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Depleted uranium causing child cancers

Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies

The Washington Post By Suadad al-Salhy

Reuters
December 1, 2009 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………….

“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.

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

Iraq sees alarming rise in cancers, deformed babies – washingtonpost.com

December 1, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, health, Iraq | antinuclear, cancer, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear wastes, nuclear weapons, radiation, radioactive, uranium, wastes