The Kosovo study : environmental and health hazards for military and civil deployed personnel

The Swedish responsibility when it comes to international contribution is increasing and both civil and military personnel are involved. In order to be able to accomplish the missions without exposing the personnel to any risks, it is imperative to hold adequate information and knowledge about the environmental and health risks to which they may be exposed. During 2001 and 2002, FOI NBC Defence, has been involved in the projekt "NBC at international missions - the Kosovo study" by order of the Swedish Armed Forces (FM) and the Swedish Emergency Management Agency (KBM). The aim has been both to develop methods to identify different NBC, environmental and health risks to which the military and civil deployed personnel may be exposed and, too, to improve the routines concerning the handling of them. For this purpose, Kosovo has been used as an example. The project has been broken down into four parts; Environmental description of Kosovo, Education and equipment, Lessons learned and Suggestions for new routines. This report is the result of the work performed under the heading of the first part. The information about NBC, environmental and health risks is changing from time to time and it is therefore important to obtain up-to-date information. On one hand, this report will serve as bases when it comes to working out new routines, on the other hand it will provide basic data concerning the state of NBC, environmental and health risks.