Deadly legacy

Battlefields contaminated with depleted uranium could pose a long-term threat to the health of local children, warns a report by the Royal Society in London. Since 1991, shells containing about 270 tonnes of depleted uranium have been fired in the Gulf War and the Balkans, mostly by the US. Though the contamination may not be high enough to harm the health of most people, the report highlights the risk to children who play where shells have landed, and whose water and food might become polluted. Soldiers in tanks struck by depleted uranium shells could also suffer kidney damage, it warns.…