"All the World's a Stage We Pass Through" – R. Ayana

Showing posts with label leukaemia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leukaemia. Show all posts

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Dirty Electricity + the Link to Cancer

Dirty Electricity + the Link to Cancer

Modern Humans are Bathed in Electromagnetic Fields

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By Donna Fisher

“Today it is quite widely accepted that these EMFs can cause childhood leukaemia. There is some evidence that other childhood cancers may be related to EMF exposure...”

History has shown that the western world with its vested interests is slow to inform citizens about toxic agents and help protect them. The "dirty electricity" pandemic is no stranger to inaction, as were the asbestos, lead, acid rain, DDT, PCB and tobacco-smoking public health issues before it. The contention that artificially created electromagnetic fields (EMFs) which emanate from electricity generation can cause cancer has medical and legal experts commenting that EMFs will dwarf the tobacco-smoking issue and the asbestos crisis combined.

This health issue has a history replete with destroyed careers and tarnished reputations involving scientists who have sought to help the people, and with so-called experts who have colluded with the forces going against the precautionary principle of public health: first, do no harm.

In his assessment for the journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health in the UK, Dr Stephen J. Genuis reported that vested interests have been effective in delaying restrictive EMF legislation. He also noted that claims of environmental harm have been challenged by researchers who fail to disclose covert ties to industry, that economic interests exert undue influence on medical journals, and that some editors and journal staff have suppressed publication of scientific results that are adverse to the interests of industry.1

Professor Mark Ellwood, who was installed by the Australian federal government in the most elevated position in the nation as Director of the National Cancer Control Initiative to provide advice and make recommendations to the government and other key groups regarding cancer control, submitted expert witness reports for the power companies (and telecommunications companies) for court cases. Professor Andrew Wood, installed by the federal government in another position that serves to protect [Australians] — ARPANSA, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Administration — also submits expert witness reports for the power industry for court cases. Professor Wood is currently chair of the ELF (extremely low frequency) Standard Working Group for the ARPANSA Radiation Health Committee.

It was not until 1979 that the western world took notice that these silent, invisible EMFs may be hazardous. Epidemiologist Dr Nancy Wertheimer and electrical engineer Ed Leeper conducted a study in Denver, Colorado, USA, and reported that children who were twice or three times as likely to have leukaemia tended to live in homes close to power lines and transformers.

Their results, published in a scientific paper, showed an increased incidence of leukaemia, lymphomas and nervous system tumours in children.2 Their hotly debated research had an immediate effect: in response to public opposition to the construction of new high-voltage power lines, the electricity industry convened an expert panel of eminent and conservative medical scientists. Included in this panel was Professor David Carpenter, from the Department of Public Health at New York University, and Dr David Savitz, one of America's most respected epidemiologists. Professor Carpenter's original scepticism was overturned when the Wertheimer and Leeper study, originally heavily criticised as flawed, was extended and improved. It confirmed a significantly increased risk of leukaemia.3

The reason why childhood leukaemia is studied is because the strongest evidence for a cancer is that the same cancer is significantly elevated in children.

In 2001, leading occupational medical epidemiologist Dr Sam Milham, MPH, and E. M. Ossiander, of the Washington State Department of Health, Olympia, researched the rise of electrification in the UK and USA and concluded that the childhood leukaemia peak of common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was attributable to residential electrification: 75 per cent of all childhood acute lymphoplastic leukaemia and 60 per cent of all childhood leukaemia could be preventable.4 In 2007, Professor Michael Kundi reported that up to 80 per cent of all cases of childhood leukaemia may be caused by exposure to these fields.5

It was reported as early as the 1960s (Court-Brown and Doll) that a new leukaemia-causing agent entered the UK and USA in the 1920s–1930s.6 Today it is quite widely accepted that these EMFs can cause childhood leukaemia. There is some evidence that other childhood cancers may be related to EMF exposure, but not enough studies have been done.7

Wertheimer and Leeper were the first to see a magnetic field–breast cancer connection in their 1982 study of residential magnetic field exposures of adults.8 Even though this study looked at overall cancer risk in adults and found an increase in excess cancers of the nervous system, uterus and lymphoid tumours, "they discovered a nearly threefold increase among women younger than 55 who lived near power lines, indicating that magnetic field exposure had accelerated development and growth of breast cancer".9

Breast tissue (along with foetal tissue) is the most sensitive tissue in the body and also the most sensitive to artificial (man-made) radiation, which is why any study into breast cancer has significant ramifications for all of us. Breast cancer is a very-high-risk disease for women today. The contention that EMFs are a risk factor, let alone a causative factor, in female breast cancer has been heavily resisted. When individual cases of breast cancer or breast cancer clusters in women occur, various reproductive factors are also taken into account which can mask the role that EMFs play.

