Revelation of information regarding what is called the Gulf War Syndrome among exposed American veterans helped Iraqi researchers and Medical Doctors to understand the nature of the effect of these weapons, and the means required to investigate further into this issue. 

The synergetic impact on health due to the post Gulf War I economical sanctions and DU related radioactive contamination raised the number of casualties in contaminated areas as in southern Iraq. 

Continual usage of DU after Gulf War I on other Iraqi territories through the illegal No-Fly Zones and the major DU loaded Cruise Missiles attack of year 1998, all contributed in making the problem increasingly complex. 

During 2003, military operations conducted in Iraq by the invading forces used additional rounds of DU in heavily populated areas such as Baghdad, Samawa and other provinces. It is only fair to conclude that the environment in Iraq and its population have been exposed continuously to DU weaponry or its contaminating remains, since 1991. 

Accordingly millions of Iraqi’s have received higher doses of radioactivity than ordinary background levels. As a result a multi-fold increase of low level radiation exposure related diseases have been registered since 1995. An increase of children’s leukemia, congenital malformations, breast cancer etc… 

The shift of leukemia incidence rates towards younger children during the recent years, and its association with geographically distributed contaminated areas, offers strong evidence of the correlation between LLR exposure and resulted health damages.

Through this paper, an overview of major scientific DU conclusions will be presented, drawn from investigations and research conducted since the year 1991 by Iraqi researchers and MDs. Schemes of these researches can be classified into three categories: 

1. DU contamination detection and exploration programs.
2. DU effects on human body cells.
3. DU related epidemiological studies.
   

Complete Article

1.0 Introduction: 

Depleted Uranium (DU) weaponry has been used against Iraq since the Gulf War 1 in 1991. Estimated (DU) expenditure of 320 - 800 tons were mainly shot on the withdrawing Iraqi troops from Kuwait to the north of Basrah City. 

The use of (DU) ammunition and bombs on Iraqi territory never stopped  since 1991. Different generations of (DU) supported Tomahawk missiles & Bunker Buster Bombs [3] have been used during the 90’s on what were known as the No Fly Zones (Northern & Southern regions of Iraq), and the 1998 attack on Iraq. 

With the comprehensive sanctions that were imposed on Iraq, the USA & its allies purposely used these radioactive & toxic weapons to exhaust Iraq’s strength & population to prepare for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hundreds of tons of (DU) expenditure were also used during the invasion of Iraq. This was done to worsen the radioactive contamination impact.  Additionally, the occupying forces have forbade any kind of (DU) related exploration programs or research [2]. They have also covered up and denied DU’s damaging health effects, and refused to release information on the amounts, types and locations of these weapons within Iraq. As a consequence, thousands of Iraqi children and their families are suffering from different low level radiation (LLR) related diseases such as congenital malformations, malignancies, congenital heart diseases, chromosomal aberration and multiple malformations.  Women in the contaminated areas suffered high rates of miscarriages and sterility [3].  

Pressure from anti-DU groups and the international community due to the effects of the Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) on Gulf War veterans, helped Iraqi researchers start a series of investigation programs on the contaminated areas to estimate the radiation dose the people in southern Iraq and the  Iraqi troops were exposed to during military engagements in 1991, and assess the level of contamination in the surrounding environment.  

The American administration still claims that the biological and chemical agents of  hydrocarbon smoke of oil field fires in southern Iraq are the main causes behind the (GWS) and not the exposure to the DU [2][4].  This is very false and misleading information.  

The previously published data of the types and amounts of the chemical fumes and hydrocarbons that were released to Iraq’s environment in each Iraqi city due to the 1991 air raids and bombing [5] [6] proves that the areas of  Ta’meem, and Salahiddin were the most polluted cities due to the destruction of mines and huge material and armed forces industries. This resulted in the formation of SOx, NOx, and COx plumes and hydrocarbon smoke clouds. In addition to the  pollution that resulted from the burning of thousands of rubber tires used to mislead Tomahawk missiles off their targets (Table 1).  

Registered cancer cases, congenital malformations and other related diseases are less in these cities than in Basrah [7], which proves that the major cause of the multifold increase of such diseases in the south was the extensive use of DU weapons in 1991 and the following years. 

