(http://www.lineone.net/express/99/12/16/news/n0820cancer-d.html

TERRIFYING cancer death rates will affect British troops exposed to radiation poisoning during the Gulf War, an expert warned the Government yesterday.

Professor Hari Sharma, a radiologist who researched illnesses among ex-soldiers, told MPs that as many as 12 per cent of the veterans could die from the disease.

Despite the Ministry of Defence's insistence that British servicemen were not exposed to potentially lethal amounts of depleted uranium, Professor Sharma said he had irrefutable evidence that veterans inhaled the radioactive substance.

He told a Commons defence select committee: "The authorities keep telling us it is pointless to test for DU because it is not there - but it is.

"I have done a lot of soul-searching before making this statement so that I did not mislead anyone. There is no cause to say my results are wrong. I am convinced DU is present."

Despite the overwhelming evidence, the MoD has persistently refused to test Gulf veterans for DU exposure.

Last month The Express revealed that the ministry had lied when it claimed to have tested between one and five people and that the results were negative.

The truth was that only one person, civilian Paul Connolly, was tested - and he was put through a Government-approved procedure which could not detect DU.

Thirty British veterans have paid for their own tests. They have been found to be still excreting high levels of DU nine years after the end of the war.

As a result the MoD has offered new testing to those 30 ex-servicemen. But yesterday the ministry was subjected to stinging attacks from veterans' representatives and eminent scientists - including one of the Government's own advisers - concerning its handling of Gulf veterans.

Professor Malcolm Hooper, who is on the independent panel advising the MoD, said: "There has been a policy of denial that beggars belief.

"I am concerned about the spin being put on things which means there is denial after denial about DU. We need the truth and we need the facts. We cannot have the constant denial that these things never happened."

The health care provided for sick veterans was described as "woefully inadequate".

The Government's medical assessment programme, which monitors their health, was labelled ineffective and was said to have lost the trust of former soldiers. Dr Doug Rokke, who suffered massive DU poisoning when he headed the US Army's clearing-up team at the end of the war, also criticised the lack of care for the veterans.

Now one of the world's leading experts on radiation hazards, Dr Rokke said: "We have seen absolute failure to provide care.

"Individuals are still being denied medical care. They have asked for help but it has still not been provided. There has been complete failure of the system."

Shaun Rusling, head of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, told the committee his members have cut off contact with the MoD because they no longer had faith that it was interested in the truth.

He said: "When a serviceman goes to war he has a right to expect that should he be injured, he will receive proper care."

Prof. Sharma said that even at the lower levels of DU excretion, 24 in 1,000 vets exposed to depleted uranium and found to still have it in their bodies years later, would die from cancer.

More than 53,000 British personnel served in the Gulf but the number exposed to DU would only be revealed by extensive testing.

The Allies fired 700,000 DU-tipped rounds during the Gulf War - the first time the ammunition had been used in combat.

It was used so extensively because its extraordinary hardness gives it powerful armour-piercing capabilities.

Upon impact, however, DU dust particles were baked onto the sand which was then inhaled by the troops.The subsequent radiation poisoning leaves them at risk of developing cancer and even passing on genetic defects to their children.

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