the court’s ruling:
Since 1984, the Italian Ministry of Defense held documents on the use of uranium ammunition, which was probably also the case in other NATO countries. In the 1991 Gulf War, the principle of precaution had not been applied by the USA, yet. It was, however, applied in 1993 with the deployment in Somalia. The dangers were only made public in Italy in 1999 by the KFOR troops in the Balkans. The Florence Court ruled that the non-application of the principle of precaution must be classified as a crime.
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The same tragedy will be repeated with the Lebanese soldiers. They have moved and still move without any protective suits during the attack while Americans and French soldiers were there in full protective clothing. •
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