|
In response to criticism about secret radiation tests in such states
as Utah, key federal agencies said Tuesday they have revised rules to
better ensure that test participants are fully informed and not
coerced into "volunteering."
But Congress was also told that legal loopholes still exist that could
allow field tests - such as those at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground from
the 1950s through the 1970s - to possibly proceed secretly in
violation of normal environmental rules.
That was according to testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee, which is following up on an 18-month study finished last
year by President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation
Experiments.
That panel, and Deseret News investigations, identified 77 field tests
at Dugway of arms that spread radioactive material; eight other
intentional meltdowns of small nuclear reactors there; and dozens of
medical tests in Utah that used radiation, with most using only in
small amounts to help trace blood cells.
Nationally, the panel identified 4,000 human radiation experiments
between 1944 and 1974.
Officials from the Defense and Energy departments and the National
Institutes of Health testified they have revised rules to better
ensure that test participants are fully informed of all risks, and at
risks are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated
benefits.
Gordon K. Soper, principal deputy to the assistant defense secretary
for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, noted that the
presidential panel worried many soldiers had been coerced into
"volunteering" to march near atomic bomb detonations to test effects
on them and their maneuvers.
"To fix this, Defense Department regulations will be revised to ensure
that officers and senior non-commissioned officers in the chain of
command are not present during the research recruitment briefing of
personnel under their command, and that an ombudsman be present,"
Soper said.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said, however, that he worries that not all
federal agencies doing human research have yet adopted similar rules,
"and human subject research that is not sponsored or connected to a
federal agency still is not protected in any way."
Glenn, the ranking Democrat on the committee who helped lead calls for
a review of radiation tests, was also upset that the loopholes could
allow radioactive field tests to be conducted in violation of normal
environmental law.
Bernice Steinhardt of the U.S. General Accounting Office said it found
that the Environmental Protection Agency relies on agencies doing
classified research "to have their own internal environmental
monitoring."
Also, it found that presidents may exempt such agencies from
environmental requirements in cases "involving the paramount interest
of the U.S." - but it found only two instances of that happening, once
in Nevada and once in Puerto Rico. It said others could have happened
in secret.
|
