Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies

[TaimiKhan]

Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies

BAGHDAD: The guns are gradually falling silent in Iraq as a fragile stability takes hold, turning the spotlight on a stealthier killer likely to stalk Iraqis for years to come.

Incidences of cancer, deformed babies and other health problems have risen sharply, Iraqi officials say, and many suspect contamination from weapons used in years of war and accompanying unchecked pollution as a cause.

'We have seen new kinds of cancer that were not recorded in Iraq before war in 2003, types of fibrous (soft tissue) cancer and bone cancer. These refer clearly to radiation as a cause,' said Jawad al-Ali, an oncologist in Iraq's second city of Basra.

In the city of Falluja in western Iraq, scene of two of the fiercest battles between U.S. troops and insurgents after the 2003 U.S. invasion, a spike in the number of births of stillborn, deformed and paralysed babies has alarmed doctors.

The use of depleted uranium in US and coalition weaponry in the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait and the 2003 Iraq invasion is well documented, but establishing a link between the radioactive metal and health problems among Iraqis is hard, officials say.

Iraqi medical facilities are limited, and keeping accurate health statistics during years of sectarian slaughter unleashed by the invasion was impossible.

In Basra in particular, pummelled by years of war and swamped with industrial and agricultural pollution, it is difficult for doctors to isolate specific causes for cancer.

Its people have for years lived among mounds of scrap metal that include war debris, the brown rust flaking off into the wind and carried into peoples homes, food, and lungs.

'Our information indicates there are more than 200 square kilometres of land south of Basra containing war debris, some of which is contaminated with depleted uranium,' said Bushra Ali, of the Environment Ministry's radiation prevention department.

A 2007 Basra University medical journal report found 'no major rise' in cancer death rates, but that the proportion of children dying of cancer in Basra had jumped 65 percent in 1997 and 60 percent in 2005, compared to 1989.

Children suffering most?

Depleted uranium, a dense metal, is used in weaponry to pierce heavy armour such as on tanks. Linking it to ill health is controversial -- the British Ministry of Defence says there is “no reliable scientific or medical” evidence.

Large quantities of depleted uranium were used in the first Gulf War, some of it near Basra.

It is not clear how much, if any, was used in Falluja by U.S. troops fighting mostly house-to-house battles in two assaults on the city in 2004.

The U.S. military did, however, use white phosphorous, which can cause serious burns if it comes in contact with skin, to mark targets or to flush enemy gunmen out of their hideouts.

Five years later, doctors in Falluja are recording an unusual number of babies with congenital heart disease and neural tube defects, the latter involving abnormal spinal cord or brain development, which can cause paralysis and death.

'The marked increase of congenital malformations of newborns in this hospital pushed the hospital's board of directors to form a special committee to investigate and record these cases,' said Abdulsatar Kadim, manager of Falluja's main hospital.

Doctors say they have not been able to isolate a specific cause. Several factors can trigger the condition, including a lack of folic acid during pregnancy.

A neural paediatric specialist, who declined to be named, said he was seeing on average three or four newborns with neural tube defects a week in Falluja and its surrounding areas, a region with a population of about 675,000 people.

In Britain, the incidence of the condition is less than 1 birth in every 1,000. Most births in and around Falluja are at its main hospital, where up to 30 are recorded daily, roughly equating to a neural tube defect rate of 14 in every 1,000.

'Some families decide to end the matter from the beginning. They choose to end the life of child, by refusing surgery for them -- 90 per cent of the children whom we don't treat die in the first year,' said a Falluja doctor who declined to be named. -Reuters


DAWN.COM | World | Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies

*************************************************

People just talk about the direct casualties at the hands of US & Allied Forces and say its less as compared to what Mujaheddin / Militants do especially some members on this forum too, does anyone count these angles into that count or the sufferings these babies go through and the suffering of their families ??

InshAllah the wrath of Allah for the suffering of these innocent angels will befall on those who have committed these barbarous atrocities.

 

[BATMAN]

Worst will follow in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Radiation in Iraq Equals 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs

As a writer I do not have a set of words to describe what 142 degrees in the shade is like. I've seen 120 degrees in Phoenix and 110 degrees in the spa's sauna I use. One hundred forty-two degrees leaves me speechless. Try to imagine 142 D temperature while wearing a helmet, long sleeve shirt, long pants, a bullet proof vest, boots, and carrying a 70 pound pack.