When, in 2001, three men in one small office developed breast cancer, Dr Sam Milham testified for the men in their 2003 court case, arguing that their cancers were caused, in part at least, by EMFs emanating from an electrical vault next to a basement office where the men worked.10 In 1997, Dr Thomas Erren, MPH, had noted that an association between ELF EMFs and breast cancer is supported in men.11

In 2002, even the Washington, DC, legal counsel for electricity utilities worldwide conceded in a privileged attorney–client communication that the stance of the power industry had to change.12 Studies are normally conducted on exposed and unexposed subjects, but with these EMFs we are all exposed, making a definitive cause hard to prove. Also, it would be unethical to expose people to high measurements of these EMFs to prove the case. People don't welcome having to change convenient lifestyles, and, when doubt and confusion are introduced, the public is often quick to disregard the importance of data that makes changing ingrained habits a requirement.

There have been thousands of studies of EMFs, more so than with any other health issue. In 1997, Dr Erren commented that there are more epidemiological studies that link cancer to these fields than to environmental tobacco smoke.13 We are all concerned about the infiltration of chemicals into our wider and more personal environments, yet an analysis of 65 studies reported that the combined effects of toxic agents together with EMFs enhance the damage as compared to the toxic exposure alone.14

In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it is "reasonable and warranted" to lessen exposure to these ELF EMFs, "[p]rovided that the health, social and economic benefits of electric power are not compromised"15—information that will take decades to be acted upon around the globe.

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EMFs and Cancer Clusters

Fifty-three people in a small post office in Capalaba,
Brisbane, Australia, with an old electricity substation next door, were diagnosed with serious and fatal diseases by 2000, although staff had started to take notice of the disease patterns in the early 1990s. Investigation of the electrical environment was incomplete, and there is still no resolution to this situation today.

When research is conducted into these disease clusters, often it's the case that measurements are taken after hours when the electrical environment has changed or that investigations are conducted after extensive remedial electrical work has been completed.
Often the cancers are put down to "random chance" or "coincidence".

However, in the case of the breast cancer cluster involving 17 women working in a small area within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV studios in Toowong, Brisbane, the cancers, which were diagnosed between 1995 and 2006, were thought to be workplace-related but no cause could be found. In early 2005, the women pinpointed the area which they thought was in question. A private firm, EMC Technologies, took radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation measurements in April 2005 and concluded that all the work areas surveyed complied with the ARPANSA RPS3 standard,16 but it wasn't until 18 December 2006 that ARPANSA investigated the premises for ELF EMFs. Within three days, the ABC staff were no longer working on the premises.

The specific measurements of ELF EMFs in the area pinpointed by the staff were not mentioned in the ARPANSA report.17 Complete and precise measurements of ELF EMFs as well as transient EMFs should have been taken in the area. Professor Bruce Armstrong led the ABC's own investigation into the cancer cluster in 2006, looking at other breast cancer risk factors such as reproductive, lifestyle and age factors. When questioned on national television in August 2007 on this breast cancer cluster and the frustration of some of the women who felt that the proper investigations were not carried out before all the equipment was taken out, he stated: "It is very important to do the investigations properly, and indeed we did have a problem with the ABC with the fairly quick decision to remove people from the site. It did mean that some of the measurements we wanted to do were not complete, and I do understand how the women feel in that respect; they don't feel that it's been done satisfactorily..."18

This breast cancer cluster came close to showing the world that EMFs can cause breast cancer. Even though further analysis was not conducted on male staff in this workplace, the possibility does exist that prostate and/or testicular cancers may have been present or may develop in the future. If complete measurements of all aspects of the electrical environment had been taken, this could have been a win-win situation for all citizens of the world: the women could have known what caused their breast cancer and (along with every other woman and man) would have been able to ensure that their next working environment was safe; ABC TV would have been the perfect medium to spread the much-awaited information across the globe; and the ABC itself would have been commended on its groundbreaking achievement in helping millions of people (and scientists) throughout the world understand EMFs more fully. It also could have enabled the process of workplace reform to be instigated.

These cancer clusters serve to show us what is happening silently on a daily basis in everyone's lives. The adults and children of today have already been affected by these EMFs. Miscarriage, stillbirth, pre-term delivery, altered gender ratio and congenital abnormalities have been linked to maternal exposure.19 Testicular abnormalities, atypical sperm, chromosomal aberrations and offspring congenital defects have all been linked to paternal exposure.20

Fathers employed in industries with higher than average EMF exposure have also been noted to have offspring with higher rates of brain and spinal cord tumours.21
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The Perils of Dirty Electricity

Any harmful EMFs can be classed as "dirty" — to put into common idiom the scientific and technical language that accompanies this public health issue—yet there is another facet of electricity, termed "dirty electricity", that is now seen as even more of a threat to our health than the electromagnetic fields mentioned above. It is not only the fields from power lines and substations that can be a concern; dirty electricity is running through virtually every building on the planet.

