NEW DELHI: There has been a staggering rise in birth defects among children born in Fallujah and Basra after bombing and occupation by the invading US led forces, a new study reports. The defects are being caused by presence of abnormal amounts of lead, mercury and even uranium in the bodies of both parents and their afflicted children. These and other highly poisonous substances come from bullets and bombs used by the occupying forces.
In Fallujah, which saw two intense rounds of bombing by US air force and door to door fighting in 2004, more than half of all babies surveyed were born with a birth defect between 2007 and 2010, the study reported. Pre-war rates were about 10 percent. Miscarriage rates shot up to over 45 percent of all pregnancies surveyed in the two years after the 2004 bombing, up from only 10 percent before the bombing. Between 2007 and 2010, one in six of all pregnancies ended in miscarriage.
In Basrah, the "occurrence of congenital birth defects increased by an astonishing 17-fold in the same hospital", the study reported. Before the occupation, during 1994-95, the number of birth defects per 1,000 live births in Al Basrah Maternity Hospital was 1.37. In 2003, the number of birth defects had risen to 23 per 1,000 live births.
The study was carried out by a group of doctors from University of Michigan in collaboration with doctors from Iraq and Iran. It is published in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination & Toxicology.
The most common birth defects found were in the heart, neural tube and cleft lip. It is well established that toxic metals cause folate deficiency and oxidative stress on fetuses leading to birth defects of these kinds.
The rsearchers took samples of hair and toe nails from the affected children and their parents. The samples were tested for a variety of metals. The results were chilling. The enamel portion of the deciduous tooth from a child with birth defects from Al Basrah had
nearly three times higher lead than the whole teeth of children living in unimpacted areas. Their parents had 1.4 times higher lead levels in tooth enamel compared to parents of normal children.
In Fallujah, lead levels were five times higher and mercury levels six times higher among children with birth defects compared to normal children. Uranium levels were also found to be higher among such children. Lead, mercury and depleted uranium are used in manufacture of ammunition that was deployed in the Iraq occupation although US has deniede it used depleted uranium or white phosphorus based ammunitions.
World Health Organisation is scheduled to bring out a report on Fallujah next month which, it is widely believed, will reiterate these findings.
While there is no estimate of the amount or type of bombs and bullets used in the Iraqi occupation, a US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report had put the figure of bullets used at a mind boggling 6 billion between 2002 to 2005. That worked out to about 250,000 bullets for every enemy soldier shot by the US and its allies in Iraq.
Earlier studies in other Iraqi towns like Al Ramadi, and by other researchers in Croatia have shown that heavy bombardment and fighting with small arms causes introduction of metals into the environment which ultimately lead to severe birth defects.
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