By contrast the Inuit of Alaska and Canada are said to have thirty-seven words to precisely talk about different kinds of snow.

So, since the temperature is heating up in Iraq it seemed like a good time to float this story to different Internet sites and news publications. There was one story in 2003 of one 19 year old British soldier whose military job was to work in a British tank. In Iraq. In the summer. Word is, from London, that he forgot to drink enough water and he literally cooked in his tank.

But, this story is not about the temperature in Iraq. You can bet, though, the weather will be really important for those Americans unfortunate enough to still be in Iraq this summer.

This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered to help our side in the war of us against them has Uranium in it. Lots of Uranium.

In the case of a cruise missile, as much as 800 pounds of the stuff. This article is about how much radioactive uranium our guys, representing us, the citizens of the United States, let fly in Iraq. Turns out they used about 4,000,000 pounds of the stuff, give or take, according to the Pentagon and the United Nations. That is a bunch.

Now, most people have no idea how much Four Million Pounds of anything is, much less of Uranium Oxide Dust (UOD), which this stuff turns into when it is shot or exploded. Suffice it to say it is about equal to 1,333 cars that weigh three thousand pounds apiece. That is a lot of cars; but, we can imagine what a parking lot with one thousand three hundred and thirty three cars is like. The point is: this was and is an industrial strength operation. It is still going on, too.

No sir-ee, putting Four Million Pounds of Radioactive Uranium Dust (RUD) on the ground in Iraq was a definitely "on-purpose" kind of thing. It was not "just an accident." We, the citizens of the United States, through our kids in the Army, did this on purpose.

When the uranium bullets, missiles, or bombs hit something or explode most of the radioactive uranium turns instantly into very, very small dust particles, too fine to even see (they call it: uranium oxide, that's the really bad stuff). When US troops or Iraqis breathe even a tiny amount into their lungs, as little as One Gram, it is the same as getting an X-Ray every hour for the rest of their shortened life.

The uranium cannot be removed, there is no treatment, there is no cure. The uranium will long outlast the veterans' and the Iraqis' bodies though; for, you see, it lasts virtually forever.

But, it gets worse. Seems an Admiral who is the former Chief of the Naval Staff of India wanted to know how much radiation this represented. He also wanted to express the amount in a figure that the world, especially the non-American world, could easily understand.

The Admiral decided to figure out how many Nagasaki Plutonium Bombs it would take to include the equivalent of the total amount of radiation deployed in Iraq in 2003 in the Four Million Pounds of uranium.

The Admiral also wanted to figure out how much radiation the United States Military Forces have deployed in the last Five American Wars, the so-called Five Nuclear Radiation Wars.

That is a simple enough task for somebody like the Naval Chief of Staff for a country that is a member of the Nuclear Club. Using the Nagasaki bomb for the measuring stick is a particularly gruesome twist, though. For those of you in the States who do not know it, United States Military Forces dropped two nuclear Bombs on Japan at the close of World War II. The rest of the world remembers that.

One Atom Bomb was dropped by Americans on the city of Hiroshima, the other bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later. About 170,000 to 250,000 people were vaporized or incinerated immediately. It was a really big deal.

It is a measuring stick that plays very well in the rest of the world; but, not very well on American Fox News (Fair & Balanced)(c) channel or the rest of the Fox-like American media. The Department of Energy still lists the Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonations as "tests". The admiral released the data months ago at a scientific conference in India. This article is the first report of the data in the United States. It will first be released on the Internet.

The admiral in India calculated the amount of radiation in the Nagasaki bomb and compared it with the number in the 4,000,000 pounds of uranium left in Iraq from the 2003 war. Now, believe me, it is a lot more complex than that; but, that is essentially what the experts in India did.

How many Nagasaki Bombs equal the Radiation in the 2003 Iraq war? Answer: About 250,000 Nagasaki Bombs.

How many Nagasaki Bombs equal the Radiation in the last Five American Nuclear Radiation Wars? Answer: About 400,000 Nagasaki Bombs.

Who would do something like this?

We would. The only people in the history of the world to engage in Nuclear Wars are Americans, citizens of the United States. Allegedly, the Germans and Japanese of WWII also wanted to engage in nuclear wars, except the American Military beat them to the draw, so to speak.

Respected academic scholars could debate forever whether or not Herr Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany, would have deployed uranium munitions in the Sudetenland if the weapons had been available. Certainly the Germans knew just as much about uranium wars as we did at the time. It seems doubtful that Adolph Hitler would have ordered the use of uranium munitions there because the Sudetenland was so close to the Fatherland, Nazi Germany.

