GUARDIAN.CO.UK – The following correction was printed in the Guardian’s Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday 5 January 2011
The story below reported the authors of a study as saying that birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults in 2004, and added by way of background that this suggestion might add to the dispute over whether rounds containing depleted uranium have residual effects. But a line of explanation went wrong in saying that such rounds “contain ionising radiation to burst through armour”. As readers with expertise in this area noted, it is not the radiation emitted by this substance that makes it penetrate armour. Rather, depleted uranium is used because of its density and its melting point, one of whose effects is to produce heat and therefore fires or explosions upon high-speed impact.
A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.
The research, which will be published next week, confirms earlier estimates revealed by the Guardian of a major, unexplained rise in cancers and chronic neural-tube, cardiac and skeletal defects in newborns. The authors found that malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year – a period that had not been surveyed in earlier reports.
The findings, which will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come prior to a much-anticipated World Health Organisation study of Falluja’s genetic health. They follow two alarming earlier studies, one of which found a distortion in the sex ratio of newborns since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a 15% drop in births of boys.
Click to read full article on link between rise in Falluja birth defects and cancer, and US assault.
Article by Martin Chulov
Photograph by US Army/Flickr
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