An even more prevalent and insidious agent, this secretive and subtle underlying menace is in all probability one cause of the dramatic increase in many illnesses and cancers. Dr Sam Milham stated in 2008: "Very recently, new research is suggesting that nearly all the human plagues which emerged in the twentieth century, like common acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children, female breast cancer, malignant melanoma and asthma, can be tied to some facet of our use of electricity. There is an urgent need for governments and individuals to take steps to minimize community and personal EMF exposures."22

In 1994, the B Armstrong et al. study relating to dirty electricity was published.23 However, it was not until 2005, when Dr Sam Milham and electrical engineer Lloyd Morgan came out of retirement due to their concern over a cancer cluster, that information worthy of creating a paradigm shift finally began to emerge, with the results having serious implications for all of us. (These brave researchers had honourable intentions and impressive credentials.24 Dr Sam Milham in 1982 was the first to link workers exposed to EMFs with higher rates of leukaemia. Lloyd Morgan, a brain tumour survivor and a director of the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS), introduced the Benign Brain Tumor Registries Amendment Act into US Congress that became law in 2002. Along with breast cancer, leukaemia and diseases of the central nervous system, brain tumours are among the diseases that are more prominent in this health issue.)

The researchers were responding to alarm over a cluster of 18 cancers reported in 2003 among the 137 teachers at a middle school in California. Even though the school district administration had refused a number of requests for these men to assist in the evaluation of this cluster, one teacher invited these researchers to visit the school after hours to take measurements of the electrical environment, which they did at their own expense. When the researchers reported their findings to the Superintendent of Schools, Dr Milham was threatened with prosecution for "unlawful...trespass" and the teacher who had invited them into the school received a letter of reprimand.

The teachers then filed a California OSHA (Occupational Safety Health Administration) complaint, which ultimately led to the progressive California Department of Health Services (CDHS) becoming involved. The CDHS measured the different facets of the electrical environment and provided Milham and Morgan with the data, which showed that dirty electricity—"transients", which are radio-frequencies riding along electrical wiring—was involved. Finally, this was a study that was conducted with the highest integrity, able to break through the red tape and politics that usually accompany the problem of harmful electrical environments. Of immense importance, Milham and Morgan commented that transients may be a universal carcinogen similar to ionising radiation,25 an already established cause of cancer.

The only two published studies relating to dirty electricity—Armstrong et al. 1994 study and the Milham–Morgan study—both show very positive increases in cancer risk with increasing cumulative exposure to transients. What is of critical importance is that the cancer risks at the school in California were comparable to the smoking–lung cancer risk. Of no surprise, breast cancer cases were reported in this cluster along with several other cancers including colon cancers, uterine cancers and malignant melanomas. Artificially created EM radiation (EMR) is a determinant in the development of malignant melanoma, an increasingly prevalent cancer that was uncommon until around 50 years ago.26

In fact, research on EMFs has been conducted for over 50 years in Russia,27 and the newer research on dirty electricity has been carried out by Russian experts in conjunction with scientists and electrical engineers from the United States, Canada, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.28 Kazakhstan has already swiftly mandated protection against dirty electricity in industrial situations,29 a model which should be implemented in all countries across the globe.

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Ongoing Risk Assessment

We are in the midst of an invisible and silent plague of pandemic proportions that has been woven into our everyday lives. Dirty electricity is in virtually every building, whether it be our homes, schools, workplaces or hospitals. Energy-efficient appliances and equipment are amongst the culprits that create dirty electricity. Dr Magda Havas, Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University, Canada, reports that many houses with solar panels have very high levels of dirty electricity.30 Wind turbines can also generate dirty electricity, which is then transferred along the grid.

If these EMFs released a visible substance on us, we would comprehend very quickly the attack on our body and that dirty electricity is creating havoc with our immune systems. Even though we cannot see it and most of us cannot feel it, dirty electricity is affecting all of us. Removing dirty electricity has seen cases of multiple sclerosis improve dramatically and even go into remission, and has also resulted in asthmatics using inhalers less often.31

Some diabetics are discovering that their insulin levels are being artificially raised in dirty electrical environments. In 2004, Dave Stetzer, president of Stetzer Electric, and Dr Havas presented to the WHO their research showing the difference between the blood sugar level in a dirty electrical environment (a measurement of 36) and one that was filtered (a measurement of nine).32 Autism is now seen as the fastest-growing developmental disability.

Dr Havas reported that a recent pilot research study has shown higher rates of babies born with autism where the mothers' sleeping locations had high levels of radio-frequency EMR.33 Children who have leukaemia or are in recovery have poorer survival rates if exposure to extremely low frequency EMF levels is high.34 It follows that all ill and recovering patients should be aware of their exposure to these fields. Lichtenstein et al. concluded from their study of identical twins that environmental factors are the initiating event in the majority of cancers.35

On studying cancer trends in the 20th century, Hallberg andJohansson reported that there is a common environmental stress that accelerates several forms of cancer  —colon cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and melanoma.36 From when electricity was first generated to the introduction of AM radio
(1920s), radar (1940s), FM radio and TV (1950s), computers (1970s), mobile phones (1980s), and wireless technologies and compact fluorescent lighting (2000s), artificially created EMR is the most likely environmental stress.

