Iraq records huge rise in birth defects
The Independent reports (October 14th): It played
unwilling host to one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war. Fallujah's
homes and businesses were left shattered; hundreds of Iraqi civilians were
killed. Its residents changed the name of their "City of Mosques" to
"the polluted city" after the United States launched two massive
military campaigns eight years ago. Now, one month before the World Health
Organisation reveals its view on the legacy of the two battles for the town, a
new study reports a "staggering rise" in birth defects among Iraqi
children conceived in the aftermath of the war.
High rates of miscarriage, toxic levels of lead and mercury
contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects ranging from congenital
heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs have been recorded.
Even more disturbingly, they appear to be occurring at an increasing rate in
children born in Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.
There is "compelling evidence" to link the
increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military assaults, says
Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an
environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public
Health. Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after
British troops invaded, according to the new research.
No comments:
Post a Comment