Fallujah cancer rate up by 3800%

One of the scientists, whose study revealed the devastating effect of US weapons in Fallujah, says in some cases cancer rates were 38 times higher than expected among Iraqis.

Dr. Chris Busby a scientist with a three-member team to conduct a study, titled "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," discussed some if the aspects of the research with Press TV on Saturday.

"In the case of leukemia…we found that the rates of leukemia were 38 times higher than what we expected in the population that we sampled," said Busby, the director of the environmental consultancy agency, Green Audit.

"And we had very high levels, 10-fold and so on levels of childhood caners, breast cancer, lymphomas. All cancer types that were associated with radiation and which were found following the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But actually these were much higher rates and they occurred much sooner after the event," told Press TV.

"And the other thing that we found…was this peculiar sex ratio change which is a sure indicator of genetic damage and which was also found after Hiroshima and Nagasaki," Busby said.

As opposed to a normal population, the plagued Iraqis were shown to have given birth to more females than males, he was quoted last-month by British newspaper The Independent as saying. The proportion, the like of which has been found in Hiroshima, shows genetic damage which affects boys more than girls.

"Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," survey sampled 4,800 people among the residents of the central Iraqi city that came under two wholesale American attacks in 2004.

The US troops have already admitted using phosphorous munitions during the operations.

When asked what kind of weaponry can bring about the extent of genetic damage in Fallujah, he said, "Well, as a scientist, all we can say is that it is a very serious mutagen. And we are not experts in weaponry, but I am something of an expert in effects of uranium and I have to say that all of these findings would be consistent with exposure to variously large amounts of uranium."

"To produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred," he was cited by the daily as saying, referring to the cancers and birth defects.

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US war machine outdid itself in Fallujah

Four-year-old Yousif Hamed and his sister, Inas, both of whom suffer from birth defects, at their home in Fallujah

The toxic trail left by the United States onslaughts on Fallujah in central Iraq is reportedly deadlier than the one besetting Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The findings are part of the study titled "Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009," which was also cited in an article last month by award-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn in British newspaper The Independent.

According to the study, the examination of 4,800 individuals revealed that the city, which was the target of two wholesale American attacks in 2004, bears more instances of infant mortality, cancer and leukemia than what has been reported in the aftermath of the two Japanese cities targeted by US atomic bombs in 1945.

As opposed to a normal population, the plagued Iraqis were also shown to have given birth to more females than males. The proportion, the like of which has been found in Hiroshima, shows genetic damage which affects boys more than girls.

The troops have already owned up to applying phosphorous munitions during the operations.

Cockburn quoted Dr. Chris Busby, among a three-member team behind the study, as saying that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred."

The physician said that the extent of the genetic damage suggested the use of uranium in some form. "My guess is that they used a new weapon against buildings to break through walls and kill those inside."

HN/MB