Re: DU Story

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@UCDAVIS.EDU>]

November 26, 2002

Davis, CA



Last night I went to hear Doug Rokke's performance at the Davis Community

Church concerning the "poisoning of whole nations by the use of DU

munitions by the U.S. military". In his talk Rokke made numerous technical

errors concerning uranium toxicology and health physics including saying

that a beta dose to the skin of 300 mrem exceeded the standard for whole

body exposure. I strongly objected to his misrepresentation of the DU

toxicology facts during the comment period. I think my objections fell on

closed minds, however, since this was a cultist group of "peace activists"

who think disarmament of our nation will lead to peace. Rokke's stated

purpose is to get the U.S. to stop using some of our best field weapons

that employ DU projectiles.



Rokke's performance was clever and polished. I think he has had

professional drama coaching. Not since Helen Caudicott have I heard such

masterful manipulation of the audience. He credited himself at every turn

with being highly principled while always casting the U.S. military as

nefarious and cold-blooded. He claimed he was fired by the government

because of his dedication to health and safety. 



Much of his talk involved references to toxic chemicals released by our

military action in the Gulf War, contaminated food provided by the Saudis,

and claimed poisoning of people by DU dust. He said he was a "health

physicist" and implied that he had a Ph.D. in physics by reference to being

in his "physics lab" while working on his doctorate. Actually, his

doctorate is in "Education Methodology", which I got him to admit during

the questioning. He is certainly not a qualified health physicist.

According to reliable sources, he is currently a substitute teacher in a

middle school in Urbana, Illinois, and a director of a children's camp in

the summers. 



Rokke said that in the Gulf War he was the "Director of the Army Depleted

Uranium Project," and that virtually everyone who worked on the project was

sick from exposure to DU. The diseases and ailments that he claimed for DU

conflict with 50 years of research on DU toxicology and with the findings

of the Department Defence who are carefully evaluating military personnel

who were exposed to high levels of airborne DU aerosols. See

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/du_ii



Unfortunately, the audience of about 100 people were enthralled with Rokke

and angry with me for objecting to his erroneous statements and

misrepresentation, but I think it was important to cast some doubt on this

charlatans's proclamations.



Otto









**********************************************

Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP

Center for Health & the Environment

(Street Address: Bldg. 3792, Old Davis Road) 

University of California, Davis, CA 95616

E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu

Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140

***********************************************

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/