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Deseret News
Wednesday, November 20, 1996
U.S. PAYS UP FOR TESTING ON HUMANS
Woman, 11 families to get $4.8 million for Cold War radiation
experiments.
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The government has agreed to pay $4.8 million for conducting Cold
War-era radiation experiments on unwitting victims, the Energy
Department said Tuesday.
The money will go to one woman who was part of the experiments and the
families of 11 other people who have died. Energy Secretary Hazel
O'Leary announced the settlement in New York.
"This settlement goes to the very heart of the moral accountability
the government owes its citizens," O'Leary said in prepared remarks.
"We are grateful to the families for the tough lessons they have
taught us about trust, responsibility and accountability between the
government and the people."
The agreement represents the final settlement in 12 of 18 human
radiation experiment cases involving the injection of plutonium and
uranium, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Nine
of the 12 took place at the University of Rochester in upstate New
York.
The U.S. government sponsored thousands of human radiation experiments
between 1944 and 1974 that included injecting 18 hospital patients in
New York, Illinois, California and Tennessee with plutonium. The tests
sprang from efforts to develop atomic weapons.
"The purpose of the research - worker safety - was laudable," Ruth
Faden, head of an advisory panel on human radiation experiments
appointed by President Clinton, said previously. "Unfortunately, the
way they went about it was wrong."
The same panel helped uncover dozens of radiation weapons tests in
Utah at Dugway Proving Ground, several health studies measuring
effects of atomic bomb testing in southern Utah without the knowledge
of residents - and some tests on Utah State Prison inmates involving
radioactive substances.
However, it did not specifically recommend payments to anyone involved
in those tests, although it said the government may want to consider
it. It recommended such payments only to people who were intentionally
given plutonium without their knowledge.
The committee found that it was not uncommon for doctors to use
patients as test subjects without their knowledge in the 1940s.
Doctors believe the deaths of the 11 deceased experiment victims were
not related to the experiments.
The Clinton administration is drafting a report on human radiation
experiments to be released within two months.
In addition to the 12 cases, another plutonium claim was settled
earlier this summer.
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