By IRNA,
London: A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects and cancers in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by the US assault in 2004.
The research, to be published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health next week, confirms earlier estimates of unexplained rise in cancers and chronic neural-tube, cardiac and skeletal defects in newborns.
According to the Guardian newspaper on Friday, the authors found that malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year,
The report identifies metals as potential contaminating agents afflicting the city, especially among pregnant mothers, and acknowledges that battlefield residues may also be responsible for the defects as happened during the US war in Vietnam.
‘Many known war contaminants have the potential to interfere with normal embryonic and foetal development,’ it says. ‘The devastating effect of dioxins on the reproductive health of the Vietnamese people is well-known.’
The focuses is on depleted uranium, used in rounds of US weaponry during two major assaults on the city as a possible cause of the contaminant.
Scientific studies have so far established no link between the rounds, which contain ionising radiation to burst through armour and are commonly used on the battlefield.
‘We suspect that the population is chronically exposed to an environmental agent,’ said one of the report’s authors, environmental toxicologist Mozhgan Savabieasfahani. ‘We don’t know what that environmental factor is, but we are doing more tests to find out.’
The findings come ahead of a much-anticipated World Health Organisation study of Falluja’s genetic health and follow two alarming earlier studies, including one which found a distortion in the sex ratio of newborns since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a 15% drop in births of boys.
The effects of depleted uranium have long been called into question, with some scientists claiming they leave behind a toxic residue, yet it is still being used in US weaponry.