An American General named Leslie Groves was in charge of the bomb making operation called The Manhattan Project. In 1943 The War Department knew exactly what uranium bullets and bombs were good for.

If the nuclear weapons did not detonate in Japan, the use of uranium bullets and bombs were the fall back position. It was not till Ronald Reagan was President in 1980 did the re-named Defense Department resurrect the deadly radioactive uranium bullets, shells, bombs, and missiles. No wonder his popular nick-name was Ronnie Ray-Guns.

The American Military knew the symptoms of radiation poisoning in 1943 too; starting with the irritated sore throat through to an agonizing death from being cooked from the inside out.

President Bush promised to invade and attack many countries in the 2003 State of the Union speech. I believe the man. For some reason, some misguided Americans do not believe him, or think he was "exaggerating." The rest of the world has every reason to believe him and fear him, though.

Not to worry, Americans, the President has plenty of raw material for radioactive uranium munitions left. There are more than 77,000 Tons stored at the 103 nuclear waste plants and a stunning 1.5 billion pounds at the several Nuclear Weapons Labs and related facilities in the US.

Each nuke waste generating plant makes another 250 pounds of radioactive material a day for radioactive bullets, shells, bombs, and missiles. Not to put too fine a point on it; but, that is enough for 288 more gloriously successful campaigns like the 2003 Nuclear Radiation War in Iraq. Who's next?

Every year about this time the Southern winds leave a fine desert sand on the windshields of cars parked outside in Africa then Continental Europe and Britain. Soon this sand dust will carry a surprise. Thanks to the Americans. Thanks to us. We did this to the world. And, we wonder why they hate and despise us so.

These uranium weapons' indiscriminate killing effect gives a whole new meaning to the age old term: cannon fodder. In Iraq, what goes around, comes around. If not the uranium munitions themselves, the uranium dust will be in the bodies of our returning armed forces, time bombs slowly ticking away the lives of the gullible and the ignorant with their very own personal internal radiation source, the cannon fodder of the 21st Century American Nuclear Radiation Wars.

Put your ending to this article next.

A lot of people have done everything we can think of to stop these nuclear wars. Even more specifically to stop the use of uranium as a munition and shut down the nuclear power plants. We have tried and failed for years. Why don't you give it a try? Can't hurt anything! Write what steps you would take to turn this situation around. Contact me at: bobnichols@cox.net.

Bob Nichols writes in Oklahoma City and is the Editorial writer for DemoOkie.com. Bob Nichols is a contributing writer for LiberalSlant, Democratic Underground, OnlineJournal, AmericaHeldHostage, and other online dot com publications. Mr. Nichols is a frequent contributor to The Oklahoma Observer and other print publications. He lives and works in Oklahoma. He is a member of CASE -- Citizens' Action for Safe Energy, and President of the Carrie Dickerson Foundation. CASE has successfully killed two serious, well funded attempts to build Nuclear Power Plants in Oklahoma and several attempts to site what is now known as the "Yucca Mountain Reactor Dump" in Oklahoma. All these efforts to build nuclear facilities have failed. CASE won every time. Copyright 2004, Bob Nichols. All rights reserved. Permission for reposting is allowed provided the complete text and attribution are kept intact.

 

[BATMAN]

Uranium Radiation Levels in Afghanistan

Uranium Radiation Levels in Afghanistan
Not Attributable to Depleted Uranium

Uranium Medical Research Center (UMRC) / Center For Global Research 5jun03
1. Unanticipated outcomes of the 2002 Afghan civilian studies

Radiological measurements of the uranium concentrations in Afghan civilians’ urine samples indicate abnormally high levels of non-depleted uranium. Radiological measurements of Afghan civilians’ have high concentrations of uranium in a range beginning at 4 X’s and reaching to over 20 X’s normal populations. This is 400% to 2000% higher than the study controls and normal population baselines of the concentrations of nanograms of uranium per liter of urine in a 24-hour sample. UMRC has completed initial but still preliminary studies that corroborate these finding in biological controls and geological samples taken in Operation Enduring Freedom bombsites.

These findings are significant in three ways:

1. The volumes (total concentrations) of uranium in the civilians studied are abnormally high as compared to local population controls. The only other findings presenting with these high concentrations are historically anomalous in certain populations exposed via unusual geological and technological (including occupational) conditions.

