Falluja: Not a legacy to be proud of

The politicians responsible for the Iraq War - think George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard as the principal architects and proponents - may have moved on from office but the after-effects for the people of Iraq continue.....and in some situations with diabolical consequences. The relentless attack on Falluja will not be easily forgotten. All too sadly many of Fallujah's people will "live" with the consequences of what took place in their city.

"A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults that took place six years ago.

The research, which will be published next week, confirms earlier estimates revealed by the Guardian of a major, unexplained rise in cancers and chronic neural-tube, cardiac and skeletal defects in newborns. The authors found that malformations are close to 11 times higher than normal rates, and rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of this year – a period that had not been surveyed in earlier reports.

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."

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