[ RadSafe ] RE: birth defects in Basrah

[Steven Dapra]

April 18

         Thank you for posting this, John.  Good questions.

         I don't see how birth defects could only have shown up in Basrah, 
as Salsman claims.  Or at least he says (below) they were only reported in 
the vicinity.  His original question (RADSAFE, Apr. 3) said:  "Are there 
any alternative hypotheses for the birth defect increases in Basrah, U.S., 
and U.K. troops which have not been ruled out?"

         Wasn't DU used in more places than around Basrah?  Even it had 
only been used there, the anti-DU partisans seem to be saying the windblown 
DU has spread all over Iraq.

         My guess is that the reason someone keeps posting stuff about 
folate is that folate appears to be effective in decreasing birth defects, 
especially spina bifida.  It goes back to the poor diets of the Iraqi 
people during the 1990s.

Steven Dapra


At 10:15 AM 4/18/07 -0700, John Jacobus wrote:
>Was that the only city reported on?  Have
>epidemiological studies been performed in other large
>cities?  What were the birth defect rates 5 years ago?
>  You need to validate all of the data, not just
>cherry-pick the stuff that supports your position.
>
>As noted by the Michigan Department of Community
>Health at
>http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/BirthDefects/summary.asp
>
>"During 2003, there were 9,383 cases of birth defects
>reported for children under one year of age. This
>translates to an prevalence rate of 725.0 cases per
>10,000 resident live births. For children born during
>2002, there were 11,128 cases reported for children
>under 2 years of age for an prevalence rate was 869.3
>cases per 10,000 resident live births. The prevalence
>rate for 2 year olds based upon reported cases has
>been above 800 per 10,000 for the past three years and
>following a significant effort to improve reporting
>quality and completeness."
>
>I doubt there is much DU in Michigan.
>
>--- James Salsman <jsalsman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Why do you keep posting stuff about folate?  Basrah
> > was the only place
> > in the vicinity reporting an increase in birth
> > defects.
> >

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