Military veteran Douglas Rokke will be in Portland on Wednesday, October 8, to give a talk on "The Health Effects of Depleted Uranium" at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th, Portland, at 7 PM.

Doug Rokke, PhD., a veteran of the "Gulf War" and former director of the US Army's Depleted Uranium Project, plans to participate in the International Conference on Uranium Munitions in Hamburg Germany in mid-October, proposing that the effects of this weapon make its use in warfare and training illegal.

Depleted Uranium (DU) is a waste product from nuclear reactors used to make heavy metal tips on bullets and anti-tank ammunition. The U.S. used over 300 tons of DU in the 1991 war, and lesser but significant amounts in Kosovo/Serbia, Afghanistan and the latest war on Iraq. The heavy metal toxicity and radioactivity can damage lungs, kidneys, bone, skin, nerves, memory, sexual function and cause both genetic damage and birth abnormalities in children. Symptoms of exposure to DU include fibromyalgia, eye cataracts, radiation damage and particulates destroying the lungs.

In March, Rokke told the Sunday Herald: "This war was about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves... Such double standards are repellent."

Rokke decided to speak out publicly on DU because everybody on his environmental cleanup team was getting sick from contamination. One friend, John Sitton, was dying but the military refused him medical care, and he died.

Rokke's visit is currently being coordinated by the Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group, cosponsored by the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, Oregon PeaceWorks, Columbia River Fellowship for Peace, American Friends Service Committee, Traprock Peace Center (Deerfield, MA) and the First Unitarian Church-Portland.

Admission is suggested $5-10 sliding scale, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

For more information, to get involved, or to become a cosponsoring organization contact Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065. A downloadable flyer is available at http://www.rdrop.com/~pjw/rokkeposter2.pd f.

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Page updated September 26, 2003