"High rates of miscarriage, toxic levels
of lead and mercury contamination and spiralling numbers of birth defects
ranging from congenital heart defects to brain dysfunctions and malformed limbs
have been recorded. Even more disturbingly, they appear to be occurring at an
increasing rate in children born in Fallujah, about 40 miles west
of Baghdad.
There is "compelling evidence" to link
the increased numbers of defects and miscarriages to military assaults, says
Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the lead authors of the report and an
environmental toxicologist at the University of Michigan's School of Public
Health. Similar defects have been found among children born in Basra after
British troops invaded, according to the new research."
