[THS] Scientific study shows soaring cancer rates in Fallujah; DU suspected

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9836-news-scientific-study-shows-soaring-cancer-rates-in-fallujah-du-suspected.html

Scientific study shows soaring cancer rates in Fallujah; DU suspected
Friday, 23 July 2010 06:38 Jim O. Madison

A new epidemiological study published by the International Journal of Environmental
Studies and Public Health (IJERPH) reports that "the people of Fallujah are
experiencing higher rates of cancer, leukemia, infant mortality, and sexual mutations
than those recorded among survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the years after
those Japanese cities were incinerated by U.S. atomic bomb strikes in 1945," WSWS
said Friday.[1]  --  "In a study of 711 houses and 4,843 individuals carried out in
January and February 2010, authors Chris Busby, Malak Hamdan, Entesar Ariabi and
a team of researchers found that the cancer rate had increased fourfold since before
the U.S. attack five years ago, and that the forms of cancer in Fallujah are similar to
those found among the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors, who were
exposed to intense fallout radiation," Tom Eley reported.  --  "In Fallujah the rate of
leukemia is 38 times higher, the childhood cancer rate is 12 times higher, and breast
cancer is 10 times more common than in populations in Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait.
Heightened levels of adult lymphoma and brain tumors were also reported.  At 80
deaths out of every 1,000 births, the infant mortality rate in Fallujah is more than five
times higher than in Egypt and Jordan, and eight times higher than in Kuwait."  --
Also on Friday, Iran's Press TV quoted the Kuwait News Agency in reporting that after
a joint Iraqi study said there were communities near the cities of Najaf, Basra and
Fallujah with increased rates of cancer and birth defects over the past five years, U.K.
Defense Secretary Liam Fox said in a written reply to the House of Commons on
Thursday that "U.K. forces used about 1.9 metric tons of depleted uranium
ammunition in the Iraq war in 2003."[2]  --  A Google News search shows that, as
usual, there is virtually no coverage of this news in any Western mainstream media
outlet (Australia World News is an exception).  --  In the journal abstract, the authors
write that "the results seem to qualitatively support the existence of serious mutation-
related health effects in Fallujah."[3]  --  The full article is available here as an 81KB
PDF file.  --  BACKGROUND:  For the legal case that U.S. use of depleted uranium
and the destruction of Fallujah were crimes of war, see a Nov. 20, 2007, lecture by
Prof. Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign....


CANCER, INFANT MORTALITY AND BIRTH SEX-RATIO IN FALLUJAH, IRAQ 2005-2009
By Chris Busby, Malak Hamadan, and Entesar Ariabi

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)
Vol. 7, No. 7
Pages 2828-37

http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/7/7/2828/

Abstract:  There have been anecdotal reports of increases in birth defects and cancer
in Fallujah, Iraq, blamed on the use of novel weapons (possibly including depleted
uranium) in heavy fighting which occurred in that town between U.S.-led forces and
local elements in 2004.  In Jan/Feb 2010 the authors organized a team of researchers
who visited 711 houses in Fallujah, Iraq and obtained responses to a questionnaire in
Arabic on cancer, birth defects, and infant mortality.  The total population in the
resulting sample was 4,843 persons with and overall response rate was better than
60%.  Relative Risks for cancer were age-standardized and compared to rates in the
Middle East Cancer Registry (MECC, Garbiah Egypt) for 1999 and rates in Jordan
1996–2001.  Between Jan 2005 and the survey end date there were 62 cases of
cancer malignancy reported (RR = 4.22; CI: 2.8, 6.6; p < 0.00000001) including 16
cases of childhood cancer 0-14 (RR = 12.6; CI: 4.9, 32; p < 0.00000001).  Highest
risks were found in all-leukaemia in the age groups 0-34 (20 cases RR = 38.5; CI:
19.2, 77; p < 0.00000001), all lymphoma 0–34 (8 cases, RR = 9.24;CI: 4.12, 20.8; p
< 0.00000001), female breast cancer 0–44 (12 cases RR = 9.7;CI: 3.6, 25.6; p <
0.00000001) and brain tumors all ages (4 cases, RR = 7.4;CI: 2.4, 23.1; P < 0.004).
Infant mortality was based on the mean birth rate over the 4 year period 2006–2009
with 1/6th added for cases reported in January and February 2010.  There were 34
deaths in the age group 0–1 in this period giving a rate of 80 deaths per 1,000 births.
This may be compared with a rate of 19.8 in Egypt (RR = 4.2 p < 0.00001) 17 in
Jordan in 2008 and 9.7 in Kuwait in 2008.  The mean birth sex-ratio in the recent 5-
year cohort was anomalous.  Normally the sex ratio in human populations is a
constant with 1,050 boys born to 1,000 girls.  This is disturbed if there is a genetic
damage stress.  The ratio of boys to 1,000 girls in the 0–4, 5–9, 10–14 and 15–19 age
cohorts in the Fallujah sample were 860, 1,182, 1,108 and 1,010 respectively
suggesting genetic damage to the 0–4 group (p < 0.01).  Whilst the results seem to
qualitatively support the existence of serious mutation-related health effects in
Fallujah, owing to the structural problems associated with surveys of this kind, care
should be exercised in interpreting the findings quantitatively.