Iraq sees rapid rise in cancer, defects
Source: Agencies |
December 2, 2009, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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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 United States troops and insurgents after the 2003 US 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 including war debris, the brown rust flaking off in the wind and carried into people's homes, food, and lungs.
"Our information indicates there are more than 200 square kilometers 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.
Depleted uranium, a dense metal, is used in weaponry to pierce heavy armor such as on tanks. Linking it to ill health is difficult - 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.
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 United States troops and insurgents after the 2003 US 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 including war debris, the brown rust flaking off in the wind and carried into people's homes, food, and lungs.
"Our information indicates there are more than 200 square kilometers 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.
Depleted uranium, a dense metal, is used in weaponry to pierce heavy armor such as on tanks. Linking it to ill health is difficult - 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.
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