Thank you very much.
First of all, I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs for this invitation to come share with you my knowledge of depleted uranium. As a Canadian, as a member of the civil service and as a member of the team responsible for ensuring health services for the Canadian Forces, know that I take the well-being of the members of the Canadian Forces and its veterans seriously. As well, I would like to stress that, as a scientist, I am very much interested in the authenticity, accuracy and relevance of all scientific evidence submitted to me for study.
My academic life started at the University of Ottawa, where I obtained a bachelor of science, with a specialization in biology. During my post-graduate studies at the master and doctoral levels, I specialized in chemical and environmental toxicology, and more specifically on heavy metals, such as uranium. When I was doing my master’s degree at the University of Ottawa, I developed a probabilistic risk analysis method for determining the quantity of fish that can be consumed before reaching a level of heavy metals that would be considered harmful to human health. When doing my doctoral studies at the INRS, I studied analytical chemistry and the drinkability of water in order to quantify the extent of environmental contamination by heavy metals.
Following my graduate studies, I was hired by the Department of National Defence as an environmental toxicologist. I have now held the position of senior advisor in toxicology within the directorate of forces health protection of the Canadian Forces Health Services group for the last 10 years.
In this capacity I have the help of a multidisciplinary team, and we conduct environmental health risk assessment. The team includes industrial hygienists, physicians who specialize in occupational and environmental health, preventive medicine technicians, and members of the deployable health hazard assessment team. The expertise of this multidisciplinary team is further complemented by medical intelligence officers who monitor potential occupational and environmental hazards in the field.
Where Canadian Forces members deploy, the deployable health hazard assessment team also goes to take air, water, and soil samples that are analysed for the detection of a series of contaminants. Taking into account these results and assuming conservative exposure scenarios, we determine if soldiers are exposed to contaminants above levels that could affect their health.
These assessments are typically conservative, in that they assume worst-case scenario exposures to environmental contaminants. Using conservative assumptions reduces the likelihood of underestimating potential adverse health effects.
Through a memorandum of understanding with our allies, the environmental analyses conducted by the Canadian Forces are shared and compared with similar assessments carried out by our allies. In addition to receiving our allies' environmental assessments, we also monitor those carried out by credible international organizations, such as the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, and the World Health Organization. This sharing of information and review of the literature augments our environmental surveillance and provides us with the reassurance that we did not overlook potentially dangerous occupational and environmental issues.
Of all the environmental samples analysed to date, we have not found excessive environmental uranium levels in theatres of operation. Similar observations were made by our allies and with the UNEP's reports on the environmental and health threats of using depleted uranium munitions in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Serbia.
All three reports from the UNEP concluded that the use of depleted uranium munitions did not constitute a significant threat to either the environment or the local populations. The World Health Organization also concluded that depleted uranium is not a threat to the local population in countries where it has been used, and the biological monitoring of citizens living in the general proximity of depleted uranium munitions impaction sites is not necessary.
In addition to participating in these environmental assessments, I have been managing the Canadian Forces Voluntary Depleted Uranium Testing since 2005.
On February 7, 2000, the Minister of National Defence announced that the Canadian Forces would offer depleted uranium testing to any veteran or active member who asked for the assessment. This offer was made to address concerns from some soldiers deployed to areas where depleted uranium was used. An external accredited laboratory has conducted all uranium analyses for the Canadian Forces.
To date, more than 200 Canadian veterans of the Gulf War and of the Balkans peacekeeping operations took part in the voluntary depleted uranium testing. Total uranium levels were all found to be within the normal range, and the radioisotope analyses did not indicate significant depleted uranium exposure. The tests have found no evidence of increased uranium levels among Canadian Forces veterans of either the Gulf War or the Balkans peacekeeping missions. These results were published in a peer review journal, and a summary of the results are posted on the Canadian Forces Health Services website.
The results of the Canadian Forces depleted uranium testing indicate that Canadian Forces members were not exposed to high levels of depleted uranium, which is consistent with the results of our allies, including the United States, Belgium, France, and Germany. The only consistent reporting of positive depleted uranium testing is made in a cohort of U.S. Gulf War veterans who were victims of depleted uranium friendly fire during the Gulf War. Some of these veterans have in their bodies fragments of depleted uranium munitions and continue to excrete high uranium levels in their urine. Despite this degree of exposure, no clinically significant uranium-related health effects have been identified. No Canadian Forces members have been involved in depleted uranium friendly fire, so it follows that Canadian Forces members have not tested positive for depleted uranium.
The Veterans Affairs Scientific Advisory Committee invited me last year to present to them the results of the Canadian Forces voluntary depleted uranium testing. I was asked by the Scientific Advisory Committee to provide a short list of key references pertaining to potential environmental and health impacts of uranium. I was not, however, one of the external reviewers of the depleted uranium and veterans health report. Nonetheless, after having reviewed the report, I can say I concur with its key conclusions. I am also of the opinion that it is unlikely that Canadian Forces members have been exposed to levels of depleted uranium that could be harmful to their health.
Multiple expert medical and scientific panels have consistently concluded that depleted uranium does not pose a hazard to military personnel unless they are inside vehicles that are hit by depleted uranium munitions.
In summary, I would reiterate that it is unlikely that exposure to depleted uranium among members of the Canadian Forces would have been significant enough to cause health problems.
