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Cancer
Spreads Like Wildfire In Iraq
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A library photo for an Iraqi child infected with cancer
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BAGHDAD,
July 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Cancer and birth
defects have been spreading like wildfire in Iraq since the 1991
US-led Gulf War, prompting doctors to describe them as the Iraqi
version of flu.
Depleted
uranium (DU) used by the United States and its allies against Iraq has
taken its toll on around 120,000 to 140,000 Iraqis, according to the
latest estimates released by the Iraqi health ministry.
With
Iraq becoming an almost radioactive toxic wasteland, the number of
birth defects and cancer-infected Iraqis is on the rise day in and day
out due to the lingering effects of the deadly nuclear substance, the
London-based Al-Quds Press news agency reported Tuesday, July 27.
Dr
Abdul Kazimi, director of Baghdad only nuclear medicine hospital, said
7500 Iraqis are being infected with cancer ever year.
The
substance is also blamed for the so-called Gulf
War Syndrome, the
still-unexplained malady that has reportedly plagued hundreds of
thousands of Gulf War veterans.
Press
reports say about 100,000 tons of DU munitions had been used in the
Desert Storm military operation, the first time such a weapon was used
in a warfare.
On
January 16, 1991, the US launched its allied Desert Storm military
operation to liberate Kuwait.
The
unprecedented US-led aerial bombardment and DU armor-piercing shells
forced the Iraqi troops to desperately retreat from Kuwait on February
27.
Aggravated
Abdul
Hamid Khalifa, an Iraqi specialist on carcinogens, said the crippling
13-year-old US sanctions slapped on Iraq after the war have made
matters worse.
"It
is a disaster in the broad sense of the word that has slipped out of
control," he said.
"Cases
of cancer-infected Iraqis started emerging following the 1991 Gulf War
with most of the cases concentrating in the south and women taking the
brunt."
The
specialist added that infantry troops were identified as receiving the
highest exposures to DU radiation.
He
further said that contaminated water, expired imported food stuff and
devastated health infrastructure added insult to injury.
Khalifa
stressed that environmental pollution is causing 70 percent of cancer
cases and food 30 percent.
Farras
Abd, an Iraqi citizen whose uncle is a DU victim, said prayers are his
one and only option.
"The
hospital is running out of medicine and can’t cope with the
increasing number of cancer patients, who can’t afford traveling
abroad for treatment," he noted.
Deadly
Substance
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The surge in birth defects in Iraq is also blamed on DU
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According
to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), depleted uranium
is a highly dense metal that is the byproduct of the process during
which fissionable uranium used to manufacture nuclear bombs and
reactor fuel is separated from natural uranium.
Uranium,
a weakly radioactive element, occurs naturally in soil and water
everywhere on Earth, but mainly in trace quantities.
A
second, potentially more serious hazard is created when a DU round
hits its target.
As
much as 70 percent of the projectile can burn up on impact, creating a
firestorm of ceramic DU oxide particles.
The
residue of this firestorm is an extremely fine ceramic uranium dust
that can spread by the wind, inhaled and absorbed into the human body
and absorbed by plants and animals, becoming part of the food chain.
Once
lodged in the soil, the munitions can pollute the environment and
create up to a hundredfold increase in uranium levels in ground water,
according to the UNEP.
DU
is said to be radioactive for about 4 thousand years.
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