Children of Fallujah: DU Victims

An informational video about DU

First spotted on Uruknet, see below a report from New Weapons Committee on increased cases of birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq. This is of utmost importance.

Imperialist interventions cause more than economic and social destructions of societies, lasting decades or more. Those forms of destruction alone are immensely costly. But, of late, the U.S. and western European interventions such as in Yugoslavia, in Iraq (both in 1991 and in 2003), in Afghanistan, and now in Libya too, have brought with them a form of destruction that is of the most maliciously sinister nature. We are of course referring to the use of uranium munitions in all these aggressive imperialist military interventions.

Use of uranium munitions is a war crime according to the most acceptable rules of war proposed by international law; laws that have determined that use of agent orange, white phosphorous bombs or other chemical agents are similarly war crimes.

Depleted uranium (DU; which is NOT depleted of radioactive toxicity) is a radioactive waste from nuclear reactors. The U.S. and other countries that use nuclear reactors for energy production produce tons upon tons of depleted uranium each year. Storing this waste product safely has always been a huge problem for such countries.

In the U.S., to the extent that any conscious industrial planning has existed, it has been centered on military development. Increasingly, and naturally, all problems are addressed militarily. To address the 'storage' problems of depleted uranium, which is a very hard heavy metal, most western weapons manufacturers are currently using depleted uranium in the production of munitions (as well as armor for tanks, etc.), which adds immense 'kill power' to those munitions.

However, upon impact, the depleted uranium contained in the munitions explode into millions of dust particles that disperse into the air, settle down into the soil, or come back down in the rain, and in all cases eventually contaminate all soil, water and food. The radioactivity of depleted uranium remains immensely toxic for thousands of years.

Increase of birth defects and miscarriages in Fallujah
Newweapons Press release

Increase in time of birth defects and miscarriages in Fallujah since 2003 and its association with toxic metals load in the population and in newborns and children with birth defects and their families

We present here a full scientific investigation on the birth defects increase in Falluhja. Unusually high frequency of birth defects and miscarriages was observed over the years following 2003, with gradual increase since then and with birth defects frequencies not decreasing up to November 2010.

For 2010, medical sources in Falluhja reported to us 14.7% of birth defects. This is about 10 folds higher compared to the frequencies in the same families in the years 1991-2001. Also miscarriage rates have increase considerably over the time from 2003.
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The authors report that absolute levels of teratogenic and carcinogenic contaminants (Vanadium, Cobalt, Molybden, Uranium and Lead) were significantly higher in Iraqi than in controls from other areas, with Lead levels in children with birth defects and Uranium in their parents higher respectively than that in other newborns or parents of normal Falluhja children.

The composite metal load might be a major factor in the increase in time of events that lead to birth defects and miscarriages registered in the last years.
[...]

Read the complete press release here ...