ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Eighteen teachers and students at a girls’ high school in Kirkuk have been diagnosed with cancer over the past few years, sparking fear and anger among families who believe the cause is remnants of American munitions once stored at the site.
Al-Wasiti Girls’ High School in Kirkuk served as a United States military base after the fall of the Baath regime in 2003. Asma Salman, a teacher at the school who is battling cancer, says she believes her illness is linked to the site’s military past.
“After 2003, this place became an American base. The school’s inner courtyard contained a large amount of equipment and explosives, and we suspect these remnants are the cause of the cases,” Salman told Rudaw.
Mohammed Sherwan, whose mother taught at the school until she died from cancer, shares the same belief.
“This school contained remnants of military equipment for many years, and it caused teachers, students, and residents of the neighborhood to develop cancer. My mother was one of the victims,” he said.
Residents, teachers, and students have filed numerous complaints with Kirkuk’s Human Rights Commission, which formed a committee to investigate the site, conducting field visits and health and environmental tests. However, they reported no evidence linking the school grounds to the illnesses.
“We formed a committee from the local administration, the health department, the education department, and the environment directorate, and we examined the area,” said Dhumya Mohammed, head of the Human Rights Office in Kirkuk.
“Later, we issued a report stating that the place is free of any harmful radiation. For your information, at that time we evacuated the school completely for three to four months and classes were moved to another building,” she added.
Kirkuk’s Education Department says it resumed classes at the school after receiving the committee’s official report confirming the site was safe.
“If the mukhtar [representative] of that neighborhood and those diagnosed with cancer come to us, we will submit their reports to higher authorities and form a new committee,” said Saman Majid, deputy director of Kirkuk’s Education Department.
If a new investigation proves the building poses a health risk, “we will close the building. People’s health is more important to us,” he said.
More than 500 students attend al-Wasiti Girls’ High School.
News of the high number of cancer cases has sparked fear among local residents. Some families have transferred their daughters to other schools.
The American military deployed depleted uranium weapons in Iraq in 2003 and it used open air burn pits to destroy trash, including jet fuel. Both have been linked to health problems, including cancer.