Artificially created EMR may also be the underlying menace in the tobacco smoking and asbestos crises. Hallberg and Johansson reported that exposure to radiowaves (artificially created EMR) appears to be as big a factor in causing lung cancer as cigarette smoking, and that deaths due to asbestosis were not known until after the 1960s despite the fact that asbestos had been used as a building material since the end of the 19th century.37

We cannot afford to be unsuspecting recipients of this artificial electromagnetic radiation which has been newly introduced in such a short period of our history. Associate Professor Olle Johansson, of the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, commented that today no one would consider having a radioactive wristwatch with glowing digits (as you could in the 1950s), having your children's shoes fitted in a strong X-ray machine (as you could in the 1940s), keeping radium in open trays on your desk (as scientists did in the 1930s) or X-raying each other at garden parties (as physicians did in the 1920s).38 These examples relate to ionising radiation; apart from nuclear fallout, we have a choice whether to expose ourselves to it or not.

Many different types of artificially created radiation have been woven into our daily lives. It is awareness that will bring understanding of the different types of radiation so we can make our own informed choices on what we are willing to be exposed to and what we must avoid. School teachers and principals alike must be educated on this most important health issue so that measures can be put into place to ensure that they and our children are not at risk in a dirty electrical environment, for dirty electricity has been found to be especially prevalent in environments with concentrated fluorescent lights and computers. Employers and employees alike must understand that their workplace must also be protected. People in their own homes must also protect themselves from modern equipment that also generates dirty electricity.

Finally, Dr Cedric Garland, the epidemiologist currently investigating the breast cancer cluster on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, is focusing on the possible role of EMFs, especially transients.39 Dr Garland advised that the female employees should be informed about tamoxifen research — that ELF EMFs have been found to partially block this drug's action in preventing breast cancer spreading or a recurrence of cancer—and recommended that those taking the drug should be transferred to a lower-current area if they so desired.

Transients cause cancer. Just as we filter our water to remove contaminants so we have cleaner water, now we must filter our electricity to remove this contaminant so we have cleaner electricity. ∞

About the Author:

Donna Fisher, based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is the chair of Donna Fisher Silent Fields Inc., a non-profit organisation that is working towards the implementation of legislation against "dirty electricity" with the aim of protecting people in the workplace. Her model is now being incorporated across the globe, especially in the European Union. She is also CEO of the Donna Fisher Breast Health Initiative, which is committed to noninvasive technologies for prevention, detection and cure of breast cancer and supports eliminating the environmental causes of breast cancer with particular focus on chemicals and radiation.

Donna Fisher is the author of Silent Fields: The Growing Cancer Cluster Story – When Electricity Kills... (Lindlahr Book Publishing, Queensland, 2008; reviewed in NEXUS vol. 15, no. 6) and the forthcoming More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague – The Missing Link... ( Joshua Books, Queensland, 2009; see review in our next edition).

Donna Fisher can be contacted by email at
donnafisher@silentfields.com and via her website
http://www.silentfields.com.

NEXUS Editor's Note:
This article comprises edited extracts from Donna Fisher's two books, Silent Fields: The Growing Cancer Cluster Story (chapters 3, 5, 6 and 9) and More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague (chapters 2, 4 and 8).

