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The Lancet Volume 351(9103) February 28, 1998 p 657 ------------------------------------------ Does Iraq's depleted uranium pose a health risk? Birchard, Karen ------------------------------------------- The office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights has received a report hypothesising that the current health and environmental problems in Iraq may be linked to US and British weapons left behind after the Gulf War in 1991. The literature review, compiled by Bill Griffin, an Irish petrochemical engineer, with access to material in both the West and Iraq, points out that the mortality rates among children have increased sharply: as many as 500 children a day are dying in Iraq along with cancer rates. He proposes that radioactive waste caused by projectiles containing depleted uranium (DU) may have played a part. DU weapons were developed by the Pentagon in the late 1970s as anti-tank armour-piercing shells but were not used in combat until the Gulf War. DU is a radioactive by-product of the enrichment process used to make nuclear fuel rods and nuclear bombs. The report notes that the death rate per 1000 Iraqi children under 5 years of age increased from 2.3 in 1989 to 16.6 in 1993. Cases of lymphoblastic leukaemia have more than quadrupled with other cancers also increasing "at an alarming rate". In men, lung, bladder, bronchus, skin, and stomach cancers show the highest increase. In women, the highest increases are in breast and bladder cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Diseases such as osteosarcoma, teratoma, nephroblastoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma are also increasing with, according to the review, the most affected being children and young men. Congenital malformations have also increased, as have diseases of the immune system. The review says that a confidential report by the British Atomic Energy Authority in 1991 estimated that at least 40 tonnes of DU were dispersed in Kuwait and Iraq; but according to Greenpeace-based on US government information released under the Freedom of Information Act-"over 300 tonnes of DU mostly in fragmented form (dust) were left on the battlefields in Iraq and Kuwait". The review also quotes a letter from UK's former Defence Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, to Sir David Steel, former Liberal leader, in December, 1994, saying that British troops used 88 DU rounds and that the USA had used much more. The letter also said that the weapons would emit radioactive and toxic substances that "present a health hazard". Karen Birchard -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html