Sinn Fein has restated its call for plastic bullets to be withdrawn from use in the North.
On Saturday, the Guardian newspaper reported British government research which showed that while new plastic bullets being issued to the RUC and British army were faster and more accurate than those they replaced, they could also cause more serious injury.
Mr Gerry Kelly, Sinn Fein's spokesman on policing, said: "The reality is that [the new bullets] will kill people and our experience in the North of Ireland is that the most likely victims will be children."
Plastic bullets are intended to be fired from a distance of more than 20 metres into the legs and lower torso.
Mr Kelly rejected claims that the new bullets would be more accurate. "There is no other solution to the controversy surrounding these weapons than for them to be withdrawn from use," he said.
The government report says the increased accuracy of the new round means that the total number of life-threatening head injuries is likely to be reduced. However, the consequences of a "deliberate or inadvertent" strike higher up on the body would have "more serious medical implications to the target".
If one of the new rounds struck the head, the severity of injuries to the brain was "likely to be greater, due to higher pressures on the brain, and greater penetration of the projectile", the report said.