[ RadSafe ] Findings of enriched U in Fallujah and elsewhere

[ROY HERREN]

The reference to "The devastating reproductive health effects of dioxins (the 
major contaminant of Agent Orange) on the Vietnamese people is well known", is 
at once intriguing and confusing.  Agent Orange was used as a defoliant in 
Vietnam.  Clearly the US did not use Agent Orange in Iraq, or even need a 
defoliant in the predominantly desert nations of Iraq.  This is not to say that 
there aren't plenty of local Iraq domestic source of dioxins.  Open burning of 
plastic, see  http://www.dioxinfacts.org/sources_trends/trash_burning.html, in 
trash pits and barrels has long been known to be a source of dioxins.  Given 
that the US didn't use dioxins in Iraq, and that the local Iraqis' generate 
dioxins domestically I don't understand why Agent Orange was mentioned without 
exploring the domestic cause and effects of of dioxins.

Roy Herren 




________________________________
From: Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List 
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Fri, October 21, 2011 6:37:58 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Findings of enriched U in Fallujah and elsewhere

Given the premise of the authors Busby and his Brussels Tribunal
collaborator Malik Hamdan that something terrible has happened in
Fallujah and it had to be due to US use of some horror weapon, the
paper should never have been published let alone read by anyone.  I
wonder how many on-line for profit journals that Busby had to shop
this to.  I know that his first choice rejected it after I questioned
the peer review of Busby associate Paola Manduca (another Brusssels
Tribunal member with a professorship of some kind that looks like it
was somewhat related) and Mozghan Savabiesafahani, who pretended to
still be associated with the University of Michigan five years after
that association had ended.  That paper also claimed that depleted
uranium was the cause despite the fact that DU never was used in
Fallujah.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2011, 8, 89-96; doi:10.3390/ijerph8010089
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ISSN
1660-4601 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Case Report

Four Polygamous Families with Congenital Birth Defects from Fallujah, Iraq
Samira Alaani 1, Mozhgan Savabieasfahani 2, Mohammad Tafash 1,3 and
Paola Manduca 4,*
1 Fallujah General Hospital, Althubbadh District, Fallujah, 00964,
Iraq; E-Mails: samiraalaani at hotmail.com (S.A.); m_tafash at yahoo.com
(M.T.)
2 P.O. Box 7038; Ann Arbor, MI 48107, USA; E-Mail: bahar at umich.edu
(that e-mail no longer exists since she has not been associated with
university for five years and she was misusing the claimed connection
- just like Busby was using his no longer existing Honorary Fellowship
with the University of Liverpool years after it had ended)
3 Medical College, Al-Anbar University, Fallujah, 00964, Iraq
4 Laboratory of Genetics, DIBIO, University of Genoa, Genoa 16132, Italy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
paolamanduca at gmail.com; Tel.: +39-10-2470145/+39-10-3538240/
+39-3472540531.
Received: 27 October 2010; in revised form: 3 December 2010 /
Accepted: 21 December 2010 / Published: 31 December 2010
Abstract: Since 2003, congenital malformations have increased to
account for 15% of all births in Fallujah, Iraq. Congenital heart
defects have the highest incidence, followed by neural tube defects.
Similar birth defects were reported in other populations exposed to
war contaminants. While the causes of increased prevalence of birth
defects are under investigation, we opted to release this
communication to contribute to exploration of these issues. By using a
questionnaire, containing residential history and activities that may
have led to exposure to war contaminants, retrospective reproductive
history of four polygamous Fallujah families were documented. Our
findings point to sporadic, untargeted events, with different
phenotypes in each family and increased recurrence. The prevalence of
familial birth defects after 2003 highlights the relevance of
epigenetic mechanisms and offers insights to focus research, with the
aim of reducing further damage to people's health.

Keywords: Iraq; birth defects; war contaminants; epigenetics
OPEN ACCESS

Many known war contaminants have the potential to interfere with
normal embryonic and fetal
development. The devastating reproductive health effects of dioxins
(the major contaminant of Agent Orange) on the Vietnamese people is
well known. Data is also accumulating on increased rates of
reproductive diseases in veterans of U.S. and U.K. wars during the
last 20 years. As environmental effectors, metals are potential good
candidates to cause birth defects. Metals are also integral to modern
--augmented and --targeted weapons [3]. Metals, which are toxicants at
relatively low concentrations, are highly persistent in the
environment and in the body of exposed individuals, where they
accumulate. Metals can disrupt events associated with embryo/fetal
development and can act synergistically with other metals and/or with
other environmental toxicants to induce phenotypic changes at the
level of the cell, and to disrupt tissue homeostasis [4]. Many metals
are weak mutagens but strong carcinogens, which implies that metals
act more commonly at the epigenetic level leading to changes that are
inherited by the progeny of cells

and later

Teratogens in the postwar environment include metals and metal alloys
which persist in the environment and in the body, and are potential
risks to health (genotoxic, fetotoxic and epigenetic mechanisms of
action). Metals are involved in regulating genome stability, in X
chromosome inactivation, in gene imprinting, and in reprogramming gene
expression. They act as metalloestrogens, inhibit DNA repair, alter
DNA methylation, change transcriptome and microRNAs production,
histone acetylation and methylation; all of which can lead to birth
defects, whether translated into mutations or not [4]. As a
consequence of internal radiation, some metals can induce sporadic
gene mutations or oxidative DNA damage. In the case of depleted
uranium (DU) it is unclear whether its radiation-derived mutational
effects or its chemical toxic effects are more relevant. DU can induce
epigenetic changes that are associated with leukemia via
hypomethylation of the DNA.

No other cause is suggested, just DU - despite its not being there.
It is a given, right, in the Busby accolyte community that if there
are US forces somewhere that DU is there too and if DU is not present,
then it has to be the new more nefarious secret enriched uranium
weapons.

Hindin's Busby peer-reviewed article is referred to here -

Frequent miscarriages in several women during the last years are also
indicative of a general negative (teratogenic) load from the
environment. Epidemiological evidence on birth defects which are
caused by war contaminants is common in the literature. Hindin et al.
offered a review of epidemiological studies on the teratogenicity of
DU and concludes that human epidemiological evidence is consistent
with increased risk of birth defects in the offspring of persons
exposed to this war contaminant [5]. Studies in another war
contaminant, Agent Orange, also find parental exposure to be
associated with an increased risk of birth defects in the offspring
[6].

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 4:01 PM, Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com> wrote:
> Oct. 21
>
>        A quick correction ---
>
>        I have not read Busby's Fallujah paper --- the one about hair
> samples, etc.  When I asked Busby if it had ever occurred to him that some
> of us on RADSAFE had read his paper I was asking a rhetorical question.  It
> should be obvious that some of us have read it.  I have skimmed the Fallujah
> paper and have read some portions of it however I have not read the entire
> thing.
>
> Steven Dapra
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