2. 100% of the studied population in the preliminary sample groups in Afghanistan is positive for these abnormally high concentrations.

3. The isotopic signature of the uranium in the Afghan study population is Non-depleted Uranium. This is an unexpected finding in that there has been no report of or confirmed findings of Non-Depleted Uranium in OEF or other military conflicts. It is not know at this point if the uranium is adulterated with transuranics.

2. Afghan civilians exposed to OEF bombing contaminated with Non-depleted Uranium – not, Depleted Uranium.

The isotopic ratios of the uranium contaminant measured in Afghan civilians show that it is not Depleted Uranium (DU). The isotopes of uranium found in the Afghan civilians’ urine is Non-Depleted Uranium. The only explanations of this finding are either anomalous geological and agricultural conditions (fertilizers) or the presence of uranium extracted from the front-end of the fuel or weapons production cycles. Whereas DU is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process, non-depleted uranium (NDU) is the feed stock of the enrichment phase of the fuel and weapons development cycles.

3. Civilian studies are corroborated by bomb-crater samples and control samples of local geological samples

UMRC investigated the possible origins of this contamination. The preliminary results of the radiological urine analysis are corroborated by radiological measurements of debris and weapons’ fragment samples at OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) target sites and bomb-craters. A discussion of the postulated origins of contamination and subsequent field investigations to follow-up these findings are provided in UMRC’s Field Report: “Precise Destruction -- Indiscriminate Effects”, posted on this web-site and the discussion posted below: “Examining the origin of Afghan civilians’ contamination”.

4. How were the subjects selected ?

The Afghan urine samples were collected from a group selected randomly within a triaged or first level screening of a broader population. The triaging identified persons who report (or based on physicians’ reports) medical symptoms and public health conditions indicating uranium internal contamination. The first level of triage had to satisfy two criteria: (1) the people present with the classic symptoms of acute and/or chronic internal exposure to uranium by inhalation; and, (2) they had a reliable history that placed them within a defined radius of exposure at the time of the OEF bombing (and/or living and working within this radius following the cessation of the bombing).

UMRC’s Field Team found several hundred civilians with acute symptoms and reportedly developing, chronic symptoms of uranium internal contamination (including congenital problems in newborns). All subjects’ on-set of symptoms are reported to coincide with the calendar dates of the bombing and were not present prior to the bombing. A randomly selected urine specimen donors’ sub-group was sub-selected out of the adult male population of the first-level triaged population. Males-only were selected to respect the cultural preferences of communities participating in the study. The sample and specimen collection method is outlined in UMRC’s study, which has been accepted for publishing and will be made available on this website following peer review.

5. Why UMRC looked for Non-depleted Uranium (as opposed to DU)

Radiological measurements of any populations’ urine specimens identify, as a standard practice, the abundance of each of the 3 naturally occurring isotopes of uranium (U234, 235, 238). These isotopes’ abundances (quantities) are measured as a fraction of the uranium released in a 24-hour sample of urine. The ratios of the two most abundant isotopes (235, 238) are also measured. This ratio presents a specific signature that expresses the type of uranium in the sample. The isotopic ratios (proportions) of the uranium in the urine collected in Afghanistan has the unmistakable signature of Non-Depleted Uranium. It does not express the isotopic ratio of DU. This does not rule out the possibility that future studies of Afghans may detect Depleted Uranium. This depends on the weapons that may be linked to any possible contamination identified in other exposed groups.

6. Why UMRC conducted radiological studies on Afghans

UMRC’s initial research on Afghan civilians was undertaken in response to five leading indicators:

Within weeks of the cessation of Operation Enduring Freedom’s bombing campaign, public health officials, civilians, the Afghan government, international NGO’s (including UN agencies) began to report public health problems matching the profile of uranium internal contamination. These anecdotal reports were similar to veterans and civilian health problems reported from the Gulf War (Desert Storm and Desert Fox) and Operation Allied Force (Serbia, Herzegovina and Kosovo).

Operation Enduring Freedom was reported to be using some of the same weapons’ delivery systems and ordnance used in Operation Desert Storm, Operation Desert Fox, and Operation Allied Force. Operation Desert Fox, which took place in Iraq in the mid-1990’s, was known to be using advance weaponry and testing new generations of precision guided missiles (not used in Desert Storm). Official and unofficial medical and public health reports from Iraq indicated a growing number of deleterious health effects associated with the 1991 Desert Storm bombing and the continued bombing of Iraq’s northern and southern, non-fly zones. Reports also stem from certain Middle Eastern countries adjacent to the Persian Gulf conflict areas.

