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Merged Birth defects in Fallujah

Obviously I'm getting cynical in my old age, because the first question that sprang to mind was "is it true?"
 
richardm said:
Obviously I'm getting cynical in my old age, because the first question that sprang to mind was "is it true?"
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That's not cynical, that's skeptical. There is so manythings wrong with this report, it's not even funny.
 
2-3 new cases per day? That may not be the same as "2-3 cases per day". One needs a scientific cataloging of the known cases vs. past years and vs. nearby areas, preferably all done in the same manner.
 
Are there even 2-3 new births a day at that hospital?
 
The report mentioned that rubble got dumped in the river. Outdated industrial plants (using all the stuff that we banned in the west decades ago) blown up and set fire to then the reminants getting into the water supply. That would seem to be a reasonable suspect.
 
My first year through Iraq I had to do a report when DU was starting to get blamed.

It all started when Saddam's propaganda army got pictures of deformed babies (most likely do to his own use of chemical agents and poor control of toxic materials) and blamed it on Desert Storm to garner sympathy from dirty hippies and mothers worldwide. You could get pictures of deformed babies and blame it on wearing gold rings and mothers worldwide will hock them. Deformed babies sell an idea like you wouldn't believe.

From the World Health Organization:

No reproductive or developmental effects have been reported in humans.
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tyr_13 said:
Are there even 2-3 new births a day at that hospital?
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Fallujah's a city of over 400,000. 2-3 births daily wouldn't be surprising, but 2-3 births with horrible defects? If that happened, it would be huge news.
 
Wrathernaut said:
Fallujah's a city of over 400,000. 2-3 births daily wouldn't be surprising, but 2-3 births with horrible defects? If that happened, it would be huge news.
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Not claiming horrible. Extra fingers and toes in at least one case discussed.
 
My first suspicion was that it was just the case where a bunch of researchers were combing through and compiling more thorough statistics than was previously possible. Birth defects may have been a previously undereported phenomenon. It's also important to note that Fallajuh is home to a large refugee population meaning that lots of people from all over the place have gathered there and who knows what predilections they've brought with them and what contagions were picked up along the way. Since the post battle population is largely differently composed than the pre-battle population I'm not entirely sure that anything useful can be discerned by comparing the two.

That said, there could be an environmental component. Cities have all sorts of vile stuff and battles tend to spread and disperse it along with all the other "debris." And who knows what a lot of that stuff does in combination that it might not be capable of singularly.
 
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