Endnotes

1. Genuis SJ, "Fielding a current idea: exploring the public health impact of electromagnetic radiation", Public Health 2007, doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2007.04.008
2. Wertheimer N and Leeper E, "Electrical Wiring Configurations and Childhood Cancer", Am J Epidemiol 1979; 109(3):273-284
3. Savitz D et al., "Case-control Study of Childhood Cancer and Exposure to 60-Hz Magnetic Fields", Am J Epidemiol 1988; 128(1)21-38
4. Milham S and Ossiander EM, "Historical evidence that residential electrification caused the emergence of the childhood leukemia peak", Medical Hypotheses 2001; 56(3):1-6
5. Kundi, Michael, "Section 11: Evidence for Childhood Cancers (Leukemia)", p. 12, in: D Carpenter, MD, and C Sage, MA, (eds), "BioInitiative Report: A Rationale for a Biologicallybased Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)", August 31, 2007, http://www.bioinitiative.org/ report/index.htm
6. Milham and Ossiander, op. cit.
7. Sage C, MA, "Section 1: Summary for the Public", p. 8, in: Carpenter and C Sage (eds), "BioInitiative Report", op. cit.
8. Wertheimer N and Leeper E, "Adult cancer related to electrical wires near the home", Int J Epidemiol 1982; 11:345-355
9. Löscher W and Mevissen M, "Magnetic Fields and Breast Cancer: Experimental Studies on the Melatonin Hypothesis", in: RG Stevens, BW Wilson and LE Anderson (eds), The Melatonin Hypothesis: Breast Cancer and the Use of Electric Power, Battelle Press, Columbus, 1997, p. 578
10. Slesin L, News & Comment, Microwave News, July 22, 2004, http://www.microwavenews.com/nc_ja2004.html ; also see Milham S, MD, MPH, "A cluster of male breast cancer in office workers", Am J Indust Med 2004 Jun10; 46(1):86-87
11. Erren T, MD, MPH, "Epidemiological Studies of EMF and Breast Cancer Risk: A Biologically Based Overview", in: Stevens, Wilson and Anderson, The Melatonin Hypothesis, op. cit., p. 731
12. Discovery document passed on to the author by defendants against Powerlink; see D Fisher, More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague – The Missing Link..., Joshua Books, 2009, p. 117
13. Erren, in: Stevens, Wilson and Anderson, The Melatonin Hypothesis, op. cit., p. 729
14. Juutilainen J et al., "Do extremely low frequency magnetic fields enhance the effects of environmental carcinogens? A meta-analysis of experimental studies", Int J Radiat Biol 2006 Jan; 82(1):1-12
15. World Health Organization, Extremely Low Frequency Fields, Environmental Health Criteria Monograph No. 238, 2007, http://www.who.int/pehemf/publications/elf_ehc/en/index.html, chapter 1, p. 13
16. EMC Technologies, "Electromagnetic Radiation Survey Conducted for Australian Broadcasting Corporation", 2 May 2005; available at http://www.silentfields.com/reports.php
17. Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, "Assessment of Exposure to Power Frequency Magnetic Fields in the ABC TV Building at Toowong, Brisbane", February 2007; at http://www.silentfields.com/reports/php
18. Professor Bruce Armstrong, interviewed on 9am with David & Kim, Channel 10, Australia, August 7, 2007
19. Genuis, "Fielding a current idea", op. cit.
20. ibid.
21. ibid.
22. Dr Milham quoted in: Rees C and Havas M, Public Health SOS: The Shadow Side of the Wireless Revolution: 110 Questions on Electromagnetic Pollution from a Forum at the Commonwealth Club of California (e-book), Wide Angle Health, 2008, p. 7; available at http://electromagnetichealth.org/public-health-sos-ebook/
23. Armstrong B et al., "Association between Exposure to Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields and Cancer in Electric Utility Workers in Quebec, Canada, and France", Am J Epidemiol 1994; 140(9):805-820
24. Further credentials are available at http://www.silentfields.com/reports.php
25. Milham, S, MD, MPH, and Morgan LL, BS, "A New Electromagnetic Exposure Metric: High Frequency Voltage Transients Associated with Increased Cancer Incidence in Teachers in a California School", Am J Ind Med 2008 May 29; 51(8)579-586; at http://www.silentfields.com/reports.php
26. Genuis, "Fielding a current idea", op. cit.
27. Leading researchers include AA Letavet, MG Shandala, LA Iljin, Ju D Dumansky, ZV Gordon, AG Subbota, IG Akoev, BI Davydov, Ju G Grigoriev.
28. Leading researchers include: Emeritus Professor M Graham; Electrical Engineer D Stetzer; Associate Professor M Havas, Dr Valentina Nikitina; Professors of Medicine V Kozlovsky, E Zharkinov, V Reznik, Ju D Dumansky.
29. Kazakhstan Health Department, "Permissible levels of high-frequency electromagnetic pollutions voltage in wires of industrial frequency alternating current", confirmed by order of the Head State Sanitary Physician of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 28 November 2003, No. 69.
30. Rees and Havas, Public Health SOS, op. cit., p. 46
31. Fisher D, More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague – The Missing Link, op. cit., p. 37
32. Havas, M, Presentation to the Electrical Pollution Taskforce, Markham, 2005, February 23, 2005 (Dr Magda Havas's graph is shown in D Fisher, More Silent Fields: Cancer and the Dirty Electricity Plague – The Missing Link..., op. cit., p. 44)
33. Rees and Havas, Public Health SOS, op. cit., p. 16
34. Sage C, MA, "Section 1: Summary for the Public", p. 9, in: Carpenter and Sage (eds), BioInitiative Report, op. cit.
35. Lichtenstein P, Holm NV, Verkasalo PK, Iliadou A, Kaprio J, Koskenvuo M et al., "Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer: Analyses of cohorts of twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland", N Engl J Med 2000; 343:78-85
36. Hallberg Ö and Johansson O, "Cancer Trends During the 20th Century", Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine 2002 Apr; 21(1):3-8
37. ibid.
38. Johansson O, "Section 8: Evidence for Effects on the Immune System", in: Carpenter and Sage (eds), BioInitiative Report, op. cit.
39. Slesin L, "Cancer Cluster at UCSD; EPRI’s Kheifets to Investigate", Microwave News, Vol. XXIX, No. 3, January–March 2009, pp. 4-5, http://www.microwavenews.com/docs/mwn .


