Mona Chalabi Instagram – Not long after the US began bombing Iraq, doctors started to say that they were seeing a huge, huge increase in rates of cancer and “abnormalities” in babies. In 2010, researchers finally showed that this wasn’t anecdotal. In Fallujah, leukemia rates increased by 2,200% and childhood cancer increased by 1,260%. They also found that brain tumors rose by 740% and infant mortality rates were 820% higher than they were in neighboring countries.  The explanation for all of this was simple: uranium. The researchers found the element in women’s hair and believe that uranium weapons were used by the US in Iraq (similar evidence was found in Gaza where Israel has used uranium weapons against civilians).  I included the comparison here to another atrocity not because I want to diminish it. The US attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki *should* be regarded as despicable acts. But I want to underline that the US has a long history of human rights abuses and I also want to highlight that not all of those abuses get the same recognition.  Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2010 as well as email correspondence with the lead author Dr Chris Busby