Monday, June 23, 2003

Nuclear material was left unsecured in Tuwaitha, Iraq, and now it looks as if it's making people sick, the BBC says:

New cases of suspected radiation sickness are being reported every day, at a hospital close to Tuwaitha.

Doctors say about 20 people a day, many of them children are coming into hospital with bloody diarrhoea.

Some have fallen sick because of parasites in the local water supply, but tests prove that others, as many as five a day, have no infection.

The doctors believe they have been poisoned by radiation.

Barrels containing low enriched uranium, also known as "yellow cake" were taken from the Tuwaitha facility in April and washed in a local river.

Their contents were dumped on the ground.

Now the number of people falling ill is steadily rising.

A few patients known to have had close contact with looted materials show signs of acute radiation sickness: skin rashes, nose bleeds and vomiting....

No comments: