Genetic effects in Iraq caused by Uranium weaponry
(see also http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/fallujah20oct2011.htm)
In 2010 the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health published a paper showing high rates of birth defects and cancer in Fallujah, Iraq after heavy fighting in 2004 which involved the suspected use of Uranium weaponry. (Outline results are below together with internet links.)
A new paper published in Conflict and Health has analysed hair samples from parents of children born with congenital malformations in Fallujah. The hair had high levels of Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Aluminium, Bismuth, Mercury and Uranium. Of these, only Uranium is associated with cancer and birth defects. Uranium levels were significantly higher than expected on the basis of published measurements of uncontaminated populations. The levels were highest in the distal ends of the longest hair, which would have been growing in 2005.
The paper discusses the anomalously high genotoxic effects of Uranium.
Isotopic ratios of the Uranium in the hair samples showed the presence of Enriched Uranium which has also been found in recent battlefield samples in other middle-east war zones. One of the authors says “What we have found makes it perfectly clear that, in addition to armour-piercing rounds containing Uranium, a new generation of Uranium-based anti-personnel weapons exists. These uses of Uranium cause shocking increases in cancer and congenital illness in innocent civilians and in soldiers on both sides of a conflict.”
“Uranium and other contaminants in hair from the parents of children with congenital anomalies in Fallujah, Iraq”, authors Samira Alaani, Muhammed Tafash, Christopher Busby, Malak Hamdan and Eleonore Blaurock-Busch, is a free download from http://www.conflictandhealth.com/content/5/1/15#
LLRC Press release at http://www.llrc.org/du/subtopic/fallujahair.pdf
Link to the 2010 survey
The IJERPH 2010 paper “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009” Chris Busby, Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi is a free download from http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828/
Links to reports on the 2010 survey
BBC news report by John Simpson http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10721562
The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/toxic-legacy-of-us-assault-on-fallujah-worse-than-hiroshima-2034065.html
Outline results of the paper published in 2010 by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: rates of disease (compared with neighbouring countries) were
Cancer all ages, 4 times higher;
Childhood cancer 0-14 years, 12.6 times higher;
Leukaemia in the age groups 0-34 years, 38 times 5 higher;
Lymphoma 0-34 years, 9.24 times higher;
Female breast cancer 0-44 years, 9.7 times higher;
Brain tumours all ages, 7.4 times higher;
Infant mortality 4.2 times higher.
There was also a serious depression in the proportion of boy babies born, an effect also observed in studies of the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945.