Fallujah: 38-fold increase in leukaemia since 2004

[Penta]

So what did the Marines use there?


Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah 'worse than Hiroshima'

The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle

By Patrick Cockburn

Saturday, 24 July 2010

The Independent

Children in Fallujah who suffer from birth defects which are thought to be linked to weapons used in attacks on the city by US Marines

Getty Images


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Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.

Their claims have been supported by a survey showing a four-fold increase in all cancers and a 12-fold increase in childhood cancer in under-14s. Infant mortality in the city is more than four times higher than in neighbouring Jordan and eight times higher than in Kuwait.

Dr Chris Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster and one of the authors of the survey of 4,800 individuals in Fallujah, said it is difficult to pin down the exact cause of the cancers and birth defects. He added that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened".

US Marines first besieged and bombarded Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad, in April 2004 after four employees of the American security company Blackwater were killed and their bodies burned. After an eight-month stand-off, the Marines stormed the city in November using artillery and aerial bombing against rebel positions. US forces later admitted that they had employed white phosphorus as well as other munitions.

In the assault US commanders largely treated Fallujah as a free-fire zone to try to reduce casualties among their own troops. British officers were appalled by the lack of concern for civilian casualties. "During preparatory operations in the November 2004 Fallujah clearance operation, on one night over 40 155mm artillery rounds were fired into a small sector of the city," recalled Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a British commander serving with the American forces in Baghdad.

He added that the US commander who ordered this devastating use of firepower did not consider it significant enough to mention it in his daily report to the US general in command. Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, the extent of genetic damage suffered by inhabitants suggests the use of uranium in some form. He said: "My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside."

The survey was carried out by a team of 11 researchers in January and February this year who visited 711 houses in Fallujah. A questionnaire was filled in by householders giving details of cancers, birth outcomes and infant mortality. Hitherto the Iraqi government has been loath to respond to complaints from civilians about damage to their health during military operations.

Researchers were initially regarded with some suspicion by locals, particularly after a Baghdad television station broadcast a report saying a survey was being carried out by terrorists and anybody conducting it or answering questions would be arrested. Those organising the survey subsequently arranged to be accompanied by a person of standing in the community to allay suspicions.

The study, entitled "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009", is by Dr Busby, Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi, and concludes that anecdotal evidence of a sharp rise in cancer and congenital birth defects is correct. Infant mortality was found to be 80 per 1,000 births compared to 19 in Egypt, 17 in Jordan and 9.7 in Kuwait. The report says that the types of cancer are "similar to that in the Hiroshima survivors who were exposed to ionising radiation from the bomb and uranium in the fallout".

Researchers found a 38-fold increase in leukaemia, a ten-fold increase in female breast cancer and significant increases in lymphoma and brain tumours in adults. At Hiroshima survivors showed a 17-fold increase in leukaemia, but in Fallujah Dr Busby says what is striking is not only the greater prevalence of cancer but the speed with which it was affecting people.

Of particular significance was the finding that the sex ratio between newborn boys and girls had changed. In a normal population this is 1,050 boys born to 1,000 girls, but for those born from 2005 there was an 18 per cent drop in male births, so the ratio was 850 males to 1,000 females. The sex-ratio is an indicator of genetic damage that affects boys more than girls. A similar change in the sex-ratio was discovered after Hiroshima.

The US cut back on its use of firepower in Iraq from 2007 because of the anger it provoked among civilians. But at the same time there has been a decline in healthcare and sanitary conditions in Iraq since 2003. The impact of war on civilians was more severe in Fallujah than anywhere else in Iraq because the city continued to be blockaded and cut off from the rest of the country long after 2004. War damage was only slowly repaired and people from the city were frightened to go to hospitals in Baghdad because of military checkpoints on the road into the capital.

[coldharvest]

So what did the Marines use there?

I tightened that up for you

[Penta]

Well, since it hasn't yet surfaced in US press, I thought the full article might be helpful. It's on Raw Story now, and John Simpson did a brief report, but so far it's mostly sunk. I'd think soldiers or marines who spent any time there would be interested for their own sakes, even if no one cares much about Iraqis, given that the lead researcher thinks that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened".

Here's the study itself:
http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828/pdf

[Naveen]

Leukemia? Yes, that's the expected with ionized radiation

[rdkll]

"During preparatory operations in the November 2004 Fallujah clearance operation, on one night over 40 155mm artillery rounds were fired into a small sector of the city," recalled Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, a British commander serving with the American forces in Baghdad.

