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Re: For Your Entertainment
I'm sorry, I didn't find it entertaining at all...
In fact, it's a bit scary. He's claiming things that are different from
what is being claimed on this list as I understand it.
"The problem with DU, he said, is the stuff that's given off when a round
is fired. The projectile begins burning immediately, and up to 70 percent
of it oxidizes. This aerosolized power—uranium oxide—is the really
dangerous stuff, Rokke said, particularly when it is inhaled."
Now this may not be a specific radiation hazard, but rather a heavy metals
hazard, but it's a hazard nonetheless. Didn't high levels of mercury in
fish bring down (or almost bring down) a government in Canada 20-ish years
ago? Fourteen years ago when I replumbed my house, I was early on the
bandwagon of using non-lead-bearing solder. Unless it's INSIDE my water
heater or the faucets I purchased, there isn't a lead-bearing solder joint
in any of the copper supply plumbing in my house--I inspected the plumbers'
rolls of solder and used my own lead-free stuff on the parts I did.
--
The following is an odd discrepancy (Oh how I wish people would write 0.3
and 0.1, but I'm pretty sure the decimal points are in the original text.)
"Rokke insists that he and his men were wearing protective equipment—or
equipment they thought would protect them. But their face masks were
capable of straining out particles of 10 microns or larger. That's as big
as the DU particles get, according to the Army and the Pentagon.
"Rokke, however, insists that he has measured particles as small as .3
microns, and that scientists at the Livermore laboratories have measured
them as small as .1 micron."
Again, a heavy-metals item, not necessarily a radiation item.
--
BUT, this _IS_ a radiation issue:
"Rokke and his crew were measuring significant levels of radiation up to 50
meters away from affected tanks: up to 300 millirems an hour in beta and
gamma radiation, and alpha radiation from the thousands to the millions in
counts per minute (CPM) on a Geiger counter."
Yes, I realize that CPM might apply to beta, too, and that the GM may only
properly measure gamma, but the idea is there. The counter is buzzing, not
just serenely ticking.
And then (if true) this:
"The VA tested Rokke for uranium levels in his body in 1994. He got the
results back two and a half years later. His urine had 5000 times the
amount of permissible uranium."
Sorry, it's not entertaining. It's a sore spot with me. I realize that
we've discussed Rokke before and some (all?) of his "testimony" was
discounted, but I'm not yet sophisticated enough to laugh all of this off.
Sorry.
Happy New Year!
Richard
At 03:41 PM 12/29/2002 -0500, BobCherry@AOL.COM wrote:
><http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1687>http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=1687
>
>Bob C
>bobcherry@aol.com
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