Operation Heavy Metal Contamination

Meanwhile, back in the Gaza Ghetto...

Remember odious Sharon government adviser Dov Weisglass telling the world at the time of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 that, because Hamas won the subsequent 2006 Palestinian elections, Israel had decided to "put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger"?

Well, quite apart from blockading the people of the Gaza Ghetto, periodically bombing and shelling them, and gunning them down every Friday at border demonstrations, Israel has other, more insidious, ways of killing them off. For example:

Hospital centered surveillance of births in Gaza, Palestine, 2011-2017 and heavy metal contamination of the mothers reveals long-term impact of wars, from Reproductive Toxicology, Vol.86)

Highlights

*Surveillance of births over 6 years, 2011-2017, in an area ridden by two intervening military attacks and under blockade and assessment of heavy metals contamination.
*Environmental resilience of heavy metals toxicants and teratogens, introduced by by war-remnants determines chronic intake and high load in women hair in 2016.
*Hot spots of contamination and negative birth outcomes in women resident near unmanaged waste sites, and of low birth weight at term with poor nutrition, consequences of the economic blockade.

Abstract

Prevalence of preterm, low birth weight and birth defects increased significantly since 2011 in Gaza, Palestine. No change in known co-factors of reproductive health justified this rise. Two military attacks in 2012 and 2014 introduced novel risk factors for outcomes at birth: contamination by teratogenic and carcinogenic heavy metals weapon-remnants, ongoing impoverishment, and impaired rehabilitation of waste management. It was previously shown that mothers exposed to military attacks had higher metal load than those unexposed and mother's heavy metals trans-pass placenta. We investigated association in time of heavy metal contamination and reproductive health using hospital-based surveillance (2011-2016-2018) of births, accompanied by assessment in 2016 of metal load in mother and newborn hair. Mother's housing proximal to unmanaged waste predicted preterm birth and birth defects, and these women had highest load of heavy metals. Poor diet predicted low birth weight. Circumstances prevent investigation of heavy metals molecular impact(s) during fetal development. (sciencedirect.com)