Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Summary:
agriculture); 2) testing and monitoring the environment (air, water, and soil) for chemical
pollutants and setting regulatory requirements; 3) estimating the health risks associated
regulatory requirements for exposure of workers to chemicals at the work place; and 5)
establishing environmental education program involving the public and media to increase
covers the toxicology of herbicides, pesticides, heavy metals and metalloids, organic and
chlorinated solvents, toxic gases, depleted uranium, and radioactive isotopes. Toxicology
should be taught in the medical and veterinary colleges, college of environmental science,
children in particular to lead resulted from the use of tetraethyl lead in gasoline, lead-
based paint, and unsafe disposal of lead containing industrial products in the
Laboratories capable of measuring lead in blood, tissues, hair and other biological
samples, water, fish, soil, and plant samples should be established in Baghdad and other
major cities of Iraq. Lead in air, water, and soil should be measured in all cities of Iraq to
assess the level of exposure to people and the associated health risk in each segment of
the population (pregnant women, children, and adults). The addition of lead to gasoline
metals, pesticides, herbicides, organic and organochlorine solvents in air, water, soils,
and biological samples taken from animals and human in all cities of Iraq. The collected
data will help the toxicologists to assess the level of exposure of people to these toxicants
4) Designing an effective program to measure the levels of depleted uranium (DU) in air,
water, soils, and biological samples taken from humans, animals, and plants.
Measurements should be made in many regions of Iraq, especially in the south and the
middle of Iraq. DU weaponry was used against Iraq in 1991 and 2003 in Gulf WAR I &
II. Hundreds of tons of DU were used in each war. DU is primarily composed of the
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uranium-238 (more than 99%). It also contains U-235 and U-234. DU is a toxic metal
and causes kidney, liver, and heart problems and affects the functions of other system. U-
238 is also weakly radioactive and remains in the environment for long time. It has a
physical half-life of 4.468 billion years. The collected data will help the toxicologists,
health care practitioners, and the government to asses the health risk associated with
exposure of each segment of the population (pregnant women, children, and adults) to
DU.
organic and organochlorine solvents, heavy metals, and other toxic chemicals.
7) Establishing safe standard levels for chemicals in air, water, and soils similar to the
levels adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States of
America.
8) Establishing regional centers (South, Middle, and North of Iraq) to gather information
on the incidence and types of cancer in Iraq. Toxicology should be included in the
evaluation of the rate, occurrence, and types of cancer. Reaching valid scientific
conclusions in identifying and eliminating the carcinogenic agents will help in reducing
the risk of future exposure of people to these agents and reducing the incidence of cancer.
9) Establishing regional centers (South, Middle, and North of Iraq) to gather information
on the incidence and types of the acute and chronic systemic illnesses (kidney disease,
respiratory problems, a plastic anemia, neurological and others) in children and adults.
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causing some of the health problems. Reaching valid scientific conclusions in identifying
and eliminating the toxic agents will help in reducing the risk of exposure of people to
toxic agents and reducing the incidence of illnesses. These measures will save lives and
vital resources.
10) Establishing environmental educational and outreach programs in the major cities of
Iraq that involve the media, school children, and the general public to increase the
The above-proposed programs are some of the issues concerning toxicology that need to
be addressed by the government of Iraq. The implementations of these ideas require the
I believe that the first phase of this project should be evaluating the existing toxicology
evaluating existing toxicological data. I believe that the north of Iraq is a good place to
start implementing these ideas and establishing a toxicology program because of the
security issue. I can work with the universities and the government of Iraq to accomplish
these tasks if the government provides the necessary tools and the resources to implement
these programs.
Davis. I have also been certified by two national American boards of toxicology dealing
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with the fields of human, veterinary, environmental, experimental, and analytical
toxicology.
involving children and adults. I also evaluated medical-legal cases in Canada, Australia,
scientific and medical journals, which I served as an author or a co-author. I speak and
write Arabic and English fluently. I look forward to discussing this proposal with the
Iraqi government officials and helping Iraq.