He added that the US commander who ordered this devastating use of firepower did not consider it significant enough to mention it in his daily report to the US general in command.

well, sorry, nigel old chap, but 40 rds over 12 hrs for preparatory fire isn't an awful lot.

Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, the extent of genetic damage suffered by inhabitants suggests the use of uranium in some form. He said: "My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside."

maybe this ?

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/pgu-14.htm

it surely does "break through walls and kill those inside."

[coldharvest]

Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, he is willing to pull a guess out of his ass.

[Penta]

Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, he is willing to pull a guess out of his ass.

It's not up to him to decide what caused it, but to find out whether the anecdotal evidence of increased birth defects, infant mortality and cancers is true. He also found a major change in the sex ratio, and adduces evidence (p. 2832) that exposure to uranium is well known to have that effect.

This study was intended to investigate the accuracy of the various reports which have been emerging from Fallujah regarding perceived increases in birth defects, infant deaths and cancer in the population and to examine samples from the area for the presence of mutagenic substances that may explain any results. We conclude that the results confirm the reported increases in cancer and infant mortality which are alarmingly high. The remarkable reduction in the sex ratio in the cohort born one year after the fighting in 2004 identifies that year as the time of the environmental contamination. In our opinion, the magnitude of these effects make it difficult to question them on the basis of any of the hypothetical shortcomings of the study type which we have considered although these must be borne in mind. However, owing to the various constraints placed by circumstance on the methods employed, we must emphasise that the results of this study should be interpreted with those aspects in mind. Finally, the results reported here do not throw any light upon the identity of the agent(s) causing the increased levels of illness and although we have drawn attention to the use of depleted uranium as one potential relevant exposure, there may be other possibilities and we see the current study as investigating the anecdotal evidence of increases in cancer and infant mortality in Fallujah.

[coldharvest]

Dr Busby says that while he cannot identify the type of armaments used by the Marines, he is willing to pull a guess out of his ass.

It's not up to him to decide what caused it, but to find out whether the anecdotal evidence of increased birth defects, infant mortality and cancers is true.

...and so he did.

He also found a major change in the sex ratio, and adduces evidence (p. 2832) that exposure to uranium is well known to have that effect.

...and that's a fine place to start but certainly not the complete answer

[friendlyskies]

Depleted uranium is a weapon with several uses. One of the things it does is make areas where it is used dangerous and stressful to inhabit over the long term, by causing cancers, other illnesses and birth defects. Remember how this was being called "the long war"? These weapons are continuing to do exactly what they were designed to do, years later.

Yes, I know the government's official line is that uranium harvested from operational nuclear power plants isn't dangerous. Because the government never lies about weapons capabilities lol. But specialists who clean up old nuclear sites get worried about one atom of radioactive uranium, they'll be in hazmat suits and still (quite rightly) nervous. These are big fucking chunks of nuclear fuel. Cmon.

[Penta]

...and that's a fine place to start but certainly not the complete answer

I don't understand what your point is. Why would you expect someone doing an epidemiological study to find the complete answer as to causes of mutagenic damage?

Surely it's up to the Iraqi authorities to investigate (or, if they're not capable, the appropriate UN agencies). In the meantime, if DU does turn out to be implicated, as seems likely, perhaps those who use it, and those who regulate such matters, should be taking these results into account in their calculations about whether these are acceptable weapons to use on cities, whether their populations should be prevented or at least discouraged from returning to them and, if so, who should be responsible for rehousing and compensating them.

[Naveen]

Remember how this was being called "the long war"? These weapons are continuing to do exactly what they were designed to do, years later.

Long indeed

Since DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years...

from the link rdkll posted.

Now that's fucking with the environment

[friendlyskies]

Since DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years...

from the link rdkll posted.

Now that's fucking with the environment

Well, kind of. Remember that the measurement for "half life" is more akin to the Richter scale. Anyway, I'm obviously just guessing, but I always got the idea that depleted uranium was a weapon intended to ghettoize an area with strategic/economic value for a generation or two. It's not like a place that's chock-full of pulverized uranium is going to be uninhabitable, just no one with money is going choose to live there. So no money will ever be invested in rebuilding, but it won't get torn down. It becomes a no-man's land.