Iraqis
Blame US Depleted Uranium
For Surge In Cancer
By RIA Novosti
25 July, 2007
RIA
Novosti
CAIRO — 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.
© 2007 RIA Novosti
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