Independent research and publicly available documentation of NATO and US weapons’ development programs hinted at or noted directly that non-fissionable (non-thermal nuclear) uranium weapons (including DU) development programs are still underway. Sources include: military research laboratories and sub-contract research & development programs; the US Science Based Stockpile Stewardship Program; the Federation of American Scientists; veterans’ reports; and, the annual reports and advertising of independent weapons contractors. US military health warnings to OEF personnel indicate the presence of radiological contaminants; recommending troops take protection measures. OEF’s forward targeting personnel, Special Forces and post-bombing, site inspection teams have been given radiation protection instructions, radiation detectors and protective equipment prior to and since entering Afghanistan.

The U.S. DBHT (Deeply Buried Hard Target) Project, aimed at developing weapons to destroy biological, nuclear and chemical weapons storage and manufacturing facilities in rogue states; and, the US Strategic Military Plan and US Nuclear Posture Review expresses intentions to use new classes of weapons in Afghanistan and other states. This program was known to be accelerating its weapons development and experiments in readiness for a possible Iraqi incursion. The White House and US-DOD spoke frequently about the development and use of fission, low-yield and non-fission, seismic bunker- and cave-busters. These weapons, by design, require heavy ballast and narrow diameter casings that can drive deeply into the earth or through super-reinforced military targets, tough enough to withstand high velocity impacts before they reach detonation depth.

These new generations of weapons and the targets for which they are designed dictate specific features and functions: They are designed as “self-forging” and capable of punching through multi-layered, extra-reinforced, hardened-targets. They must be able to defeat 14 to 20 feet of heavily reinforced concrete. Unlike the Gulf War DU armour defeat penetrators, these new warheads would be used in conjunction with high explosive charges and or high-pressure, shaped charges and delayed-action detonators (set to predetermined stand-off distances in some cases and to penetration depths controlled by altitude and void sensitivity sensors in others – depending on the ordnance and target).

By the DOD’s own admission, the best performing metal that consistently fits these functional military profiles is uranium and alloys of uranium. Titanium and tungsten are not suitable as the prime alloy base for these purposes. Uranium (whether NDU or DU) offers unique structural features and the chemistry best suited for the defeat of deep, bunkerized targets, multiple types of targets in area denial munitions, and penetrating composite ceramic and metal armoured targets.

Uranium can be engineered to be “self-sharpening” so that when it hits a target, it retains its punching point as material erodes off the warhead (titanium and tungsten will not do this). Uranium’s molecular structure can re-formed, using metallurgical and “nano-technologies” to deliver a selected range of ballistic features, including kinetic, thermal, pyrophoric, liquid metal and high-pressure/high-heat, plasma effects. Uranium is a readily available metal, cheap to produce and is in abundance in DOE’s, DOD’s and their weapon’s contractors’ stockpiles. Uranium has been designated a high priority material for scientific research on new weapons and “stockpile re-cycling” as a strategic and capital asset into multiple military applications.

In the early stages of OEF, the Afghan government reported publicly, radiological illnesses amongst the civilian population. The White House reported finding uranium-alloyed warheads in local arsenals. UK intelligence and the Pentagon reported that there is evidence from captured Taliban strongholds that uranium dispersion and dirty-bombs were being developed in Afghanistan.

7. Contrasting Afghan results with Gulf War Veterans’ results

UMRC’s preliminary radiological measurements and analysis of Afghan civilians who live and/or work adjacent to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) bombsites are notably different from the Gulf War veterans’ findings:

Radiological assessments of Afghan civilians show the presence of a distinctly different form or type of uranium. The Afghan civilians’ urine, studied to date, does not contain Depleted Uranium. It contains abnormally high levels of Non-depleted Uranium. Gulf war veterans, on the other hand, present, conclusively, with Depleted Uranium. See: The Quantitative Analysis of Depleted Uranium Isotopes in British, Canadian, and U.S. Gulf war Veterans, Military Medicine, August 2002. UMRC’s continued research in Afghanistan may or may not identify DU. This will depend upon the munitions deployed, the bombsites inspected and results of further urine studies of populations that may have been exposed to DU.

