The Aftermath of War (con't)

Caution: This blog contains one picture that is very graphic; but, is being used to illustrate the inhumanity of the use of white phosphorus. The US did not admit to using white phosphorus until 2005 - well over one year after the incidences.

New research suggests that birth defect rates in the United States may be highest for women conceiving in the spring and summer. (Credit: iStockphoto/Amanda Rohde)

Theories abound as to what can be the cause of the Fallujah statistics. Possibilities include weapons-related radiation or white phosphorus use, air pollution, psychological stress on the mother, malnutrition, inadequate pre-natal care, unclean drinking water, and any other reason they could come up with.

We know from a 2009 US study published in the medical journal Acta Paediatrica that birth defect rates in the United States were highest for women conceiving in the spring and summer.

With further investigation, the researchers found that this period of increase risk correlated with increased levels of pesticides in surface water across the United States.

White phosphorus is a very controversial weapon.

Wikipedia tells us:

White phosphorus can cause injuries and death in three ways: by burning deep into tissue, by being inhaled as a smoke, and by being ingested. Extensive exposure by burning and ingestion is fatal.
Incandescent particles of WP cast off by a WP weapon's initial explosion can produce extensive, deep second and third degree burns. (See picture below)

Back and shoulder of 15 year-old Ayman al-Najar at the Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He sustained severe injuries from white phosphorus after Israeli bombing of the village Khoza'a.

One reason why this occurs is the tendency of the element to stick to the skin. Phosphorus burns carry a greater risk of mortality than other forms of burns due to the absorption of phosphorus into the body through the burned area, resulting in liver, heart and kidney damage, and in some cases multiple organ failure. These weapons are particularly dangerous to exposed people because white phosphorus continues to burn unless deprived of oxygen or until it is completely consumed. In some cases, burns are limited to areas of exposed skin because the smaller WP particles do not burn completely through personal clothing before being consumed.

By inhalation of smoke

Burning WP produces a hot, dense, white smoke consisting mostly of phosphorus pentoxide. Most forms of the smoke are not hazardous in the likely concentrations produced by a battlefield smoke shell. Exposure to heavy smoke concentrations of any kind for an extended period (particularly if near the source of emission) does have the potential to cause illness or even death.
WP smoke irritates the eyes, mucous membranes of the nose, and respiratory tract in moderate concentrations, while higher concentrations may produce severe burns. However, no casualties have been recorded from the effects of WP smoke alone in combat operations and there are no confirmed deaths resulting from exposure to phosphorus smoke.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has set an acute inhalation Minimum Risk Level (MRL) for white phosphorus smoke of 0.02 mg/m³, the same as fuel oil fumes. By contrast, the chemical weapon mustard gas is 30 times more potent: 0.0007 mg/m³.

By oral ingestion

The accepted lethal dose when white phosphorus is ingested orally is 1 mg per kg of body weight, although the ingestion of as little as 15 mg has resulted in death. It may also cause liver, heart or kidney damage. There are reports of individuals with a history of oral ingestion who have passed phosphorus-laden stool ("smoking stool syndrome").

Fallujah's frontline doctors are reluctant to draw a direct link with the fighting. They instead cite multiple factors that could be contributors.
"These include air pollution, radiation, chemicals, drug use during pregnancy, malnutrition, or the psychological status of the mother," said Dr Qais. "We simply don't have the answers yet."

Other health officials are also starting to focus on possible reasons, chief among them potential chemical or radiation poisonings. Abnormal clusters of infant tumours have also been repeatedly cited in Basra and Najaf – areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used.

The government's lack of capacity has led Fallujah officials, who have historically been wary of foreign intervention, to ask for help from the international community. "Even in the scientific field, there has been a reluctance to reach out to the exterior countries," said Dr Salah. "But we have passed that point now. I am doing multiple surgeries every day. I have one assistant and I am obliged to do everything myself."

Ways we can help:

1) Write your local government official expressing your outrage and demanding that this type of warfare cease. It is the civilians, the women and children who suffer.

2) Contact Amnesty International for great info.

3) Spread the word - by mouth, by blog, by FaceBook, by whatever means you have - and encourage others to write their governmental officials.