Donna Fisher’s Website:

From NEXUS New Times Magazine OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2009 http://www.nexusmagazine.com


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Thursday, 26 August 2010

Iraqi child cancer 'linked to US weapons'

Iraqi child cancer 'linked to US weapons'
The number of deformed babies and children with leukaemia is increasing in Iraq, with locals blaming Depleted Uranium weapons used in US attacks.
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Seven years after the invasion of Iraq, the US is starting to withdraw its forces. US President Barack Obama pledged to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010. He has said that between 35,000 and 50,000 US troops will remain in the country, and would gradually continue to be withdrawn until December 31, 2011.
Historians and pundits will no doubt argue for years over the impact of this history making period, but Iraqis are dealing with a more immediate and, it seems devastating legacy. Stories are now emerging of increased deformities in the country's newborn babies as well as a dramatic rise in the number of children with cancer. 
A report published in The Independent says cancers and other diseases in the city of Falluja are higher than those recorded in the survivors of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many are asking whether this spike could be connected to contamination caused by the use of depleted uranium in the bombs and bullets used by American forces.
 
SBS' Dateline program's Walkley Award winning video journalist Fouad Hady returns to his home country to see some of the deformed and desperately ill children, and meets some of the people battling against the odds to rebuild their lives, and their city.
Advisement: This film contains images that are difficult to watch.
Transcript follows, beneath the film.

 
Iraq's Deadly Legacy

Transcript:
I'm travelling to Falluja - about two hours drive west of Baghdad - the scene of fierce fighting between Sunni insurgents and US forces in 2004. My driver is Mohammed, a mechanic who lives here, he remembers a happier time.
 MOHAMMED, DRIVER (Translation):  This is our city, Falluja.  Every Monday and Tuesday it used to celebrate weddings, happy occasions, newborn babies and young men and women getting married…..
 He says that has all changed now.
 MOHAMMED (Translation):  They don't have very high hopes of marrying and starting a family because they are scared to have children.  This is the stricken Falluja city.
 Mohammed and his new bride stayed in Falluja throughout the fighting. They say there is a terrible legacy.
 MOHAMMED (Translation):  She was two months pregnant when the battles with the American forces started.  They were fierce battles and the American forces moved into the houses.  There was heavy aerial bombing and armoured vehicles came in.  A while later Zahraa was born disabled –she has six digits in her hands and feet – here are her hands and here are her feet. They are the effects – the doctors would not give us reports.  She also had general paralysis and obesity, an allergy in the trachea, asthma, cross-eyed and also has mild mental retardation.
 MOHAMMED’S WIFE (Translation):  I had high hopes when I was pregnant with her - I was expecting her to grow up, play, to guide her, play with her, take her out, enrol her at school... In two years, all kids her age will start school, except for her.

