11 December 2009By Soraya
Sepahpour-Ulrich
Tragic as war is, it has often led to scientific and
medical discoveries. Today in Washington, the
pro-Israeli Lobby is using science as a pretext for
war -- scientific and medical discoveries that may
help not only developing nations, but advance
healthcare in America and elsewhere. Included in
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights clearly includes the right of every one to
medical care [i]-- yet it appears that the pro-Israel
lobbyists in Washington have persuaded policy makers
that the developing world is excluded from this right,
and Iran's significant scientific achievements are a
global threat designed to do ill and not the means to
heal. Dissemination of such misinformation is akin to
the very cancer that the Iranian scientists have been
attempting to cure and stem out.
In 1972, a joint research project (French-Iranian
scholars) on esophageal cancer in the Caspian Littoral
of Iran was released. The findings indicated that
the region had among the highest recorded incidences
of esophageal cancer[1] in the world. The utility of
the research was that given its location, it was not
unique to Iran and represented the Middle East, China,
Afghanistan, and former Soviet central Asia, parts of
Siberia, Mongolia, and northern and western China
[ii].
Perhaps it is with this in mind that almost four
decades later, in 2007-2009, US National Institute of
Cancer sponsored the study of Esophageal Cancer in
Iran[iii]. Later, with "health diplomacy" in mind,
Iran and the United States, with foresight and
fortitude by the National Institute of Health's
mission of Science for Health launched on three areas
of cooperation: 1) Esophageal Cancer; 2) Mustard Gas
Exposure and Lung Carcinogenesis; 3) HIV and drug
use.[iv] It is not without irony that Iran's research
and expertise in mustard gas illnesses and injuries
should be the direct result of America's policies
during the 8-year Iran-Iraq war when the U.S. decided
to arm Saddam Hossein with CBTW (chemical, biological,
toxin warfare)[v] material.
Today, in order to wage another war against Iranians
and to ensure that Iran shares Iraq's fate, the
argument presented by the Lobby and trumpeted by the
neoconservative-dominated media is why does Iran not
need to enrich uranium. Before one responds that it
is Iran's right under the NPT, it would be more simple
to demand of the neoconservatives to explain why
America and her allies should place such a high demand
on readioisotopes?
In 1959, Science reported that radioisotopes have
always been a source for "scientific research, and
their application to such activities as agriculture,
industry, and medicine is now steadily increasing"[vi]
Today, there is a dire shortage . On July 26, 2009,
The Houston Chronicle reported that a drug crucial to
medical tests was in short supply. This was due to
the loss of the 51-year-old reactor in Ontario, Canada
that produces much of this drug, a radioisotope. In
the same issue, Dr. Einstein mentions the numerous
uses of radioisotopes.
In "Blood Weekly", (July 2, 2009, p603), Cotara R, a
radioisotope being developed as a potential new
treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly
form of brain cancer. In October, Iran announced it
had produced two new radio medicines called "Samarion
153" and "Renium 186" which were able to reduce pains
of cancer patients. Furthermore, these medicines
could be used for defining of cancer and reducing bone
disease. Iran also informed that the results of a
new anti-cancer medicine would be publicly announced
in 2010[vii].
However, the Iranian-derived radio medicine differs
vastly from the Canadian product.
The U.S. supplies weapon-grade uranium (HEU,
90-percent 235U) to the Canadian radioisotope
producers. HEU is capable of making a bomb which is
why the 1992 Schumer Amendment to the U.S. Atomic
Energy Act requires that a foreign producer cooperate
with the United States in converting to LEU. In
2005, a lobbying campaign sponsored by MDS-Nordion and
Mallinckrodt resulted in the Burr Amendment in the
National Energy Policy Act of 2005. This amendment
exempts target HEU used by medical radioisotope
producers in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, and the
Netherlands from the Schumer Amendment’s
requirements[viii].
Iran uses LEU (containing less than 20 percent 235U).
Not only is this the standard permissible under the
NNPT, but it is the standard that the United States is
pushing its allies to strive for. There are
currently some challenges in converting from HEU to
LEU. While there are two major plants which supply
much of the required isotopes, the main technical
issue that has been raised by current producers is
increased waste generation when LEU is used.
The Department of Energy's findings indicate not only
a coming shortage in medical isotopes, but a promise
of new treatments such as ' isotopes for cancer
therapy and pain control'[ix] . Given this view,
Iran's extraordinary achievement is to be commended,
not blasted - literally. Even in isolation Iran's
remarkable strides in medicine can serve as a bridge,
not as a crevice. Medicine is not the only common
threat between the two nations. Science and
engineering has always bonded the two nations
(2007[x]). Seismic Science has its unique and special
place in research.
It is incomprehensible that even though Washington has
full knowledge that Iran's pursuit of nuclear program
is for civilian purposes, and the two countries have
cooperated in medical research, the lobby had demanded
that Iran be hauled to the UNSC, and it is now calling
for further sanctions to be imposed on Iran. Is there
any doubt that they are pushing for an eventual war?
The Scientist confirms that there will be an oil
crisis by 2030[xi]. It is tragic that a nuclear
program intended for civilian use, and research
programs with the potential to cure and alleviate
human suffering should be the lobby's weapon for
destruction - at home and abroad. Perhaps the real
tragedy is the realization that Americans are
sovereign no more.
[1] Cancer that occurs in the esophagus — a long
hollow tube that runs from the throat to the
stomach. The esophagus carries food to the stomach to
be digested
[i] http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a25
[ii] Science, New Series, Vol. 175, No. 4024 (Feb.
25, 1972), pp. 846-853
[iii] http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00544843
[iv] http://acd.od.nih.gov/slides/120106/GlassACD120106.pdf
[v] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/../world/main534798.shtml
[vi] Science, New Series, Vol. 130, No. 3384 (Nov. 6,
1959), p. 1247
[vii] Mehr news agency, Tehran, October 16, 2009
[viii] Frank N. von Hippel and Laura H. Kahn, Science
and Global Security, 14:151–162, 2006
[ix] http://www.ne.doe.gov/neac/neacPDFs/isotopedemand.pdf
[x] http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202804309
[xi] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427375.900-extreme-oil-scraping-the-bottom-of-earths-barrel.html
Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich has a Master's in
Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg for Communication
and USC School of International Relations. She is an
independent researcher and focuses on U.S. foreign
policy in the Middle East and the influence of lobby
groups.
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