BAGHDAD — Dr Alim Abdul-Hamid's office at Al Mustanseriya Medical
 College in Baghdad is decorated in bright, cheerful colours, but what he has
 to say is anything but cheerful. Formerly Dean of Basra Medical College,
 Abdul-Hamid has had plenty of first-hand experience with Iraq's
 unprecedented plague of cancers and birth defects.

 “We have seen cases of breast cancer among women in their 20s. In their
 20s!,” says Abdul-Hamid. “This is really tragic, because, you know, in
 America, probably when you come across a case of breast cancer in a
 woman in her late 30s, you would consider that this is a young age for
 cancer, while we see cases of breast cancer in the 20s. There are increased
 incidences of colon cancer, thyroid cancer, in addition to, of course,
 leukaemias and lymphomas.”

 What's the source of this epidemic? According to Abdul-Hamid the problem
 is depleted uranium. Depleted uranium, or “DU”, is an extremely dense,
 heavy metal, and a waste product of atomic bomb production. It has a
 half-life of over 4 billion years. It contains trace amounts of plutonium and is
 60 per cent as radioactive as naturally occurring uranium. The US military
 uses it as ballast in their missiles, and they use it to coat shells and pellets.
 Because of its density, it is armour piercing — so it is used as an anti-tank
 weapon. DU is also aerosolising. When a shell coated with DU hits, it burns,
 releasing uranium oxide dust. This dust then rises in the air, is carried by the
 winds, and contaminates the entire surrounding environment.

 The Pentagon admits to dropping 320 tonnes of DU in Iraq. The
 environmental organisation Greenpeace puts the estimate at over 800
 tonnes. Hospitals throughout Iraq have reported as much as a 10-fold
 increase in overall cancer rates and birth defects over the last 11 years.

 Abdul-Hamid points to an epidemiological study he headed in Basra,
 demonstrating the connection between DU and cancer in Iraq. The study
 looked at five factors: biological plausibility, strength of association,
 incidence rate, increased incidences of cancer among younger children, and
 the dose-response relationship. According to Abdul-Hamid, all these factors
 point to a strong, casual link between DU exposure and cancer in Iraq.

 To test the biological plausibility of their hypothesis, the team of scientists
 studied the types of cancer being reported, most notably leukaemias, and
 explored their relationship to DU. The results strongly indicate a radioactive,
 rather than chemical, contaminant. Explains Abdul-Hamid: “Leukaemia is
 known to be related to radiation. We don't have evidence that leukaemia is
 related to chemicals.”

 Additionally, if the source of the epidemic were chemical, there would have
 been a sharp spike in cancer rates following the Gulf war, followed by rapid
 decreases as the source of the contamination disappeared. In contrast, with
 radiation the strength of association increases as time passes. The fact that
 cancer rates are still increasing at an exponential rate in Iraq strongly implies
 a radioactive source.

 This increase is enormous. According to the study, malignancies and
 leukaemias among children under the age of 15 have more than tripled since
 1990. Whereas in 1990 young children accounted for only 13 per cent of
 cancer cases, today over 56 per cent of all cancer in Iraq occurs among
 children under the age of 5. Abdul-Hamid explains that it isn't just direct
 exposure of the children to the radiation still present in the environment; it's
 also the cumulative exposure of their parents over time. This cumulative
 exposure does permanent damage to parental genes, damage which is then
 passed on to their children.

 Finally, pointing to a map of Basra, Abdul-Hamid highlights the
 dose-response relationship between DU and cancers. “If we look at the
 map of Basra, southern Iraq, and monitor the incidences in different districts
 over time, we can come out with a very important conclusion. And that is
 that areas which have got the higher level of background radiation have
 higher levels of cancers.” These factors overwhelmingly point to DU as the
 source of Iraq's current cancer plague.

 Iraqi doctors aren't the only ones complaining about DU. US veterans are
 upset as well. DU may be a leading cause of the unprecedented levels of
 illnesses effecting Gulf war veterans. “The Pentagon claims that there are no
 significant health effects from exposure to depleted uranium, but their own
 research and documents show that this is not true,” says Charles
 Sheehan-Miles, a Gulf war veteran and former president of the National Gulf
 War Resource Centre. Almost 25 per cent of US soldiers who fought in the
 Gulf war are currently receiving disability benefits from the US Veteran's
 Administration. This is twice the rate of disabilities as among Vietnam
 veterans.

 Unfortunately, DU remains an integral part of the American military arsenal.
 According to Sheehan-Miles, “Depleted uranium, like landmines and cluster
 bombs, is a weapon with effects far beyond the battlefield, with innocents
 and children as the frequent victims. I resent this. As a former American
 soldier, I was trained to protect the innocent, not to kill them.”

 As the United States gears up for a new “Desert Storm” against Iraq, using
 weapons like DU, that is a lesson that more American soldiers, and the
 politicians who command them, should be reminded of.

 The writer is a Muslim-American peace activist, and serves on the
 board of directors for the Education for Peace in Iraq Centre
 (www.saveageneration.org). He is currently in Iraq as part of a Voices
 in the Wilderness (www.vitw.org) peace delegation trying to end the
 war . He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

(The article is from the Jordan Times. It can be read online for a week only at.  http://www.jordantimes.com/Thu/region/region1.htm
Familiar story but it makes a grim point about the exponential increase in health problems over longer time periods due to a combination of
environmental exposure and genetic effects.  There are probably different medical views on this.
Its reference to the discrepencies between known and suspected tonnages of DU in the Gulf War may be worth revisiting in view of suspected use of DU in
guided weapons as well as anti-tank munitions since 1989.  It is a potential model for potential public health effects: effects of suspected use of DU
bombs and missiles in Afghanistan - potentially 2-3 times the known quantities in Iraq, and parts of the Balkans.
Dai Williams
eosuk@btinternet.com)
 

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