The abundance (quantities) of the uranium in 100% of the Afghan urine samples showing abnormally high total concentrations and the isotopes specific to Non-Depleted Uranium have been identified 4 to 8 months after the cessation of the bombing. 50% of the Gulf veterans tested by UMRC were positive for detectable levels of DU. The quantities of DU in the Gulf veterans’ urine were measured 7 – 9 years after exposure. Normal biological and metabolic processes and the life cycle of uranium incorporated via inhalation result in a progressive reduction, over time, of the amounts that can be found in urine.

The veterans in UMRC’s studies were also triaged based on their symptom profiles and histories of exposure. The fact that radiological studies on veterans yielded approximately 50% positive results for DU can be explained by the relative elapsed time from the date of exposure to the date of analysis and the estimated total concentrations of uranium and DU taken into the body at the time of exposure. It is possible that the Gulf veterans who did not test positive were originally contaminated but the quantities of DU in their urine may be below instrument detection limits this late after exposure.

The Afghan civilian studies began within a few months following the reported dates of exposure to OEF bombing. The amount of uranium per weapon and possibly the ballistic behaviors of the weapons used in Afghanistan may result in greater relative volumes of aerosolized particulate available for inhalation. The chemistry of the Afghan uranium, the biospheric transport mechanisms and the metabolic characteristics may also be different. The Afghan population studied is relatively stable and concentrated, unlike the transient patterns of military personnel in the Gulf. There are differences in the length of time of exposure and potential for chronic and repeated exposure of Afghans (via re-suspension of uranium particulate) whose environmental risk is on-going. The associated environmental contamination will be long-term, leading to chronic exposure to the civilian population and foreign workers.

8. Leading, anti-DU activist challenges UMRC’s Afghan findings

UMRC’s Afghan civilian findings have been criticised by a leading anti-DU activist. Responding to this criticism may shed light on questions of those who are understandably confused by the discovery of Non-depleted Uranium and its possible use by Operation Enduring Freedom. Below is the reply (objections are indented and in quote marks):

“UMRC’s findings of Non-depleted Uranium (as opposed to Depleted Uranium) confuses the public’s understanding of the issues”:

Depleted Uranium and Non-depleted Uranium are both species of uranium. UMRC is reporting the isotopic signatures of the uranium found in the Afghan civilians’ urine. Since Depleted Uranium was not found, it was not reported. This does not rule out the possibility that future studies may identify DU in Afghanistan. For a discussion of the possible origins of this contamination, see below: “Origin of the Afghan civilians’ uranium, internal contamination”.

“UMRC’s field research investigations concluding that the US and NATO have deployed a new generation of weapons incorporating Non-depleted Uranium is not substantiated by public domain information about the ordnance deployed by Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan”:

UMRC’s Field Trip Report’s conclusions as to the origin of the Afghan civilians’ uranium internal contamination is preliminary, based on (1) a follow-up field investigation to identify the origins and (2) radiological analysis of bomb-crater debris taken from the sites adjacent to the contaminated population and survivors from the blasts. The reader is invited to review UMRC’s Afghan Field Report excerpts: “Precise Destruction-Indiscriminate Effects” found on this web-site.

“The abnormally high levels of uranium found in Afghan civilians are exaggerated and needlessly alarm troops, veterans and civilians in Operations Enduring Freedom”:

UMRC is not pleased to have identified such high concentrations of uranium in the biological specimens Afghan civilians. These levels of uranium internal contamination are considered medically significant. They point to a potential public health disaster for Afghanistan if corroborated by on-going studies of a wider population and OEF bombsites. The results reported are not discretionary and have been reported according to the laboratory readings.

The abnormally high levels of internalised uranium in Afghans were measured at a point in time much closer to the date of bombing. This may point to higher than previously calculated risks to Operations’ Desert Storm veterans who might have presented with significantly higher concentrations of uranium if studies of their urine had been conducted at a responsible point in time more closely following exposure. These results are also indicative that, if uranium is in use, the new generation of OEF weapons produce significantly higher levels of contaminant than DU penetrators.

9. Access to UMRC’s detailed Afghan data UMRC does not release, publicly, its detailed findings until they are peer-reviewed and published.

The peer review and scientific publishing process is lengthy but necessary to ensure efficacy and accuracy. UMRC’s results on Afghanistan civilians are presented on this web site as “preliminary” (pending peer review). Until our research is published UMRC’s policy is to withhold all but general and summary information about research-in-process. Detailed information about UMRC’s Gulf War Veterans’ studies are published and can be found on our web site and in the published, peer-reviewed journals and proceedings of scientific conferences.