Table 1: Contaminants Released to the Environment During the Gulf War of 1991 [5] 

        The American and British occupation forces are totally responsible for:

1-      Forbidding any release of statistics related to civilian casualties after the occupation  [8].

2-      Refusal to clean up contaminated areas [9].

3-      Depriving international agencies and Iraqi researchers the right to conduct full (DU) related exploration programs by USA occupation forces [2] to prevent further damages is the best evidence that these forces are covering up their certain conclusive evidence of the harmful health impacts of DU.  

All these acts are crimes against humanity because these weapons are causing undifferentiated harm and suffering to civilians in all contaminated areas. Health effects can range from fatigue and muscular pain to genetic disorder, chromosome aberrations, and malignancies. Existence of DU in the environment will maintain continuous exposure to both toxic and radioactive effects which represent continuous systematic attacks on civilians in an armed conflict  (Article 4 of the official regulations and article 7 of ICC).  

In this paper the genuine scientific efforts of the Iraqi scientists and researchers who tried hard to define and prove the (DU) contaminated areas in southern Iraq and its health consequences will be reviewed. 

Most of these researches couldn’t find their way to international peer-reviewed journals because of the comprehensive sanctions imposed on Iraq, even thought they have been published in Iraqi universities scientific peer-reviewed journals. 

We feel obligated to let the world know that some of these researches cost the authors their lives e.g. Dr. Alim Abdul Hameed Yacoub who was killed, along with his son,  when his car was forced off the highway on the way to his home town of Basrah after being attacked twice at his home by pro-occupation militias two weeks before his death. They cost other researchers their freedom, such as Dr. Huda Ammash who was accused of being (Lady Anthrax) and imprisoned without any real accusation for 3 years. 

The assassination of 250 Iraqi scientists after Iraq’s invasion by occupation militias is the best way not to continue any kind of research including DU-related research [12] in occupied Iraq.

2.0           Schemes of DU related research that have been conducted and published in Iraq (1991-2003): 

We can classify research and studies that have been conducted by Iraqi researchers into the following schemes: 

2.1    Detection and modeling of DU contamination through site measurements and laboratory tests. 

In 1993 the first Iraqi team of researchers from the Iraqi Atomic Commission and  the science college of Baghdad University [7] [13] investigated the increase of DU related radioactivity in selected areas west of Al-Basrah where destroyed tanks and vehicles with DU ammunition were still laying around. The areas were: Northern Rumaila oil fields, Al-Shamia, Kharanje, Rumaila and Jabal Sanam. Exposure measurements revealed the existence of DU contamination in the studied areas. Tables 1, 2, and 3 show the results of these measurements. 

Table (2) Field Measurements at North Rumaila Area [7]

Table (3) Field Measurements at Shamia Airffield /Gudairat al-Audhaimi Area [7]

Table (4) Field Measurements at DMZ and Surrounding Area [7]

 * Exposure measurements (Micro Roentgen/hr)

 In 1996 Al-Azzawi and her team conducted a comprehensive exploration program through the Environmental Engineering Deptartment in Baghdad University [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19] (Al-Azzawi et al).  The program involved taking hundreds of exposure measurements, soil samples, surface waterway channels, sediments and bio-samples from vegetation cover, fish and grazing animal tissues from areas of heavy military engagement during the first Gulf War  like Safwan, Jabal Sanam, al-Zubair, Northern Rumaila oil fields, and Southern Rumaila Oil Fields (Figures 1 and 2). 

Scintillation counters were used for exposure measurements and high purity germanium detectors for soil and sediment samples, surface and ground water samples and bio-samples. 

Selected measurements from exploration program results are shown in (Table 5). Modeling pollution transport from hundreds of destroyed artilleries to surrounding areas showed the following extensions of DU contamination in the area from 1991 – 1996 [17] [18] [19]: 

-          1718 km² of soil contaminated with DU oxides and particles,

-          140,000 m² of channel sediments,

-          845, 100 tons of vegetation cover 

Table 5 : Selected Exposure and Soil Radioactivity Measurements [15] 

Sample Symbol	Location	Type of Sampled Target	Exposure µR/hr	Activity Concentration in Soil (Bq/Kg)
				Th234	U235	U235 / U 238
S-2-2	Northern Jabal Sanam	A1	28.6	3918	41.9