Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of deploying depleted uranium shells to Ukraine on (a) the environment and (b) civilian health.

Depleted uranium rounds obviously have a high impact upon those in the target armoured vehicle. Beyond that the effects are limited, primarily to the remains of the targeted vehicle and some potential heavy metal contamination localised around the impact zone. Radiation from depleted uranium is not discernible from natural background radiation at impact sites.

The use of depleted uranium munitions have been investigated by the Royal Society, World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environmental Program, the International Atomic Energy Agency, NATO, the Centres for Disease Control, the European Commission, and others. None of these inquiries has documented long-term environmental or health effects attributable to use of these munitions. The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) places depleted uranium in 'group 3' - not carcinogenic to humans.