Depleted Uranium Contamination is Still Spreading in Iraq

http://truth-out.org/news/item/15168-depleted-uranium-contamination-is-still-spreading-in-iraq



Depleted Uranium Contamination is Still Spreading in Iraq
Tuesday, 19 March 2013 13:45
By Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report

In 2012, European researchers visited a scrap metal site in Al Zubayr, an area near Basrah in southern Iraq. A local police officer told them that the site had at one time held military scrap metal from the bloody battles waged during the American invasion. A local guard told the researchers that children had been seen playing on the scrap during that time, and both adults and children had worked disassembling the military leftovers. At one point, the guard said, members of an international organization with equipment and white suits showed up, told guards that the site was very dangerous and "quickly ran off."

The researchers, working with the Dutch peace group IKV Pax Christi, with funding from the Norwegian government, visited areas in Iraq where depleted uranium contamination had been reported by Iraqis and international observers. Depleted uranium is a chemically toxic and radioactive heavy metal produced as a waste product of the nuclear power industry. Depleted uranium was used in armor-piercing munitions fired by US and Coalition forces during both the 2003 invasion and the 1991 Gulf war in Iraq.

There are between 300 and 365 sites where depleted uranium contamination was identified by Iraqi authorities the years following the 2003 US invasion, with an estimated cleanup cost of $30 million to $45 million, according to a report recently released by IKV Pax Christi. Iraqi authorities are currently cleaning up the sites, mostly located in the Basrah region, and 30 to 35 sites still need to be decontaminated.

The health impacts of depleted uranium have been subject to international debate since the 1991 Gulf war in Iraq, and the US and British governments have disputed allegations that their weapons have poisoned soldiers and civilians and caused increased rates of cancer and birth defects. Depleted uranium is 40 percent less radioactive than uranium in its natural form, but the heavy metal is toxic and can potentially cause kidney damage, according to the US Department of Defense.



unhappycamper comment: Pictures of children born in Basra with birth defects --> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=590&q=basra+birth+defects&oq=basra+birth+defects&gs_l=img.3..0i24.1849.7464.0.8142.19.9.0.10.10.0.209.1119.2j6j1.9.0...0.0...1ac.1.7.img.T8up5Z9yobk