On 17th December 2008, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, National Institute of Health, advisory body for the Minister of Health) organised the international workshop Depleted uranium research: an update, the sequel to a first workshop on the subject held in October 2004. The ISS's interest in this issue is due to the request made by the Minister to continue the research into the potential association between cancer incidence and exposure to DU. Indeed, in 2002 a statistically significant excess of Hodgkin's lymphoma was observed among the Italian peacekeeping forces who had been deployed in the Balkans. The workshop was an opportunity to share new scientific research result and research prspects, as well as future activity programs. Key issues were epidemiological studies on exposed personnel, studies of the biological effects of DU, and environmental and biological monitoring. The programme of the workshop, the abstracts and the slides of the presentations can be found on the ISS website.
The Workshop summary is only available in Italian, in compliance with a request of the Heath Minister to keep Italian population updated about the DU issue, but abstracts and slides are in English.