Cancer - the deadly legacy of the Iraq invasion

[S.A.M.]

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 6 (New America Media) - Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer.

Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment.

Here are a few examples. In Falluja, which was heavily bombarded by the US in 2004, as many as 25% of new- born infants have serious abnormalities, including congenital anomalies, brain tumors, and neural tube defects in the spinal cord.

The cancer rate in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad has risen from 500 diagnosed cases in 2004 to 9,082 in 2009 according to Al Jazeera English.

In Basra there were 1885 diagnosed cases of cancer in 2005. According to Dr. Jawad al Ali, director of the Oncology Center, the number increased to 2,302 in 2006 and 3,071 in 2007. Dr. Ali told Al Jazeera English that about 1,250-1,500 patients visit the Oncology Center every month now.

Dr. Ahmad Hardan, who served as a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, says that there is scientific evidence linking depleted uranium to cancer and birth defects. He told Al Jazeera English, "Children with congenital anomalies are subjected to karyotyping and chromosomal studies with complete genetic back-grounding and clinical assessment. Family and obstetrical histories are taken too. These international studies have produced ample evidence to show that depleted uranium has disastrous consequences."

Iraqi doctors say cancer cases increased after both the 1991 war and the 2003 invasion.

Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of "Uranium in Iraq" told Al Jazeera English that the incubation period for depleted uranium is five to six years, which is consistent with the spike in cancer rates in 1996-1997 and 2008-2009.

There are also similar patterns of birth defects among Iraqi and Afghan infants who were also born in areas that were subjected to depleted uranium bombardment.

Dr. Daud Miraki, director of the Afghan Depleted Uranium and Recovery Fund, told Al Jazeera English he found evidence of the effect of depleted uranium in infants in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan. "Many children are born with no eyes, no limbs, or tumors protruding from their mouths and eyes," said Dr. Miraki.

It's not just Iraqis and Afghans. Babies born to American soldiers deployed in Iraq during the 1991 war are also showing similar defects. In 2000, Iraqi biologist Huda saleh Mahadi pointed out that the hands of deformed American infants were directly linked to their shoulders, a deformity seen in Iraqi infants.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/368472-cancer-the-deadly-legacy-invasion-iraq

Is this collateral damages?

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Is this collateral damages?

It is always in the singular, "collateral damage," and that is indeed the way the term is used. It does not mean only the killing of enemy non-combatants. It means any substantive harm to civilians or damage to non-military equipment and infrastructure, on either side.

Killing one of your own soldiers also has the specific term "killed by friendly fire." But any harm to your own people or damage to your own stuff is "collateral damage."

 

[wsionynw]

If a link can be proven then surely the people affected can take legal action, no?

 

[spidergoat]

Could be attributed to stress.

 

[Nasor]

I was surprised to read this:

Abdulhaq Al-Ani, author of "Uranium in Iraq" told Al Jazeera English that the incubation period for depleted uranium is five to six years, which is consistent with the spike in cancer rates in 1996-1997 and 2008-2009.

I am a metal chemist, and I studied heavy-metal toxicity a fair amount in grad school, and I never heard about "incubation periods" like that for metal poisoning. I tried to find information on that claim, but all I could find were non-scientific news sources that appeared to all be repeating this same original claim.

Also, heavy metals like uranium can indeed cause birth defects, but they're a lot more likely to cause problems for other organs (like the kidneys) first. If uranium poisoning was really so common that 25% of babies had birth defects, I would expect there to be huge numbers of people showing acute poisoning symptoms. Like, half the populations.

So, uh...I wonder what's up with that. I'm not saying that the birth defect problem isn't real, I don't really know anything about that. But it seems unlikely to me that DU would be the cause.

 

[Doreen]

If uranium poisoning was really so common that 25% of babies had birth defects, I would expect there to be huge numbers of people showing acute poisoning symptoms. Like, half the populations.

it's not like the DU was dispersed evenly over the population. It would have been dispersed in local clusters, here and there. Or not dispersed by just shredded. And then the local populations would have had wide varieties of exposure dependent on how near they were, where they went, weather conditions at dispersal, how much got into whose water and so on.

 

[Doreen]

If a link can be proven then surely the people affected can take legal action, no?

I can't remember a lot of civilian Vietnamese being successful with legal action for problems related to Agent Orange, carpet bombing, napalm, etc.

 

[spidergoat]

Maybe the stress makes people smoke more.

 

[Nasor]

it's not like the DU was dispersed evenly over the population. It would have been dispersed in local clusters, here and there. Or not dispersed by just shredded. And then the local populations would have had wide varieties of exposure dependent on how near they were, where they went, weather conditions at dispersal, how much got into whose water and so on.

It said 25% in Falluja, a city with hundreds of thousands. If there was really that much DU poisoning going on, there should be huge numbers of people with acute poisoning symptoms.

 

[iceaura]

The types of defects mentioned don't sound like radiation effects or heavy metal poisoning, from past reports over the years I've read.

Neural tube stuff seems most often associated with things like folic acid deficits, for example.

It said 25% in Falluja, a city with hundreds of thousands. If there was really that much DU poisoning going on,

It said 25% with something it calls "serious" birth defects.

Noticeable birth defects - stuff that earns some kind of medical attention at some stage in life - are a lot more common than people seem to think. I've seen estimates as high as 15%, background. It's also possible that many women with normal pregnancies and births of healthy children never go to the hospital in Fallujah's neighborhood - so there's a selection bias.

The numbers are startling, nevertheless. They'll shake out over time, maybe.