4) Write to human aid agencies such as the Red Cross and the United Nations' Humanitarian Affairs demanding they do something to stop the use of these weapons.

5) Write a letter to your editor.

A video of the horrors of white phosphorus being deployed in the Gaza Strip. However, the horrors are the same where ever white phosphorus is used.



Footage of white phosphorus being used in Fallujah in November, 2004.

The Aftermath of War

Photo courtesy: Cause2.

The face of a war that finished several years ago still looms over the people of Iraq. Different areas have been affected differently; but, Fallujah, a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, is one of the hardest hit. Located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad on the Euphrates river, Fallujah has experienced a rapid, heart-breaking rise in birth defects in the last few years – ever since the war ended.

The city of Fallujah has opened a state-of-the-art hospital to help with the staggering amount and array of abnormalities the newborns of the city are presenting.

Statistically, the outcome for Fallujah is grim. The March of Dimes estimates that 6% of babies are born with defects globally; while The Guardian reports that 25% of all babies born at one hospital in Fallujah have birth defects.

Dr. Ayman Qais, director of Fallujah General Hospital and senior specialist, confirmed that there are significant increases in neurotube defects, hydrocephalus, tumors and mutations. Neural tube (neurotube) defects are inadequate closures in the brain and/or spinal cord. Specialists have finally been able to compile statistics that confirm birth defects are occurring at a rate 15 times the pre-war rate.

"We are seeing a very significant increase in central nervous system anomalies. Before 2003 [the start of the war] I was seeing sporadic numbers of deformities in babies. Now the frequency of deformities has increased dramatically."

The number of admissions has soared – from one admission a week (a year ago) to two a day now. "Most are in the head and spinal cord, but there are also many deficiencies in lower limbs," he said. "There is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of less than two years [old] with brain tumours. This is now a focus area of multiple tumours."

This from the Guardian: "The anomalies are evident all through Fallujah's newly opened general hospital and in centres for disabled people across the city. On 2 November alone, there were four cases of neurotube defects in the neo-natal ward and several more were in the intensive care ward and an outpatient clinic."

While the hospital, the newborns and their families fight courageously for their survival, the sad truth is that many just don’t make it. Sky News reports: “At one of the cemeteries in Fallujah, undertaker Mahmoud Hummadi said he usually buries four to five bodies of newborns every day and most of them are deformed.”

Those that are lucky enough to make it face lives full of intensive and expensive care.

Next blog: What many feel the cause of the birth defects is and ways we can help stop use of this controversial “weapon”.


This video contains disturbing images; but, is an excellent depiction of the aftermath of the war and the effects it is still having on the people.




This video has disturbing images. Please view with discretion.



The information given with this video is as follows:

Young women in Fallujah in Iraq are terrified of having children because of the increasing number of babies born grotesquely deformed, with no heads, two heads, a single eye in their foreheads, scaly bodies or missing limbs. In addition, young children in Fallujah are now experiencing hideous cancers and leukaemias. These deformities are now well documented and direct contact with doctors in Fallujah report that:

In September 2009, Fallujah General Hospital had 170 new born babies, 24% of whom were dead within the first seven days and a staggering 75% of the dead babies were classified as deformed.

This can be compared with data from the month of August in 2002 where there were 530 new born babies of whom six were dead within the first seven days and only one birth defect was reported.

Doctors in Fallujah have specifically pointed out that not only are they witnessing unprecedented numbers of birth defects but premature births have also considerably increased after 2003. But what is more alarming is that doctors in Fallujah have said, "a significant number of babies that do survive begin to develop severe disabilities at a later stage".

As one of a number of doctors, scientists and those with deep concern for Iraq, Dr Chris Burns-Cox, a British hospital physician, wrote a letter to the Rt. Hon. Clare Short, M.P. asking about this situation. She wrote a letter to the Rt. Hon.Douglas Alexander, M.P. the Secretary of State of the Department for International Development (a post she had held before she resigned on a matter of principle in May 2003 ) asking for clarification of the position of deformed children in Fallujah.

Via Cause2, Sky News and The Guardian