Urgent attention must be paid to the health and environmental consequences from the depleted uranium used in many of the munitions fired in Iraq, the Royal Society has warned.

The society has publicly backed the United Nations Environment Programme's call for a scientific assessment of sites struck with depleted uranium weapons, the immediate distribution of guidelines to minimise the risk of exposure, and the need to clean up remnants.

The Ministry of Defence insists that the effects of depleted uranium are strictly localised. But after growing concern over the risk of …