US arms raise birth defects in Fallujah

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120029§ionid=351020201


Iraqi doctors and parents accuse the US military of using unconventional arms in its operations in the city of Fallujah, causing a high level of birth defects among children in the city.

Hospital officials and people in Fallujah say they noticed two or three cases of birth defects each day since US forces crushed two uprisings in the city in 2004, the BBC quoted a doctor as saying on Thursday.

But the US military said it was not aware of any official reports showing an increase in birth defects in the area, repeating claims that it always took public health concerns about any population living in a battle zone "very seriously."

"No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues," said US Military Health System Communications Director Michael Kilpatrick, noting unexploded ordinance, including improvised explosive devises, as a recognized hazard.

Local people blame the weapons used by the US troops during the fighting while doctors in US-funded hospitals recently put up in Iraq seem too scared to speak out about the problem.

The Iraqi government does not want to create trouble for the Americans with the figures showing no more than two or three cases of birth defects a year more than normal in Fallujah.

But pediatricians speaking to the BBC confirmed as many as two or three cases of birth defect a day, which would amount to some 1,000 cases of such cases — mostly cardiac problems — a year.

While the doctors blame the ordeal on the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used against Fallujah six years ago, it is further illuminating to know the rubble from the damaged buildings was bulldozed into the river which has been supplying Fallujans with their drinking water ever since.