A new study shows an association between depleted uranium, used by the US during the Iraq war, and the risk of birth defects in Iraqi children.
In the years following 2003, the U.S. military dotted Iraq with over 500 military bases, many of them close to Iraqi cities. These cities suffered the impacts of bombs, bullets, chemical and other weapons, but also the environmental damage of open burn pits on U.S. bases, abandoned tanks and trucks, and the storage of weapons on U.S. bases, including depleted uranium weapons. Here’s a map of some of the U.S. bases:
This map and the other illustrations below have been provided by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the authors of a forthcoming article in the journal Environmental Pollution. The article documents the results of a study undertaken in Nasiriyah near Tallil Air Base. Nasiriyah was bombed by the U.S. military in 2003 and in the early 1990s. Open-air burn pits were used at Tallil Air Base beginning in 2003. See a second map:
Now take a look (do not turn away) at these images of infants who were born between August and September of 2016 to parents who had continuously lived in Nasiriyah. The visible birth defects include: anencephaly (A1 and A2 , B), lower limb anomalies (C), hydrocephalus (D), spina bifida (E), and multiple anomalies (F, G, H). Imagine if these tragic birth defects had been caused by a natural disaster or the misdeeds of the next government targeted by the United States for “regime change” — would not the outrage be widespread and thunderous? But these horrors have a different cause.
Here’s another illustration, of hand and foot abnormalities in children in Nasiriyah, and in the ancient city of Ur, near the U.S. base:
The study now being published found an inverse relationship between the distance one lived from Tallil Air Base and the risk of birth defects as well as of levels of thorium and uranium in one’s hair. It found a positive relationship between the presence of thorium and uranium and the presence of birth defect(s). Thorium is a decay-product of depleted uranium, and a radioactive compound.
These results were found near this particular base rather than dozens of others, not because it is necessarily unique; no similar studies have yet been conducted near each of the other bases. The results found by this study are likely to be identical to results that could be found by a similar study next year, or next decade, or next century, or next millennium, at least in the absence of major efforts to mitigate the damage.
Depleted uranium (DU) weapons were not just stored in Iraq, but also fired in Iraq. Between 1,000 and 2,000 metric tons of DU was fired in Iraq according to a 2007 report by the U.N. Environment Program. While not at the same level, the U.S. military has also poisoned the Washington, D.C., area, among other parts of the United States and the globe with DU. The Pentagon to this day claims the right to use DU. Depleted uranium is permanently hazardous waste from the production of nuclear energy, a source of energy marketed by its lobbyists as environmentally beneficial. Here’s a description of DU from Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group (later renamed “About Face: Veterans Against the War!”) many of whose members are familiar with the damage that DU does to people directly, not just to their offspring:
“Depleted Uranium (DU) is a toxic, radioactive heavy metal that is the waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process when producing nuclear weapons and uranium for nuclear reactors. Because this radioactive waste is plentiful and 1.7 times more dense than lead, the United States government uses DU in munitions/ammunition which are extremely effective at piercing armored vehicles. However, every round of DU ammunition leaves a residue of DU dust on everything it hits, contaminating the surrounding area with toxic waste that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the age of our solar system, and turns every battlefield and firing range into a toxic waste site that poisons everyone in such areas. DU dust can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through scratches in the skin. DU is linked to DNA damage, cancer, birth defects, and multiple other health problems. The United Nations classifies Depleted Uranium ammunitions as illegal Weapons of Mass Destruction because of their long-term impact on the land over which they are used and the long-term health problems they cause when people are exposed to them.”
Not only did bringing DU weapons to Iraq amount to putting “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in Iraq in the name of eliminating “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” but using and storing DU in Iraq arguably violated the Convention on the Prohibition of the Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques. The use of DU was also one part of an illegal war, which in its entirety violated both the UN Charter and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Each element of such a war is illegal. In addition, the use of such weapons violates the Geneva Conventions’ ban on collective punishment, as well as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The use of these weapons was a small part of the damage done to Iraq, its people, its society, and its natural environment by the war. We ought not to require any legal case before offering aid and making reparations. Basic human decency ought to suffice.
This article was originally published at DavidSwanson.org on September 20, 2019.
Boo friggen hoo.
I like many other American citizens was directly exposed to radioactive, and / or toxic materials when working for the federal government in some capacity; whether it be military, and / or civilian contractor etc. In my case it was asbestos, and weapons grade plutonium; not to mention “Red Lead”, and too many other substances to list here. The exposure in my case was the command (CG ship) that I was stationed had asbestos removal during overhaul in NNSY Portsmouth, Va., and construction o the JACADS project on Johnston Atoll in south Pacific. There was also a risk of exposure to the bulk of the world’s conventional WMD arsenal in the latter location. In either location was I afforded adequate warning or protection. Nor was I at all warned about plutonium exposure, and the risks of asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure in the early ’70s, and plutonium exposure was in the mid ’80s. Furthermore it’s not just foreigners its e American & allied military personnel & civilian contractors; it’s everyone directly, and indirectly involved including the offspring. Moreover think of those involved with all of the deadly generational contamination to those directly, and indirectly involved with all of the “mishap” cleanup workers at Chernobyl, Fukushima, not to mention Johnston Atoll, and all of the “Broken Arrows. The leaders of our beautiful beloved planet are, and have always been insane.
I neglected to list, Dugway,NTC, Oak Ridge, Tn, Kwajalein, and Bikini Atolls, and Etowah Island, Semipalatinsk, Lop Nur, Chagai-I Pokhran, Kerguelen Islands, ad somewhere near the southern tip of Africa. etc .There have been thousands of tests,and a hundred times more nuke weapons built not to mention the hundreds of thousands of rounds of Depleted Uranium ordinance..
THOSE who can persuade you to believe absurdities can induce you to commit atrocities while deeming yourselves patriots and saints. (MAXIM)
Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. Therein lies the origins of religion and politics. Which are but ideologies marketed by opportunistic snake bite evangelists and racketeers to those who go through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the cooperation or consent of his deliberate reason.
Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.
The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste,preferring to deify error,if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.
The world is full of injustice, and those who profit by injustice are in a position to administer rewards and punishments. The rewards go to those who invent ingenious justifications for inequality, the punishments to those who try to remedy it.
As the Jester once said; If attacked by a mob of clowns go for the juggler…
In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.
Is there an intelligent man or woman now in the world who believes in the Garden of Eden story? If you find any man who believes it, strike his forehead and you will hear an echo. Something is for rent.
STAND FOR TRUTH
OR LIE WITH FABLES
SET YOUR MIND FREE
IF YOU ARE ABLE
I would like to know who conducted that “study” as I have doubts about its veracity.
These birth defects have been known for years. Independent journalists have been barred, threatened, assaulted by the US army for daring to investigate. These war crimes are genocide, the standard MO of US military, documented in Vietnam by Nick Turse. This comes close to my idea of evil.
You are an example of the spiritual death rampant among Americans.
Sad story… To many war crimes of the American empire…
By the way: we included this site in our news aggregator app (actually available at Amazon app store, later on also on Google Play) for interesting alternative news / information sites. You can download this app here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YJWDTML/
Agent orange was the other one.
Wow, edgy.
Just note my comment was supposed to be a reply to the “boo freakin hoo” edgelord up there.