FICSA Update No. 04 2001

23 January 2001

Depleted uranium: please do better, United Nations

  1. On Wednesday, 17 January 2001, the United Nations sent out a warning letter to its personnel in conflict areas, especially those stationed in the Balkans, in response to the controversy about the health hazards of depleted uranium weapons. A bureaucratic masterpiece.

  2. "The health of all UN personnel currently working in [former conflict] areas and those who worked there in the past is of primary concern," Ms. Rafiah Salim, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, wrote: "The UN will, therefore, continue to closely monitor the situation and immediately issue medical advice to staff as appropriate."

  3. Ms. Salim also wrote that the United Nations will take "immediate and necessary action, should it be required" (sic) once the results of ongoing WHO studies will be released at the end of February.

  4. In the meantime, staff were advised to avoid handling remnants of munitions that may contain depleted uranium.

  5. FICSA has been monitoring the issue since August 2000 and corresponding with the executive heads and the Staff Associations of the organizations having staff in Kosovo. In that context, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees informed us on 23 November 2000 that UNHCR had already taken steps to address any potential impact of depleted uranium on the health of its staff, and in particular offered to its staff and former staff the possibility of undergoing an urino-analysis and any other tests as may be necessary.

  6. Whether or not depleted uranium is a health hazard under the circumstances prevailing in Kosovo, the urino-analysis tests are most appropriate, if only to soothe the minds of our colleagues working there. Ms. Salim's letter is rather evasive on the subject: "If staff feel that they need to be medically examined this could be undertaken through the Joint Medical Service or the UN Medical Service."

  7. The overall impression given by the letter is that the United Nations chose to avoid its responsibility as an employer by hiding behind the fact that there is "very little scientific evidence to suggest that there is a risk of contracting leukemia". The need to be politically correct transpires from the order of citation of the bodies currently studying reports and medical evidence: "NATO and expert groups of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)".

  8. FICSA regrets that the United Nations headquarters produces words, instead of measures. But it is not too late to do better.