12月30日『ガーディアン』：（Martin Chulov記者）
「ファルージャでの先天性異常や癌の増加は、米軍による攻撃が原因か—新たな調査が示唆」
新生児異常は平均の１１倍：2004年の攻撃による汚染が原因か
記事全文は、http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/30/faulluja-birth-defects-iraq
・今回の調査結果は、来週発行されるThe International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Healthで発表されるもの。
［注：調査に関わっている環境毒物学者Mozhgan Savabieasfahani博士の言葉が記事の中で引用されていますが、Savabieasfahani博士は、アメリカ・ミシガン州をベースとするイラン人で、Pollution and Reproductive Damage: Pollution induced cell-death and reproductive damage in fish and mammals（2009）を発表しています。］
・ 今年５月、ファルージャで生まれた547新生児のうち15%に深刻な先天性異常があり、同時期に生まれた赤ん坊の11%が妊娠後30週を経ずに出産され、14%が流産であった。
・ 住民は有害な環境因子に慢性的に曝されていると推測される。その因子が何かはまだ特定できていないが、テストを続行中である。さらなる調査への支援に関心をもつ科学者・財団などは、bahar@umich.edu にコンタクトしてほしい。
・ WHOによる調査は、バイアスのないものとはならないであろう。［WHOは、今年の夏から一年半の予定で、ファールジャにおける先天性異常増加に関する調査を開始しています。］
参照：”WHO suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium, expert says,” the British Medical Journal, November 2006 (11; 333(7576): 990)— www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635642/
［以下、記事原文抄録］
The findings, which will be published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, come prior to a much-anticipated World Health Organisation study of Falluja’s genetic health. They follow two alarming earlier studies, one of which found a distortion in the sex ratio of newborns since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – a 15% drop in births of boys.
“We suspect that the population is chronically exposed to an environmental agent,” said one of the report’s authors, environmental toxicologist Mozhgan Savabieasfahani. “We don’t know what that environmental factor is, but we are doing more tests to find out….”
“City’s spike in deformity rates
“Birth-defect rates in Falluja have become increasingly alarming over the past two years. In the first half of 2010, the number of monthly cases of serious abnormalities rose to unprecedented levels. In Falluja general hospital, 15% of the 547 babies born in May had a chronic deformity, such as a neural tune defect – which affects the brain and lower limbs – cardiac, or skeletal abnormalities, or cancers.
“No other city in Iraq has anywhere near the same levels of reported abnormalities. Falluja sees at least 11 times as many major defects in newborns than world averages, the research has shown…”
“… In May, 15% of the 547 babies born had serious birth defects. In the same period, 11% of babies were born at less than 30 weeks and 14% of foetuses spontaneously aborted. “
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Below:
12 photos of babies born in 2010 in Fallujah General Hospital. (The dates on some photos notwithstanding, they are all from 2010).
More independent biomedical investigation of Iraqi war victims is needed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is unlikely to conduct any unbiased study: See the British Medical Journal in November 2006 (11; 333(7576): 990), in an article entitled “WHO suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium, expert says”, on the internet at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635642/
Those scientists or foundations who wish to enable further research into the Fallujah epideomic of birth defects may contact bahar@umich.edu