MOHAMMED (Translation):  We had a baby boy after her and when he was three or four days old, he died. He had an opening in the crown of the head, from the effects. It's not the only case in Falluja - there are not hundreds but thousands of cases in Falluja.
 Mohammad and many others believe US bullets and bombs - which spread depleted uranium - have made Falluja toxic. He wants me to meet some of his neighbours.
 REPORTER (Translation):  What is your son’s condition?
 WOMAN (Translation):  My son’s condition is from the effects of the war – I was pregnant with him when Falluja was attacked – I was pregnant during the first attack and he was barely 40 days old during the second. So that is why this happened to my son Abdul Rahman. It is the effects of war – the bombs the Americans dropped on us. In general, Falluja’s women are not happing children.
 REPORTER (Translation): Do you know women, like neighbours, friends…
 WOMAN (Translation):  All of them.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Do they miscarry or can’t they fall pregnant?
 WOMAN (Translation):  She miscarries - then can’t fall pregnant – my sister miscarried as well.
 REPORTER (Translation):  The same condition?
 WOMAN (Translation):  Yes, the same condition.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Do you know any neighbours in the same condition – miscarry and so on?
 WOMAN (Translation):  All of them.
 The fighting in Falluja filled the cemeteries, so people were buried here in the sports ground and the locals say the curse of Falluja continues
 REPORTER (Translation):  What is this?
 LOCAL MAN (Translation):  It's for children who were born with deformities and incurable diseases. They grow to about five or six months of age and don't survive any longer. This whole cemetery is especially for children. These are the deformed children.
 REPORTER (Translation):   Where?
 MAN (Translation):  All these graves. Those behind you and this side, they're all children. This is for deformed children from Falluja hospital.
 I want to ask the doctors at Falluja hospital what they think is causing this tragedy. The hospital is clean, well-equipped and was paid for by the US. Paediatrician Dr Samira al-Ani says she has seen an increase in the numbers of deformed children.
 DR SAMIRA AL-ANI, PAEDIATRICIAN: The cases that I am meeting now or I am facing now, are more than before, I can say 2002. I feel that the number is increasing after 2006.
 REPORTER: Increasing by how many per cent?
 DR SAMIRA AL-ANI: I can't give a per cents, I can't give a percentage because there is no documentation - in the past or even now. There is no statistics at all. There is no documentation of... I can say of most of the cases, not all of the cases, but most of the cases. There is nothing documented. There should be some studies and there should be some investigations.
 REPORTER:  No study here?
 DR SAMIRA AL-ANI: No, no, no.
 REPORTER: Why?
 DR SAMIRA AL-ANI:  We have no facilities to do such investigations. It's a complex subject and it needs complex investigation.
 Travelling with us is a journalist, Mr Haamed Alname from a local paper, he also tried to talk to doctors - without success.
 HAAMED ALNAME, JOURNALIST (Translation):  They refused categorically and the direct response was that an official letter from the Health Ministry prohibits all statements by doctors in relation to, quote unquote, "congenital deformities". The main reason is pressure from the American forces on the Health Ministry. The letter was sent to the Anbar Department of Health and to Falluja General Hospital.
 I decide to head back to Baghdad seeking more information. The Health Ministry refuse all my requests for an interview, but Mishkat al-Moumin, the Minister for the Environment, agreed to talk. She's working to clean up those parts of Iraq contaminated during the war.
 MISHKAT AL-MOUMIN, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT (Translation):  So what we have today is 41 sites. The majority are in areas close to Baghdad or in areas close toBasra, or in the proximity of Basra.
 Central Baghdad - this is one of the many radioactive sites scattered acrossIraq. Once the Department of Youth and Sport, it was badly damaged in the fighting for the city. Many of the shells and bullets contained depleted uranium. This man is from the Environment Ministry. With barrels of contaminated material, including depleted uranium, or DU, stacked along the wall, I put on the protective overalls.
 MAN (Translation):  Contaminated rubble. DU. Dirt, concrete, rubble. Level 4. Alpha, beta, gamma. This is the third floor.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Isn’t it contaminated?
 MAN (Translation):  No it’s not.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Which floor is this?
 MAN (Translation):  Fourth.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Contaminated?
 MAN (Translation):  Yes. These are all bullet marks on this wall. The readings were high, but Science & Technology removed the contamination and now the reading is normal.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Which level?
 MAN (Translation):  Eight. The bullets penetrated the walls here. See how the background reading has changed? There's a reading. We requested another clean-up, to finish the job.
 REPORTER (Translation):  So there's still uranium here?
 MAN (Translation):  It's more than the normal level. There's radiation activity so they'll redo this area.
 When the shells hit, radioactive dust particles can contaminate large parts of the surrounding area.
 MAN (Translation):  If you walk on a contaminated area and move to a clean one, contamination will spread.

