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were racing to produce the world's first atomic bomb. meetings were convened in Washington, with compulsory atten- The farms downwind in Gloucester and Salem counties were dance by scores of scientists and officials from the US War famous for their high-quality produce. Their peaches went direct- Department, the Manhattan Project, the Food and Drug ly to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City; their tomatoes Administration, the Agriculture and Justice departments, the US were bought up by Campbell's Soup. Army's Chemical Warfare Service and Edgewood Arsenal, the But in the summer of 1944 the farmers began reporting that Bureau of Standards, as well as lawyers from DuPont. their crops were blighted: "Something is burning up the peach Declassified memos of the meetings reveal a secret mobilisation crops around here." They said that poultry died after an all-night —_ of the full forces of the government to defeat the New Jersey thunderstorm, and that farm workers who ate produce they'd farmers. picked would sometimes vomit all night and into the next day. In a memo (2 May 1946) copied to General Groves, Manhattan "I remember our horses looked sick and were too stiff to work," Project Lt Colonel Cooper B. Rhodes notes that these agencies Mildred Giordano, a teenager at the time, told these reporters. "are making scientific investigations to obtain evidence which Some cows were so crippled that they could not stand up; they may be used to protect the interest of the Government at the trial could only graze by crawling on their bellies. of the suits brought by owners of peach orchards in...New Jersey". The account was confirmed in taped interviews with Philip Regarding these lawsuits, General Groves wrote to the Sadtler (shortly before he died), of Sadtler Laboratories of Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy in Philadelphia, one of the nation's oldest chemical consulting firms. a memo of 28 February 1946, advising that "the Department of Sadtler had personally conducted the initial investigation of the Justice is cooperating in the defense of these suits". damage. Why the national security emergency over Although the farmers did not know it, the a few lawsuits by New Jersey farmers? In attention of the Manhattan Project and the The New Jersey farmers 1946 the United States began full-scale pro- federal government was rivetted on the New . . duction of atomic bombs. No other nation Jersey incident, according to once-secret waited until the war was had yet tested a nuclear weapon, and the A- y g y' Ip Pe er om | Ver before suing DuPont | Pb vas sor xc fa U5 kode Manhattan Project chief Major-General and the Manhattan ride lawsuits were a serious roadblock to Leslie R. Groves to the Commanding Project for fluoride that strategy. "The specter of endless law- General of Army Service Forces at the suits haunted the military," wrote Lansing Pentagon, concerns the investigation of crop damage—reportedly the Lamont in Day of Trinity, his acclaimed damage at Li Penns Neck, New Jersey. H H H book about the first atomic bomb test. It states: "At the request of the Secretary of | TtSt Tawsuits against the | orth tarmers won, it would open the War, the Department of Agriculture has US atomic bomb door to further suits which might impede the agreed to cooperate in investigatin. bomb program's ability to use fluo- complaints Por crop damage program. ride," commented Tacqueline Kittrell, a attributed...to fumes from a plant oper- Tennessee public interest lawyer who ated in connection with the Manhattan examined the declassified fluoride doc - Project." uments. (Kittrell specialises in Although seemingly After the war's end, Dr Harold C. trivial, the lawsuits shook nuclear-related litigation and has repre- Hodge, the Manhattan Project's chief of sented plaintiffs in several human radi- fluoride toxicology studies, worriedly the government, the ation experiment cases.) "The reports wrote in a secret memo (1 March 1946) secret documents of human injury were especially threat- to his boss, Colonel Stafford L. Warren, chief of the Medical Section, about "problems associated with the question of fluoride contamination of the atmos- phere in a certain section of New Jersey". ening because of the potential for enor- reveal. mous settlements—not to mention the PR problem," she added. Indeed, DuPont was particularly concerned about the "possible psycho- logic reaction" to the New Jersey pol- "There seem to be four distinct (though related) problems: lution incident, according to a secret Manhattan Project memo of "1. A question of injury of the peach crop in 1944. 1 March 1946. Facing a threat from the Food and Drug "2. A report of extraordinary fluoride content of vegetables Administration (FDA) to embargo the region's produce because of grown in this area. “high fluoride content", DuPont dispatched its lawyers to the FDA "3. A report of abnormally high fluoride content in the blood of —_ offices in Washington, DC, where an agitated meeting ensued. human individuals residing in this area. According to a memo sent next day to General Groves, DuPont's "4. A report raising the question of serious poisoning of horses lawyer argued that "in view of the pending suits...any action by and cattle in this area." the Food and Drug Administration...would have a serious effect on the DuPont Company and would create a bad public relations FLUORIDE DAMAGE: THE FIRST LAWSUITS situation". After the meeting adjourned, Manhattan Project The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over before Captain John Davies approached the FDA's Food Division chief suing DuPont and the Manhattan Project for fluoride damage— and "impressed upon Dr White the substantial interest which the reportedly the first lawsuits against the US atomic bomb program. Government had in claims which might arise as a result of action Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, which might be taken by the Food and Drug Administration". the secret documents reveal. There was no embargo. Instead, according to General Groves' Under the personal direction of Major-General Groves, secret memo of 27 August 1946, new tests for fluoride in the New program. the government, the secret documents reveal. FLUORIDE DAMAGE: THE FIRST LAWSUITS The New Jersey farmers waited until the war was over before suing DuPont and the Manhattan Project for fluoride damage— reportedly the first lawsuits against the US atomic bomb program. Although seemingly trivial, the lawsuits shook the government, the secret documents reveal. Under the personal direction of Major-General Groves, secret APRIL - MAY 1998 NEXUS © 15 Project for fluoride