After the War Comes Cancer

[redqueen]

Has anyone seen this story covered in this country?

After the War Comes Cancer
Iraqi women fear for their children's future

Information collected for a German project investigating the use of uranium-charged ammunition in Iraq shows that when Iraqi women fear for their children's health, it is with good reason.

After two wars where oil wells were torched, chemical factories bombed and radioactive ammunition fired, the first thing Iraqi women ask when giving birth is not if it is a boy or a girl, but if it is normal or deformed. The number of cancer cases and children born with deformities has skyrocketed after the two Gulf Wars.

"Since 1991 the number of children born with birth deformities has quadrupled," said Dr. Janan Hassan, who runs a children's clinic at a hospital in Basra in southern Iraq. "The same is the case for the number of children under 15 who are diagnosed with cancer. Mostly, it is leukemia. Almost 80 percent of the children die because we neither have medicine nor the possibility to give them chemotherapy."

Doctors have also recorded an extreme rise in cancer cases among adults. "In 2004 we diagnosed 25 percent more cancer cases than the year before and the mortality rate increased eight-fold between 1988 and 1991," said Dr. Jawad al-Ali of the Sadr Hospital in Basra.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1510710,00.html

[undeterred]

1. I posted a story about it yesterday but its from WSWS

I haven't heard about it anywhere else.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x124560

[Raksha]

2. I've been aware of this horrible situation for some time.

I haven't read the link you posted yet, but I've researched the subject of depleted uranium (also abbreviated DU, unfortunately) on the web in the past. I have a special interest in the subject because my husband died of radiation-induced cancer--not in Iraq, but from exposure to the Hanford Atomic Reservation in Washington when he was a child.

Some of these diseases have a very long latency period. My husband was exposed at about age 7 but didn't develop symptoms of the disease that finally killed him until he was almost 40. What I'm saying is that the Iraqis will be paying for this war for a very long time.

[redqueen]

3. It's disgusting that the MSM pretends it isn't happening.

Instead we hear people defend bush by saying how much better Iraq is since the war.

:grr:

[Zorbuddha]

5. DU deniers are quick with the disinfo

They should be popping up any minute now.

This is a serious problem, and will reach around the globe.

So much crime, so little time. Price of freedom? Sure...

[redqueen]

6. Yes, I've seen that before.

:(

[Zorbuddha]

7. This is such a sad and tragic story.

It is horrific from every angle. What's the point of using flaming uranium projectiles anyway? To kill people deader? More painfully? Is it just a way to get rid of the toxic stockpiles? Whatever the rationale (I started to say reason, but that would be wrong), the innocent will suffer directly and collaterally for countless years to come.

Thanks for posting this. Beat the drum slowly.

[redqueen]

8. IIRC, it pierces armor more effectively...

as well as walls, doors, etc.

However it being a way to get rid of stockpiles is something I've often wondered about.

[G_j]

4. child malnutrition has doubled also

since the invasion.
PTSD will no doubt effect thousands of Iraqis for the rest of their lives.

Does the media think Americans don't want to know, or do they not want them know? probably both

[redqueen]

9. There is no excuse...

none at all.

The situation Iraqi children (especially children) face, coupled with that memo proving all of this was planned as soon as bush took office, should be front page news all over this country.

The fact that it is not is an indictment of the media's complicity in a coverup of historical proportions. :(

[spanone]

10. Bush* would call that collateral damage.

[slipslidingaway]

11. 1991 memo on DU weapons

http://www.spidersmill.com/gwvrl/los_alamos.htm

from 1966
http://www.spidersmill.com/gwvrl/aberdeen_sop_from_nrc.htm

Superbox
http://www.atc.army.mil/fac_guide/facilities/superbox.html

The above links would indicate that we knew it was harmful, but weapons that contain DU are great for their piercing ability. Some other links below and these are just a few of them, there may be pictures that are not pleasant to see.


easy to read article
Presentations on Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Presentations_on_agent_011704.htm


Horror Of Depleted Uranium Not Limited To Iraq
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_17142.shtml

"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the media and the troops - risk the most appalling ill health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives of thousands of children, all over the world. We all know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car."
The speaker is not some alarmist doom-sayer. He is Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert, Fellow of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of Medicine and UK representative on the European Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best-kept secret of this war: the fact that, by illegally using hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against Iraq, Britain and America have gravely endangered not only the Iraqis but the whole world.

additional info
http://traprockpeace.org/

Dr. Doug Rokke
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=594
"The following is a copy of the Address given by Dr. Doug Rokke, former head of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, at the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Coalition 17th Annual Leadership Breakfast, at the U.S. Senate Caucus Room on November 10, 2000."
http://sftimes.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$61



"The following document by Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, and Leuren Moret, a geo-scientist, provides a concise and essential explanation of the biological response to depleted uranium (DU) particulate internal exposure."
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=62203


edited for placement of comments with appropriate links.

[redqueen]

12. With information like this available...

I don't understand how some can be so comfortable dismissing the risks.

[slipslidingaway]

13. Short film, what, where is DU, about 15 minutes

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3581.htm

It seems some would rather dismiss the risks as DU is heavier than lead and is used as plating in some military vehicles, it also can penetrate better than some other materials. In the film it states that less than 1% of the uranium that is enriched is used for nuclear fuel and weapons, the balance (over 99%) is 'waste' or depleted uranium. What else are we going to do with it. There is conflicting information, but if it is safe why do we no longer test these weapons in the open air and instead have built the Superbox for testing.

Dennis Kucinich
http://www.kucinich.us/issues/depleted_uranium.php


UK will start testing returning soldiers

"Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Friday April 25, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,943171,00.html

"Soldiers returning from the Gulf will be offered tests to check levels of depleted uranium in their bodies to assess whether they are in danger of suffering kidney damage and lung cancer as a result of exposure, the Ministry of Defence said last night.

The ministry was responding to a warning earlier in the day from the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific body, that soldiers and civilians might be exposed to dangerous levels. It challenged earlier reassurances from the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, that depleted uranium was not a risk."

[redqueen]

14. Thanks...

Love the common sense approach DK and the British Royal Society take.

Is that too much to ask of our scientists here?