while we search the skies for UFOs and search beneath cities for hidden installations, we have a genetic crisis brewing on this planet. From depleted uranium, to GMO foods, to coal powered power plant run off, to fracking water pollution, greed and arrogance will change the face of this planet.
This female baby was born on the morning of July 25th, 2013 in Fallujah, Iraq with a case of Icthyosis. Her brother was born late in 2004 and died at age of 13 days with the same illness. The family denied any previous family history of this condition. The birth defects in Iraq are most likely caused by the use of depleted uranium left there by the USA, courtesy of Israel. It is associated with a mutation on the ABCA12 gene. So sad that many innocent adults and children have to suffer these useless wars.
Iraq's environment minister blamed Monday the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces during the 2003 Operation Shock and Awe for the current surge in cancer cases across the country.
As a result of "at least 350 sites in Iraq being contaminated during bombing" with depleted uranium (DU) weapons, Nermin Othman said, the nation is facing about 140,000 cases of cancer, with 7,000 to 8,000 new ones registered each year.
Speaking at a ministerial meeting of the Arab League, she also complained that many chemical plants and oil facilities had been destroyed during the two military campaigns since the 1990s, but the ecological consequences remain unclear. "Our ministry is fledgling, and we need international support; notably, we need laboratories to better monitor air and water contamination," she said. The first major UN research on the consequences of the use of DU on the battlefield was conducted in 2003 in the wake of NATO operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Montenegro.
The UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in its report after the research that DU poses little threat if spent munitions are cleared from the ground. "Health risks primarily depend on the awareness of people coming into contact with DU," UNEP writes in its 2004 brochure "Depleted Uranium Awareness." No major clean-up or public awareness campaigns have been reported in Iraq.
By Lawrence Smallman
Aljazeera
They have ruined the lives of just under 300,000 people during the last decade — and numbers will increase. The reason is simple. Two hundred tonnes of radioactive material were fired by invading US forces into buildings, homes, streets and gardens all over Baghdad.
The material in question is depleted uranium (DU). Left over after natural uranium has been enriched, DU is 1.7 times denser than lead — effective in penetrating armoured objects such as tanks. After a DU-coated shell strikes, it goes straight through before exploding into a burning vapour which turns to dust.
"Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism," says Dr Ahmad Hardan. As a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr Hardan is the man who documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.
Terrible history repeated
"American forces admit to using over 300 tonnes of depleted uranium weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800.
"This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tonnes more in Baghdad alone this April. I don't know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that."
Hardan is particularly angry because he says there is no need for this type of weapon US conventional weapons are quite capable of destroying tanks and buildings.
"In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."
Leukaemia has already become the most common type of cancer in Iraq among all age groups, but is most prevalent in the under-15 category. It has increased way above the percentage of population growth in every single province of Iraq without exception.
Women as young as 35 are developing breast cancer. Sterility among men has increased tenfold.
SOURCE