10. Origin of the Afghan civilians’ uranium, internal contamination

Irrespective of the source of the uranium contaminant resulting in the Afghan results, abnormally high concentrations of uranium are medically significant. The Non-depleted Uranium in the subjects’ urine has warranted further investigation to expand the scope of the research, corroborate the biological and geological results and broaden the study populations. UMRC’s continues to investigate all possible origins of this uranium contamination.

UMRC’s follow-up and on-going research results will be reported in future, peer reviewed studies. A discussion of the possible origins or this contamination can be found in the Field Trip #2 Report: “Precise Destruction – Indiscriminate Effects”. To date, there is no evidence of geological or other conditions that might explain the contamination. Significantly, the on-set of acute, uranium internal contamination symptoms coincide with the dates of Operations Enduring Freedom’s bombing campaign and match bomb-crater and target site samples.

Other possible origins investigated include geological sources, agricultural sources (fertilizers), local military uses, and possibly other foreign technological and military sources. To date, all postulated alternatives pertain to a variety of other types of uranium (signified by different arrays of isotopic ratios): Naturally occurring Uranium (NU), Depleted Uranium (DU), Low Enriched Uranium (LEU), Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU), dirty uranium (spent fuel products, reactor and weapons’ development or manufacturing waste and re-mixed military grade and reactor oxides); local uranium mining, milling and processing; agricultural use or other commercial phosphates; Soviet fission weapons disassembly; and, natural uranium ore products released and aerosolized by the kinetic and high explosive impacts of conventional, deep-penetrator ordnance.

With the exception of Natural Uranium, alternative explanations are attributable to radio-isotopic signatures (ratios of isotopes of uranium) not substantiated by the laboratory results of Afghan civilians and bombsites. The isotopic measurements are objectively reliable and cannot be misrepresented other than by intentional adulteration of the specimens or intentional efforts to contaminate the population to mask the origins of contamination. Notably, the results of the analysis of biological specimens (urine) and the bomb-crater samples are compatible.

The possibility of Natural Uranium remains under investigation. Local geological samples and controls do not substantiate a source other than the OEF bombing. There are no geological, commercial and agricultural phenomena or activities and uses in the environs of the contaminated populations that might explain the contamination. UMRC invites reasonable explanations and continues to investigate alternatives or evidence that might explain origins other than uranium-alloyed and composite uranium-high-explosive ordnance deployed by Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

[Vassnti]

The los of children is always a terrible event though things may not be quite as simple as they appear. With respect for you position and feelings on an emotional subject Taimiakhan i did want to intoduce a few points.


The major known cause of neural tube defects is malnutrition, lack of folate before and during pregnacy causes significant increases. Before the war the people of Basra were short on most food staple. Though people will argue if it was the scantions or saddam that was the reason people were starving an increase in neural tube defects would be expected. Other natal problems such as ow birth weight failure to thrive maternal and infant deaths would also be expected to rise.
CNN.com - Complex found bulging with food in hungry city - Apr. 3, 2003

The second interesting point is that over the same period there has been an increase in birth defects in western Iran.

Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies

Congenital anomalies in Iran: a cross-sectional study on 1574 cases in the North-West of country

It is important to remember that the US Iraqi war was not the only conflict in the Basra area and that during the Iran Iraqi conflict chemical weapons were manufactured, stored and used in the Basra region.

However, according to a paper published in The Lancet medical journal in 1998, the death rate per 1,000 Iraqi children under five years of age increased from 2.3 in 1989 to 16.6 in 1993, and cases of lymphoblastic leukaemia more than quadrupled. It has been argued, however, that this was caused by the Iraqi Army's use of chemical weapons.

Depleted uranium: the health debate - Jane's Defence News

Though i agree that the use of DU weapons while the long term effects are still subject to debate is not a good thing the picture as to the contribution DU weapons have made to the terrible conditions children in some areas of Iraq is perhaps not as clear cut as some portray.

 

[Vassnti]

The isotopic signature of the uranium in the Afghan study population is Non-depleted Uranium.

Civilian studies are corroborated by bomb-crater samples and control samples of local geological samples

So its in the people its in the rocks if its every where else its not B supprising you find it in hole in the ground wether they are made by bombs or by a farmer with a shovel.

Its not DU, little hint BM if the US was dropping nukes all over Afghanistan some one would have noticed by now.