BBC News | Middle East | Gulf War shells 'could be causing children's cancers'

BBC News Online: World: Middle East

Gulf War shells 'could be causing children's cancers'

Thursday, March 26, 1998 Published at 10:22 GMT

image: [ Abnormalities, as well as cancers and mutations, have increased dramatically ]

Gulf War shells 'could be causing children's cancers'
High numbers of children born with cancer in the areas of Iraq where the Gulf War was fought have increased fears that the weapons used by the Allies may be responsible.

There are reports of children developing cancers at rates that doctors in the area have never seen before, with Basra Children's Hospital experiencing a death rate for children with leukaemia 10 times higher than normal.

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The situation has led to one British Labour MP to call for sanctions on Iraq to be lifted to enable it to help the children properly.

The increase in cancers, along with mutations and abnormalities, has been seen particularly in the areas which were desert battlefield - the border towns between Iraq and Kuwait, which saw some of the heaviest fighting at the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

One theory, which has yet to be tested scientifically, is that depleted uranium, used to tip shells but not in itself thought to be dangerously radioactive, has found its way into the water supply.

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George Galloway MP, who visited the Baghdad hospital where the most severe cases have been referred, said: "We always say we have got no quarrel with the Iraqi people.

"Why not send a message to Iraqi children by sending an army of cancer experts laden with suitcases of cancer drugs to come and help the Iraqi health service - these heroes who are working in these conditions?

"Why not try to help them diagnose the scale of this problem, try to identify the source of this problem and provide the drugs to treat them?"

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