[ RadSafe ] Doctors warn of increasing newborn deformities in Iraq

[James Salsman]

No matter what you think of the politics of this situation, the
following facts remain:

1.  Iraqi parents, along with U.S. and U.K. Gulf War veteran
parents, have been experiencing a sharp increase in the incidence
of birth defects, which continues to increase to this day.

2.  Depending on temperature and the availability of molecular
oxygen, the combustion products from aerial ignition of uranium
are about 20% UO2, 60% U3O8, and 20% UO3.

3.  None of the safety studies of depleted uranium weapons have
ever detected uranium trioxide; they report 25% UO2 and 75% U3O8.

4.  All of the safety studies of depleted uranium weapons have
collected the combustion products with filters and mechanical
separators unable to catch particles less than 10 Angstroms in
size, and thus they were unable to detect monomolecular UO3.

5.  Uranium trioxide produced from oxidation of U3O8 at above
1000 degrees Celsius evaporates in monomolecular gas form,
which disperses as a gas instead of precipitating as a particle.
It then settles down out of the atmosphere at a rate of less
than 60 centimeters per year.

6.  UO3 is absorbed by the lungs with a biological half-time of
less than 5 days.

7.  Uranium accumulates in the testes, and causes chromosome
damage through catalytic production of hydroxyl and other free
radicals; a million times as much chromosome damage as from
its radiation.

8.  Gulf War and Balkan War veterans exposed to pyrophoric
uranium weapons use have more than five times as many
chromosomal abnormalities as the general population.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/bad5cdd6e59942ed1a0bb28fa28163fa.htm

BAGHDAD, 4/27/2005 (IRIN) - Doctors in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, have
reported a significant increase in deformities among newborn babies.

Health officials and scientists said this could be due to radiation
passed through mothers following years of conflict in the country.

The most affected regions are in the south of the country, particularly
Basra and Najaf, according to experts. Weaponry used during the Gulf war
in 1991 contained depleted uranium, which could be a primary source for
the increase, scientists in Baghdad said.

"In my experiments we have found some cases where the mother or father
were suffering from pollution from weapons used in the south and we
believe that it is affecting newborn babies in the country," Dr Ibraheem
al-Jabouri, a scientist at Baghdad University, told IRIN.

According to Dr Nawar Ali, at the University of Baghdad, who works in
the newborn babies research department, a significant number of cases of
deformed babies had been reported since 2003.

"There have been 650 cases in total since August 2003 reported in
government hospitals - that is a 20 percent increase from the previous
regime. Private hospitals were not included in the study, so the number
could be higher," Ali warned.

The health expert said polluted water, which could contain radiation
from weapons used in previous conflicts, was the main factor behind the
increase.

The type of deformities found in newborn babies are characterised by
multiple fingers, unusually large heads, unilateral lips or no arms or
legs.

In addition, Dr Lamia'a Amran, a pediatrician at the Iraqi Red Crescent
Society (IRCS) hospital in the capital, told IRIN that inter-marriages
were also to blame and that most of cases of deformed babies were from
poor families in the southern region.

"Most of the women who have deformed babies in our hospital are married
to relatives and have no idea that a common blood factor can also cause
such problems," Amran added.

The IRCS hospital registers at least four cases of deformities every
week. During April this year, 15 cases were reported, according to the
hospital spokesman, a number considered high for a short period of time.

However, Amran added that 60 percent of the cases were not related to
blood factors, but due to other causes. She explained that after
studying family history of couples with deformed babies, they concluded
that radiation and pollution were the main causes of the deformity.

But most of the cases reported don't survive for more than a week,
doctors said. Nearly 90 percent of such cases at the Central Teaching
Hospital for Pediatrics in Baghdad do not survive, according to Wathiq
Ibrahim, director of the hospital.

"We have asked for help from the government to make a more profound
study on such cases as it is affecting thousands of families," he told
IRIN.

"My two children were born with deformities and today I had my third one
with the same problem. The doctors say pollution is the cause and now my
husband wants to divorce me claiming that I am not capable of bringing
healthy children into the world," Fatima Hussein, a 34-year-old patient
at the hospital, told IRIN.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) is working on developing a programme to
alert mothers to the problem. A MoH senior official told IRIN that
studies had been undertaken to discover reasons for deformities
occurring and to find solutions fast.

Officials at the World Heath Organization (WHO) have not yet developed
any kind of research on the subject, but said they would assist the MoH
if requested.

"The Iraqi government should take a lead on this issue and if we are
asked to assist we will do it," Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the WHO
in Cairo, told IRIN.

"It is a very delicate problem, I have heard about cancer caused by
pollution, but deformities in newborn babies is something new and as a
result of security issues in the country our staff are outside Iraq,
which makes surveying more complicated," she added.

"Our children have started to suffer the effect of years of war and
disasters inside Iraq. The wars happened but no one cared about the
result it was going to have and today innocent lives are being lost due
to pollution and poor information," Firdous al-Abadi, a spokeswomen for
the IRCS, told IRIN.