Doug Rokke: Troops Report DU-Linked Uranium Sickness Symptoms

["David Quarter" <davidquarter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[From Rick Rozoff]

---------------------------
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/23/1056220529069.html

Sydney Morning Herald
AAP
June 23, 2003

Troops report uranium sickness symptoms: nuclear
expert

-During operation Desert Storm in 1991 Dr Rokke led a
team assigned to clean up uranium contamination caused
by friendly fire.
"What we saw can be described in only three words - Oh
my God! The wounds were horrible, the contamination
was extensive," he said.




Australian servicemen and women who served in the
recent Iraq war were reporting symptoms of uranium
sickness, a United States nuclear weapons expert said
today.

Dr Douglas Rokke is a former US Army nuclear health
physicist and was formerly the Pentagon's expert on
the health effects of depleted uranium ammunition.

Speaking in Melbourne today, Dr Rokke said Iraqi women
and children and American and Iraqi military personnel
had reported respiratory illnesses and rashes after
the recent conflict, and he had also been told of
Australian servicemen and women with similar symptoms.


"That's the reports I received from the US Army
medical department. That's something that needs to be
verified and looked into," he said.

"When American soldiers are sick and the Iraqis are
sick there's nothing that says an Australian soldier
is going to be isolated when he goes through those
areas and he is not going to become ill.


During operation Desert Storm in 1991 Dr Rokke led a
team assigned to clean up uranium contamination caused
by friendly fire.

"What we saw can be described in only three words - Oh
my God! The wounds were horrible, the contamination
was extensive," he said.

"Although myself and my team members wore respiratory
and skin protection, that protection we know today
does not provide any adequate protection against the
inhalation, the ingestion, the absorption of uranium
compounds."

He said he now suffered rashes, respiratory problems,
kidney problems and cataracts related to his exposure
to uranium.

Dr Rokke is in Australia to speak against the use of
depleted uranium weapons, which he describes as a
crime against humanity, creating a toxicological
nightmare.

He is campaigning for the outlawing of depleted
uranium munitions, medical care for those who have
been exposed to uranium and a clean-up of exposed
environments.

He will speak at public meetings and meet government
officials and returned service groups while in
Australia.

"What I have learned from my work is that uranium
munitions must be banned," Dr Rokke said.

"When we can no longer clean up the environment and we
can no longer provide medical care for anybody that's
exposed, then that weapon must never be used in
conflict."

Jacob Grech, of the OzPeace Network, said while
Australia did not use depleted uranium munitions, the
country exported between 2500 and 3000 tonnes of
uranium to the United States each year for energy.

"It's the waste energy products that is used in the
manufacture of these munitions.

"From the very start, before they are even made,
Australia and the Australian government is complicit
in the production of these weapons."

"We'd like our government as a bare minimum to put
Australian service veterans from the first and second
Gulf wars, as well as Afghanistan, through rigorous
testing to get a baseline study of exactly what the
health effects are of depleted uranium and other
chemical toxins ... and treat them," Mr Grech said.

"So far our government has been furphying, it's been
releasing reports which parrot the Pentagon line six
to 12 months later, it's been in a state of denial."

Mr Grech said he had not yet had reports of service
personnel from the most recent conflict suffering
uranium sickness, but there were a lot of veterans
from the first Gulf war displaying symptoms.

"I think what we are going to see with Australian
returned service people from the Gulf and Afghanistan
is 20 years down the track exactly what happened with
agent orange in Vietnam," Mr Grech said.



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