REPORTER (Translation):  They're not wearing suits, will they be exposed?
 MAN (Translation):  Only if they touch it. The alpha range is 5 cm.
 Not far from this building is the al-Alwiyah Children's Hospital, in the centre of Baghdad. A baby has been delivered in the ambulance on the way here.
 DOCTOR:  Female baby, with cleft palate and the issue of abdominal vessel and most probably a polycystic kidney. This is the bulge in the abdominal muscle and this is a polycystic kidney and there is a facial cleft complete facial collapse and the cleft. Most of all, this patient is - low-set ear and polydactyl, you can see the polydactyl for the left hand, there is six fingers, not five, six finger on the left hand. She is a female baby. We see multiple cases like this.
 This is the newborn baby's grandmother.
 GRANDMOTHER (Translation):  They told us in her sixth month hat she had this condition.
 REPORTER (Translation):  You found out by ultra-sound?
 GRANDMOTHER (Translation):  Yes.  I felt it was so wrong and did not accept it – the medical committee recommended an abortion and she was young and scared. But I did not agree and told her to have the baby. God Almighty created her and God will…  Here, look at her. So many things are wrong with her. Both her father and mother are healthy. It's not that anything's wrong with them. They're fine.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Where's her mother?
 GRANDMOTHER (Translation):  I sent them home. I haven't told the mother or father yet. Even when I saw her in the ambulance, I was dumbfounded. It's all because of the fighting. What has this baby ever done? If her father sees her, he will go crazy. What's her fault, this baby? Oh, God.
 The doctor calls me to see another baby, just two hours old.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Doctor, this is a scary case. What is this?
 DOCTOR (Translation):  It's wrong to say scary about them.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Not scary, I'm sorry. But this case is tragic. It's really a sad situation?
 DOCTOR: This is a case of enkaphalosio - you'll notice that this is the forehead of the baby disappeared completely and there is a herniation of the brain tissue to the back of the baby. This is a common situation we have noticed lately. This baby is gasping - put him on oxygen, please. Oxygen, oxygen, oxygen.
 Down the corridor is another 3-month-old baby with facial deformities. Her name is Farah, which means 'happiness'. She's been isolated from other babies because she is very sick.
 REPORTER (Translation):  What's wrong with Farah?
 WOMAN (Translation):  She has acute infections. She was very ill yesterday - she was almost finished. We gave her, her medication, and plasma. We felt so sad in the section when we stopped hearing her voice.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Do you like her?
 WOMAN (Translation):  We love to hear her voice.  Especially as we have children... We're mothers and we know. Poor girl - She's helpless. We are all she has. Isn't she a human being too?
 REPORTER (Translation):  Did you find her mother?
 WOMAN (Translation):  I don't know if anyone has visited her or not. They haven't even left an address. Just Baghdad.
 Just across the Tigris River, is another hospital specialising in young cancer patients.
 DOCTOR (Translation):  After the last war on Iraq the number of leukaemia cases has increased. The children who come to us face real suffering, especially those coming from remote areas, rural areas.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Is he your son?
 WOMAN (Translation):  Yes.
 REPORTER (Translation):  What happened?
 WOMAN (Translation):  He has leukaemia in the blood.
 REPORTER (Translation):  How long has it been?
 WOMAN (Translation):  Almost a year.
 REPORTER (Translation):  How did you discover it?
 WOMAN (Translation):  He had a tumour - he started losing weight and got skinny. We did a marrow test and it showed up in his blood. All the children are like that. They say it's the effect of wars, I don't know why.
 WOMAN 2 (Translation):  We took her to a hospital in Irbil – a haematology hospital, we did the marrow test. We'd never heard of it before. We knew her condition was critical. The results confirmed it was leukaemia. We were so shocked but when we came here we saw so many cases even worse than Marwa’s case. But thank God... God is generous, He will cure her.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Hassan, what's Hassan's condition?
 WOMAN 3 (Translation):  He was fine except that he was coughing. They requested more tests and the results showed he had the disease in the blood.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Leukaemia.
 WOMAN 3 (Translation):  Yes. I cried until I couldn't cry any more. My tears dried out from so much crying.
 The hospital could not, or would not give me any figures about the number of young leukaemia patients.
 REPORTER: Let's talk about the war.
 DOCTOR:  Oh, maybe this is difficult. You cannot say for sure that the war in what way affected our problem in Iraq but our observations that the numbers are increasing for the newly diagnosed patients over the past 20 years.
 Again, I can't get no firm statistics but as I film a technician testing blood, I begin to get an idea of the scale of the problem.
 REPORTER (Translation):  How many cases do you detect per day?
 TECHNICIAN (Translation):  Sometimes 10, 14... It depends on what comes in..
 REPORTER (Translation):  Leukaemia?
 TECHNICIAN (Translation):  Leukaemia - All blood diseases.
 REPORTER (Translation):  You're saying 10 cases a day, that's 300 a month. So the numbers are…
 TECHNICIAN (Translation):   The numbers are, well, it's normal here.
Those figures would mean thousands of cases a year in this one hospital. I return to al-Alwiyah Hospital the next day. The doctor is examining baby Farah - her condition has improved but her severe disabilities make me fear for her future.
 DOCTOR: There are no eyelids for this baby since her birth and that make a lot of complication for her. And her age now is 80 days, but also she has a repetitive infection in the chest because she is complaining from repeated aspirations to the lower respiratory system. One of the time in her early life she was complaining from pneumonia - aspiration pneumonia. She aspirates her own saliva and that's all.
 Iraq's broken children need love and care and they need to know what's causing this terrible tragedy.
 REPORTER (Translation):  Do you have the intention to have more children?
 MOHAMMED’S WIFE (Translation):   I hope so. I would love to have more children. But I'm scared, because I had a baby boy after her and he died then, he was deformed. His head was deformed. I would love to, but I'm scared.
 GEORGE NEGUS:  Fouad Hady with that disturbing report. Fouad tells us, by the way, that the head of the Baghdad hospital where he was filming was gunned down on Thursday as she left work. The Iraqis are struggling to come up with valid evidence of the causes of the deaths and deformities in their children, but this UK report done in Fallujah and published by the 'International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health' says "we conclude that the results confirm the reported increases in cancer and infant mortality, which are alarmingly high." The report also states that "although we have drawn attention to the use of depleted uranium as one potential relevant exposure, there may be other possibilities". And our website this week includes a blog from our executive producer on our decision not to show some particularly distressing scenes from Fouad's Iraq report, plus links to research on uranium and deformities. That's at sbs.com.au/dateline.
From http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/articles/iraqi-child-cancer-linked-to-us-weapons-the-ethics-of-modern-war-iraqs-deadly-legacy.html
Video @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUDFicLNZ0&feature=player_embedded


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