///e: Blowing the N-whistle : Depleted uranium: How dangerous is it?

[Guest guest]

You are going to see alot of men and women coming home from this so call "war" with a "mysterious illness". Already there are soldiers dying from this and the Pentagon is "investigating". Yeah, that is like putting a fox in the henhouse to guard it ...

 

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Misty

Health and Healing ; Armageddon or New Age

Friday, August 15, 2003 9:24 AM

Blowing the N-whistle : Depleted uranium: How dangerous is it?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4439.htmLots more articles on urlNEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNNBlowing the N-whistle : Depleted uranium: How dangerous is it?A former US military researcher tells Gay Alcorn of his crusade to exposethe health risks of depleted-uranium weapons used in the Gulf wars.Dr Rokke discusses the effects of depleted uraniumPLEASE WAIT FOR VIDEO TO LOAD: PRESS PLAY TO VIEWDoug Rokke sits on the edge of his chair in a beige, could-be-anywhere hotelroom in Carlton. He stares at you with an almost embarrassing intensity andis close to tears."It's lonely," he says slowly. "It's very lonely. I made a decision. I wasgiven a job. I did my job. I learned something. I gave them an answer theydidn't want. I became persona non grata. And the better parts of my lifeended."What remains is an obsession with proving he is right about the dangers ofdepleted uranium (DU) weapons. A waste produced from the uranium enrichmentprocess, depleted uranium has become increasingly contentious since Americanand British militaries first used it in the 1991 Gulf War and, since then,in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.Rokke, a health physicist who became the Pentagon's most senior DU expertduring the first Gulf War, became convinced it had contaminated thebattlefield and could be a factor in Gulf War Syndrome, the mysterious mixof illnesses that have afflicted returning soldiers. Rokke acknowledges DU'sbrilliance as a weapon - because it is an extremely dense metal thatsharpens and burns as it hits its target, it is used on the ends of tankshells and missiles to penetrate steel and concrete much more easily thanconventional weapons. But he also believes that he and the research teambecame contaminated. "Everybody is sick," he says. "We've all got rashes,respiratory and kidney problems. It's there; there are no two ways aboutit."Rokke is a military veteran. He joined the US Air Force in 1967 and bombedVietnam targets "before I could shave". Years later, with a master ofscience and expertise in environmental health, he was ordered to the Gulf tohelp protect American soldiers if chemical and biological weapons were usedand, later, to oversee DU clean-up. He became convinced DU was causingillnesses such as cancer, and that the Pentagon was downplaying its dangers.When he went public with his views, he was sackedHe is still campaigning, and this week urged the Australian Government,which doesn't allow weapons to be made with DU, to test returning troops forcontamination and to campaign for it to be banned globally.DU is only slightly radioactive - far less than uranium itself - but it isalso chemically toxic, and scientists are divided about whether thecombination poses a serious or remote health risk to soldiers and civilianswho come in contact with it or inhale its dust. Little rigorous research hasbeen done, and Rokke's theories remain unproven.The official American position is that it is safe. In March, US Army ColonelJames Naughton dismissed Iraqi claims that DU weapons caused cancers andleukaemia in children who played around bombed-out tanks and buildingsduring the first Gulf War. He claimed the real reason Iraq complained aboutDU weapons was because they were so effective. "Why do they (the then Iraqigovernment) want it to go away?" Naughton asked. "They want it to go awaybecause we kicked the crap out of them. There is no doubt DU gave us a hugeadvantage over their tanks."In the first Gulf War, most American deaths were from friendly-fire DUweapons. Rokke was ordered to decontaminate shot-up vehicles and tanks andto investigate health effects on troops. Dressed in protective gear andmasks, he and his team crawled over tanks and other vehicles, sending someback to the US. Those considered too dangerous to move were buried in agiant hole in the ground.In the mid-1990s, he was recalled from an academic job to head the DepletedUranium Project in Nevada, which test-fired weapons into targets to analysethe health risks and to work out how to clean up safely.Rokke, now 54, is convinced that he and other members of his team in Iraqwere contaminated and that the tests he undertook showed that significantamounts of the DU vaporised on impact, making it extremely dangerous wheninhaled. He pulls up his trouser leg to reveal the red rash he says appearedwithin hours of his contact with DU. He holds up his hand and moves fingersclumsily to show that his fine motor skills have gone. He has respiratoryproblems and cataracts and has medical reports showing that the amount ofuranium in his urine is way above acceptable limits.He has become a campaigner, not just for better clean-up and treatment, butfor the weapons to be banned. "After everything I've seen, everything I'vedone, it became very clear to me that you just can't take radioactive wastesfrom one nation and just throw it into another nation. It's wrong. It'ssimply wrong."Depleted uranium is so cheap and effective - 350 tonnes was used in weaponsin the first Gulf War and possibly 500 tonnes in this year's Iraq conflict -that Rokke says the US is reluctant to do proper studies of veterans orIraqi civilians. "It's the arrogance. Once they acknowledge that there areactual health effects of depleted uranium munitions, then they can't usethem any more; the house of cards falls apart."Rokke, brought to Melbourne by the Victorian Peace Network, has thesingle-mindedness of a whistleblower. He says he has lost friends, had hishouse ransacked, had his taxes audited and been publicly vilified for hisoutspokenness.Concerns about DU have found some political acceptance - the BritishGovernment has announced it will test returning troops for DU contamination.But neither it, nor Washington, plan decontamination in Iraq. In theAustralian Senate this week, Democrat Lynn Allison urged the Government tocampaign internationally against DU in the same way it does against clusterbombs. Defence Minister Robert Hill said Australian troops in Iraq were notin areas where DU was used, and "there is no conclusive evidence to indicatethat ammunition containing depleted uranium poses a significant adversehealth risk to (Australian) personnel operating in Iraq".The scientific evidence is cloudy because there has been so little research.It is broadly accepted that DU does little harm outside the body. But it maycause serious damage if it is inhaled. That means that people near where itis used could be contaminated, and it is possible it could seep into watertables.Professor Brian Spratt, chairman of the British Royal Society's DU workinggroup, this week told Radio National he welcomed the testing of Britishtroops, because it meant the government "was at least taking the issueseriously, which is a very different attitude to the American military, whoseem not to be interested in having any tests for their soldiers".Spratt acknowledged that the issue was deeply political: the military havereasons for downplaying DU's health effects, and the anti-nuclear lobby havean interest in inflating them.Rokke has faith he is doing what is right, and he clings to the belief thathe is still doing the job the Pentagon ordered him to do. "I didn't ask forthis job," he says. "I was given the job, and I'm going to finish the job."Gay Alcorn is a senior writer and former Washington correspondent for TheAge.First published in The Age: June 28th, 2003«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»NATIONWIDE DENTAL BENEFITS PACKAGE PLUSSAVE UP TO 80% on DENTAL, PRESCRIPTIONS DRUGS,GLASSES, CONTACTS, VISION CARE, & CHIROPRACTIC.$11.95 For Single or$19.95 For an entire household per month!Immediate Coverage * No Waiting Period Pre-existing Covered * No Limit on Benefits http://www.mybenefitsplus.com/MMerrill/ Email: MEM121«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§ - PULSE ON WORLD HEALTH CONSPIRACIES! §Subscribe:......... - To :.... - Any information here in is for educational purpose only, it may be news related, purely speculation or someone's opinion. Always consult with a qualified health practitioner before deciding on any course of treatment, especially for serious or life-threatening illnesses.**COPYRIGHT NOTICE**In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml