09.19.07
Unreported Cancer Cases
The recent Moss Report had an interesting article. It is titled, The Height of Absurdity. As a person who is concerned about health issues, this bit of news was disturbing to me. I’ll attach a short clip of the article below.
“The next time you read a news story about how cancer is decreasingly a problem in the US, think again. California officials have revealed that the US Veterans Administration (VA), which treats many American veterans, has been deliberately withholding cancer incidence data from state cancer registries across the country. This has resulted in up to 70,000 newly diagnosed cancer cases per year – about 5 percent of the national total – going unrecorded in the past few years.”
At first blush, one may not think much of withholding the VA cancer cases, but when claims that we are winning the war on cancer start circulating, then we can quickly see that “not” reporting 5% of the cancer cases would make a significant difference. Especially if claims are made that we have a 5% decline in cancer cases.
The full article can be read by scrolling down at this link.
The next thing that came to mind regarding withholding cancer cases by the VA was “why would they do that?” Then I thought of some articles I had read about the use of depleted uranium by our military in places like Iraq. I tend to take notice when I hear about uranium because when I had a heavy metals test years ago when I got my AA diagnosis, my uranium level was very high. That surprised me, so I did some research on it. Along those lines I have read about it being known to cause cancers and aplastic anemia. Then I started to stumble across other articles which indicated that cancer and leukemia rates have increased in Iraq because of the depleted uranium use by our military. An example of one such article can be read here.
Now, if it is true that our military’s use of depleted uranium has increased cancer and leukemia rates in the Iraqi population, then it would stand to reason that our military is also being exposed to the same depleted uranium. Is it possible that the VA is experiencing more cancer cases amongst our military that they don’t want to share with us? I found that to be a disturbing thought. According to the Moss Report article, the excuse the VA gives for not reporting their cancer cases is that they want to protect the medical records of their patients. Well, reporting cancer cases has been common and standard and a means by which to monitor progress. AND the Moss Report also mentioned that the VA “does” report their AIDs cases, which I would think is more sensitive information than cancer cases. It sounds suspicious to me. I certainly hope that our military isn’t experiencing more cancers. But if it’s true that Iraqi are experiencing more cancers due to the military’s depleted uranium use, then I don’t see how our own military can escape it either. They are there, too, being exposed to the same air and dust.
Marlakins
