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Lebanon: New study detects traces of uranium in South
depleted uranium left over from last summer`s war. In a report published Wednesday by local daily As-Safir, Mohammed Ali Qbayssi, an expert in nuclear physics based in Germany, was quoted as confirming that depleted uranium had been found in samples taken recently from a bomb crater in the southern region of Khiam.
Speaking to As-Safir, Qbayssi stressed that "it is important to distinguish between enriched and depleted uranium, as the two pose different health risks."
Similar results were reported in December by Chris Busby, the British secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, who said that "there is no way the signs of uranium found in Khiam were the result of natural or industrial materials. Their only source is nuclear reactors."
Busby was commenting in an interview with Environment Hotline, a research team affiliated with Environment and Development magazine.
However, the National Council for Scientific Research ruled out on Wednesday the possibility of radioactive residue being present in olive oil, after 30 samples were tested in the Southern and Bekaa regions of Lebanon.
"There is no evidence of any degree of radioactivity in any of the samples tested, and so the oil is safe for human consumption and exporting poses no danger to public health," a statement released by the council said on Wednesday.
The council`s results mirrored those of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which has been studying ecological damage caused by last summer`s war in Lebanon.
The UNEP released a statement in November declaring that there was "no evidence" of radioactive residue in Lebanon. A team of 20 UNEP scientists had spent two weeks with their Lebanese counterparts at the beginning of October evaluating the environmental impact of the month-long war.
The team tested air, water and soil samples at 30 heavily bombarded sites in Southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The UNEP said the samples showed no evidence of "metal made of depleted uranium or other radioactive material." There was "no depleted uranium, nor enriched uranium, nor higher than natural uranium," it said. The full UNEP Post-Conflict Assessment report is expected to be released in mid-January.