Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation of the Long-Term Effects on Reproductive Health of Heavy Metals, Environmentally Stable Military Remnants in Gaza, Palestine: A Summary

Paola Manduca

2022

Abstract

Here is reported research “on the other side of weapons”, that of the victims, aiming to diffuse knowledge of the long-term damages to health by heavy metals in weaponry, invisible and stable war remnants in the XXI century wars. The work reported is exemplary in identifying at each time point (synchronic approach) and along 13 years (diachronic approach) the source of heavy metal contaminants in weaponry, their chronic uptake by humans and proving association of exposure to attacks and metal contamination with reproductive damage in the war setting of Gaza Palestine. Many heavy metals found in weaponry are toxicants, fetotoxic and carcinogens, are spread indiscriminately by ammunitions, are stable in the environment, suggesting that their use in attacks on civilian areas falls under more than one prohibition by international law. To date, we are not aware of other studies of surveillance of reproductive health in any war area on a wide random cohort, nor of this being accompanied by systematic parallel investigation of human contamination by heavy metals delivered by weapons, white phosphorus shells, and in wounds by not-fragmenting ammunitions. The data altogether, allow comparison among time points (diachronic view); this view allowed to understand the entity of the long-term effects of metal contamination of mothers on birth outcomes, the persistence of these effects vis a vis the environmental contamination, to single out and confirm which of the many metal elements found at high levels in post-war area is affecting negatively the outcomes at birth, and to describe long-term impact of recent war events on health, before and after displacement of war remnants. It documents that one of the tolls by war-remnant heavy metals contamination is increase of deaths in the perinatal age, “invisible war victims”.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Manduca P. (2022). Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation of the Long-Term Effects on Reproductive Health of Heavy Metals, Environmentally Stable Military Remnants in Gaza, Palestine: A Summary. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Water, Ecology and Environment - Volume 1: ISWEE; ISBN 978-989-758-639-2, SciTePress, pages 243-255. DOI: 10.5220/0012007300003536

in Bibtex Style

@conference{iswee22,
author={Paola Manduca},
title={Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation of the Long-Term Effects on Reproductive Health of Heavy Metals, Environmentally Stable Military Remnants in Gaza, Palestine: A Summary},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Water, Ecology and Environment - Volume 1: ISWEE},
year={2022},
pages={243-255},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0012007300003536},
isbn={978-989-758-639-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Water, Ecology and Environment - Volume 1: ISWEE
TI - Synchronic and Diachronic Investigation of the Long-Term Effects on Reproductive Health of Heavy Metals, Environmentally Stable Military Remnants in Gaza, Palestine: A Summary
SN - 978-989-758-639-2
AU - Manduca P.
PY - 2022
SP - 243
EP - 255
DO - 10.5220/0012007300003536
PB - SciTePress