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Patients who were unknowingly injected with plutonium in Cold War
experiments weren't always already sick with terminal illness - which
government researchers claimed.
And most of the patients were never told they were part of
experiments, in part, for fear of lawsuits and bad publicity.
That's according to new documents released Wednesday by President
Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.
They not only add details about plutonium experiments - disclosure of
which by the Albuquerque Tribune won the paper a Pulitzer Prize and
led to creation of the committee. They also show the mindset of some
government researchers during the Cold War.
While none of the known plutonium experiments occurred in Utah, the
committee is looking at several other Cold War radiation experiments
that did.
They include testing of weapons at Dugway Proving Ground that spread
radioactive dust to the wind; tests that injected some Utah State
Prison inmates with radioactive material; and tests on some Utah
veterans who were injected with radioactive strontium.
The new documents show that government researchers in the 1940s and
'50s wanted desperately to know better how plutonium - being used in
bomb production - affected human metabolism. So some people were
injected with it unknowingly in Rochester, N.Y.; Chicago; San
Francisco; and Oak Ridge, Tenn.
While reports made public earlier had written that all subjects were
terminally ill, the new documents - including some unused early drafts
of the other reports - show that wasn't always the case.
Correspondence between researchers in 1946 showed, as advisory
committee researchers wrote, "that it was not until after several
non-terminal patients were injected at Rochester that the first
terminal patient was injected."
On top of that, that person had been misdiagnosed. As Dr. Samuel
Bassett at the University of Rochester wrote, "This case did not turn
out to be terminal."
Documents also showed researchers looked not necessarily for people
with terminal illness but for "those who might reasonably gain from
continued residence in the hospital for a month or more."
An unused draft of the report on the tests added, "Patients with
malignant disease were also omitted from the group on the grounds that
their metabolism might be affected in an unknown manner."
Documents made clear that most of the people never knew they were part
of the experiments. For example, a 1971 document showed researchers
considered approaching some elderly survivors of the experiments for
some urine and stool samples.
But it said they would have to be approached carefully. "They do not
know they received any radioactive material," wrote Dr. Patricia
Durban.
Documents also show reports about the experiments were kept secret for
decades, in part, for fear of bad publicity or lawsuits.
For example, a Feb. 18, 1947, document shows researchers wanted
reports kept secret "because of possible unfavorable public relations
and in an attempt to protect Dr. Bassett (a researcher at the
University of Rochester) from any possible legal entanglements."
Documents previously released by the commission also showed that the
Department of Defense similarly kept secret reports about radiation
weapons tests in Utah for fear of bad publicity and lawsuits.
Other documents released Wednesday also showed the military suggested
to contractors that they should obey the Nuremberg Code - and ensure
that people involved in experiments should be fully informed and give
their permission.
Earlier disclosures showed that the military adopted the Nuremberg
Code - but classified that action "top secret," which made some wonder
if it were ever truly implemented. The documents Wednesday show the
military at least informally told contractors they should obey such
standards.
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