Nexus - 0502 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Decades of Radiation Experiments on US Citizens". The report, ical treatment".® shelved by the Reagan administration, describes US Federal From 1946 to 1956, the 19 boys attending the Fernland School Government-sponsored radiation experiments conducted on more for the "mentally retarded" in Waltham, Massachusetts, were than 23,000 American subjects in about 1,400 different locations given radioactive food. The boys were members of the school's during the 30-year period from World War II, excluding tests "Science Club" and were given privileges, such as trips to base- sponsored by the Department of Defense or the Department of ball games, as well as special breakfasts: oatmeal and milk laced Energy.’ The experiments were conducted without the informed with radioactive iron and calcium.’ consent of the individuals involved. Starting in 1963, 131 inmates of state prisons in Oregon and Between 1943 and 1973, researchers from Harvard University Washington states were paid $200 each to have their testicles irra- and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted research diated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). on 40 teenage boys with intellectual disabilities. The boys were fed radioactive food, and the research was published in academic | Open-Air Nuclear Testing in Nevada journals. Parental consent forms did not mention radiation.* The list of atrocities against unwitting UScitizens mushroomed Between 1949 and 1957, the Medical College of Virginia with the 240 nuclear tests conducted in Nevada from the 1940s to (MCV) ran a secret metabolic lab with the primary goal of prepa- 1960s. Millions of people were exposed to radioactive fallout, ration for massive nuclear casualties. Doctors conducted a series while being told that these tests were safe. of dangerous experiments on hundreds of unsuspecting human These exercises in negligence and deception rose to new subjects (most of them poor and African-American) who had been heights from 1951 to 1962 when the British Government collabo- severely burned in accidents. These individuals became unwitting rated with the US in conducting 90 of these tests in Nevada, pro- human guinea pigs in the course of their free medical treatment in ducing radioactive iodine in quantities 10 times greater than the "special" burns units set up with US Army research funds. 1986 Chernoby] nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. At the MCV and two sister hospitals (Dooley, a charity hospital The population was not warned of the impending explosions at for black children, and St Philip, a hospital for black adults), the Nevada testing ground, located in the west, when it was evi- about 100 patients a year were subjected to experimental burning, dent that there would be fallout over much of the country. The radiation or antibiotic treatment in what were acknowledged to be fallout from the Nevada tests drifted across the US, causing hot "investigational purposes". Patients, already on the brink of death spots in large areas of Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Iowa, in the burns unit, were injected with radioactive isotopes. Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts. The "downwinders", In the secret lab at MCV, doctors inflicted first-, second- and people living in western states to the north and east of the tests , third-degree burns by focusing the beam of an intensely-hot army received doses of 5-15 rads; children aged three months to five searchlight to a narrow point of light and simulating a "flash years received 50-160 rads. Federal rules currently require pro- burn", measuring half a square inch, that an individual could tective action when radiation levels reach 15 rads. receive from a nuclear blast.* The Nevada tests could have caused as many as 50,000 cases of In the 1950s, many Alaskans were given radioactive isotopes so thyroid cancer across the US, after dairy cows and cattle became that their adaptation to cold could be studied. One hundred and —_ contaminated with radioactive iodine and passed the radiation on two Inuit and Gwich'in Indians were fed capsules of iodine-131 so to humans through their milk and beef.’ that US Air Force doctors could study the activity of their thyroid In 1965, the AEC deliberately caused a nuclear radioactive glands. The indigenes were told that they were receiving "med- cloud to pass over Los Angeles. The experiment was designed to oe monitor the effects of a malfunction aboard a nuclear- 3& powered rocket."° Scientists conducted the "controlled oF OL oay excursion" at 10.58 am on 12 January 1965. The rocket winds pushed the resultant radioactive debris cloud southwest from the test site, over Death Valley and then over the Los Angeles area. Aircraft stopped tracking the cloud when it began to drift over the Pacific Ocean." took off from Jackass Flats at the Nevada test site and burnt part of its radioactive core in a spectacle which sci- PRIMORDIA aan entists said "resembled a Roman candle". Prevailing poenemtemeem ee a \ British Radiation Experiments The British Government conducted radiation experi- ments on its own people for at least 40 years. Investigations involving more than 2,000 individuals took place from 1957 at government installations at Harwell, at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston, and at the chemical and biological research station at Porton Down. Ina similar fashion to US exper- iments, unsuspecting British citizens were fed contami- nated food, injected with radioactive isotopes and irradi- ated by their own government. The British television documentary Deadly Experiments, which was broadcast in the UK and Australia in 1996, graphically detailed the experimenta- tion through the eyes of radiation victims. Radioactive = 36 = NEXUS ical treatment".® From 1946 to 1956, the 19 boys attending the Fernland School for the "mentally retarded" in Waltham, Massachusetts, were given radioactive food. The boys were members of the school's "Science Club" and were given privileges, such as trips to base- ball games, as well as special breakfasts: oatmeal and milk laced with radioactive iron and calcium.’ Starting in 1963, 131 inmates of state prisons in Oregon and Washington states were paid $200 each to have their testicles irra- diated by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Open-Air Nuclear Testing in Nevada The list of atrocities against unwitting UScitizens mushroomed with the 240 nuclear tests conducted in Nevada from the 1940s to 1960s. Millions of people were exposed to radioactive fallout, while being told that these tests were safe. These exercises in negligence and deception rose to new heights from 1951 to 1962 when the British Government collabo- rated with the US in conducting 90 of these tests in Nevada, pro- ducing radioactive iodine in quantities 10 times greater than the 1986 Chernoby] nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. The population was not warned of the impending explosions at the Nevada testing ground, located in the west, when it was evi- dent that there would be fallout over much of the country. The fallout from the Nevada tests drifted across the US, causing hot spots in large areas of Utah, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Iowa, Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts. The "downwinders", people living in western states to the north and east of the tests , received doses of 5-15 rads; children aged three months to five years received 50-160 rads. Federal rules currently require pro- tective action when radiation levels reach 15 rads. The Nevada tests could have caused as many as 50,000 cases of thyroid cancer across the US, after dairy cows and cattle became contaminated with radioactive iodine and passed the radiation on to humans through their milk and beef.’ In 1965, the AEC deliberately caused a nuclear radioactive cloud to pass over Los Angeles. The experiment was designed to monitor the effects of a malfunction aboard a nuclear- powered rocket."° Scientists conducted the "controlled excursion" at 10.58 am on 12 January 1965. The rocket took off from Jackass Flats at the Nevada test site and burnt part of its radioactive core in a spectacle which sci- entists said "resembled a Roman candle". Prevailing winds pushed the resultant radioactive debris cloud southwest from the test site, over Death Valley and then over the Los Angeles area. Aircraft stopped tracking the cloud when it began to drift over the Pacific Ocean." FEBRUARY - MARCH 1998