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Merged Birth defects in Fallujah

Professor Yaffle

Butterbeans and Breadcrumbs
Professor Yaffle
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I was surprised not to see this mentioned (cue someone with a link to make me look like an idiot). Front page of today's Guardian was a story about a large rise in birth defects and cancers in children in Fallujah.

Doctors in Iraq's war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja's over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems - are unprecedented and at present unexplainable.

A group of Iraqi and British officials, including the former Iraqi minister for women's affairs, Dr Nawal Majeed a-Sammarai, and the British doctors David Halpin and Chris Burns-Cox, have petitioned the UN general assembly to ask that an independent committee fully investigate the defects and help clean up toxic materials left over decades of war – including the six years since Saddam Hussein was ousted.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects

Anyone know anything about causation of these types of problems? What are the best guesses about the main factors that might have caused this?
 
I read something similar about returning vets having a higher than normal rate of birth defects. One theory was depleted uranium.
 
Lisa Simpson said:
I read something similar about returning vets having a higher than normal rate of birth defects. One theory was depleted uranium.
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Been looked at but no one found a solid link. Post battle of Falluja was enough of a mess that pinning down any cause would be quite a trick.
 
It could be nothing more than looking for something that wasn't looked for, previously.
 
The other problem with the blame DU aproach is that there was nothing in Fallujah that would make it worthwhile useing the stuff.

Other options would be things like poor nutrition, chemical leaks from damaged stores or stress perhaps.
 
I wa wondering what would be the main source of folate for women in the area, and whether it would have been difficult getting enough during the war. That could account for a higher rate of neural tube defects.
 
In my searches for a genetic cause for my own health problems, I don't now how many times I've read about co-sanguinous parents having genetically diseased children. Almost always from the Arab countries. Perhaps the current 'epidemic' has a social cause- war times made it harder to arrange marriages out of the family, easier path was inside the family, resulting in more co-sanguinous parents?
 
INRM said:
Depleted Uranium is likely the culprit.
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INRM, do you have any stats on the amount of DU that was expended in Fallujah? As compared to anywhere else? Anything definite linking it to these sort of problems? Any other reason to say so?
 
Lisa Simpson said:
I read something similar about returning vets having a higher than normal rate of birth defects. One theory was depleted uranium.
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Don't think that's quite right...

Here's a study that found that the number of birth defects in children born to returning vets was pretty much the same as for the civilian population.

From: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/336/23/1650
..These rates [of birth defects] are similar to those reported in civilian populations. In the multivariate analysis, there was no significant association for either men or women between service in the Gulf War and the risk of any birth defect or of severe birth defects in their children.

plumjam said:
This happened after the first Gulf War too. Oil is much more important than kids though.
http://www.faqs.org/abstracts/Retail...r-in-Iraq.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/70029.stm
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/317/7173/1612/a
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Keep in mind that none of those references points to any actual studies that are double blind and for which peer review has been completed. Lots of anecdotes though.
 
The DoD chased the Gulf War Syndrome for quite a while, and remains frustrated. Last two articles I saw had the same complaint: they could not narrow down/isolate the causal factors to the variety of syndromes reported. There was supposed to be another, multi million dollar study funded (2007 or 2006) but I can't figure out if it was done or not, or is ongoing.

As to Fallujah, as that was not armored warfare, in the main, the amount of DU fired would be minimal, compared to the vehicle intensive battles in 2003.

But it would not be zero, and the other problem of burning vehicles that had been lit up by DU, and the particulate hazard is still worth investigating.

DR
 
casebro said:
In my searches for a genetic cause for my own health problems, I don't now how many times I've read about co-sanguinous parents having genetically diseased children. Almost always from the Arab countries. Perhaps the current 'epidemic' has a social cause- war times made it harder to arrange marriages out of the family, easier path was inside the family, resulting in more co-sanguinous parents?
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No. Islam doesn't allow brother sister marriages and cousin couples would take more than one generation for the problems to really show up. If anything I would expect the displacement to actualy drive the rate down someone as all the long arangements within families get broken down.
 
Professor Yaffle said:
I wa wondering what would be the main source of folate for women in the area, and whether it would have been difficult getting enough during the war. That could account for a higher rate of neural tube defects.
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Possible. Would depend if the authorities spotted the risk and decided to take actions to mitigate it.
 
Darth Rotor said:
The DoD chased the Gulf War Syndrome for quite a while, and remains frustrated. Last two articles I saw had the same complaint: they could not narrow down/isolate the causal factors to the variety of syndromes reported. There was supposed to be another, multi million dollar study funded (2007 or 2006) but I can't figure out if it was done or not, or is ongoing.
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Is there evidence that there is actualy a Syndrome at all, or is this like silicone breast implants, that everyone who got sick after the war blamed the war?
 
ponderingturtle said:
The DoD chased the Gulf War Syndrome for quite a while, and remains frustrated.
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Is there evidence that there is actualy a Syndrome at all, or is this like silicone breast implants, that everyone who got sick after the war blamed the war?
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That's quite possible. There's been at least one study which has shown that the rate of deaths due to illness has been the same for gulf war vets vs. non-vets.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/335/20/1498
 
Increased birth defects in Falluja

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8548707.stm

A worrying report on BBC.co news suggests there has been a major increase in birth defects since the US attack on Falluja.
Is this another unintentional form of "friendly fire", or merely the sort of statistical aberration which occurs after major social change, involving population movement, better reporting, and (ironically) improved medical care?

The new hospital is US paid for. Most doctors there, according to John Simpson, were reluctant to talk. The official line is 2-3 abnormal cases a year. One paediatrician however, said 2-3 cases per day.

Shades of "Gulf war syndrome" and "Agent Orange". It is officially denied that spent uranium was used there. It seems a proper investigation is needed to establish the truth- is this a result of the war or something else entirely?
 
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