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K. DOD AND DVA HAVE REPEATEDLY FAILED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION AND MEDICAL FOLLOWUP TO THOSE WHO PARTICIPATE IN MILITARY RESEARCH OR ARE ORDERED TO TAKE INVESTIGATIONAL DRUGS.

A common theme voiced by military personnel who have participated in military research or training exercises over the last 50 years is the lack of information about the risks they faced and the lack of medical followup. World War II veterans frequently reported that they heard about the adverse health effects of mustard gas and lewisite from newspapers and television decades after they were exposed, not from the Department of Defense or Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans and civilians who worked at the Dugway Proving Ground and were exposed to a variety of biological and chemical simulants began to question the association of poor health with work as they compared information among themselves, not because of information provided by military officials. Veterans who were inside atomic clouds from atomic testing heard nothing at all from their government after they returned home from duty. Similarly, soldiers who knowingly participated in military research designed to test the effects of hallucinogens on human behavior were never given information to explain their hallucinations and suffered from severe psychological disorders as a result. Even today, most of those who served in the Persian Gulf indicate they have received no followup information about the investigational drugs they received.
It is the responsibility of DOD and VA to identify and keep track of veterans exposed to potentially dangerous substances so that they can receive medical care if needed. Even in situations where DOD believes an investigational drug is safe, such followup is necessary to establish with certainty whether exposures were safe, or whether they resulted in long-term side effects.

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O. DOD HAS DEMONSTRATED A PATTERN OF MISREPRESENTING THE DANGER OF VARIOUS MILITARY EXPOSURES THAT CONTINUES TODAY.

According to Dr. Leonard Cole, professor at Rutgers University, the DOD has denied the possibility of harm from various exposures. However, in many instances the military belatedly recognized that some exposures may be causing disease and death.¹⁵⁷ Such denial, however, delays the availability of medical assistance to those harmed.
For example, the military has released chemicals and biological agents through outdoor "open air" tests for over four decades. Some of these supposedly safe chemicals and biological agents, referred to as simulants, were also released over populated areas and cities.¹⁵⁸ Although scientific evidence suggested that the tests may have caused illnesses to exposed citizens, the Army repeatedly claimed that these bacteria and chemicals were harmless until adverse health effects convinced them to change the simulants used. The death of Edward .J Nevin was associated with the release of one simulant. Serratia marcescens, over San Francisco in 1950.¹⁵⁹ A subsequent court trial revealed that on September 26 and 27, 1950, the Army sprayed Serratia marcescens from a boat off the coast of San Francisco.¹⁶⁰ On September 29, patients at the Stanford University Hospital in San Francisco began appearing with Serratia marcescens infections. Although the judge denied the validity of the plaintiffs' claims that the exposures were related to the death of Mr. Nevin, the trial raised frightening questions about the selection of simulants. Serratia marcescens is no longer used by the military as a simulant.
Dugway Proving Ground has been a site for "open air" testing of chemical and biological agents for decades. The purpose of the tests is to determine how the agents spread and survive, and their effect on people and the environment. Earl Davenport is a veteran who participated in tests at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, first as a military employee and later as a civilian employee. He became ill in

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¹⁵⁷Hearing, May 6, 1994; testimony of Leonard A. Cole, Ph.D., professor, Rutgers University.

 

¹⁵⁸Ibid.

 

¹⁵⁹San Francisco Chronicle, December 22, 1976, page 1.

 

¹⁶⁰Cole, L.A. Clouds of Secrecy, The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas, Rowman and Littlefield, 1988, pp. 75-104.

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1984 after being exposed to a chemical simulant called DMMP (dimethyl methylphosphate). He had been spraying the chemical into the path of a laser beam when a sudden change in wind blew the chemical all over his face and hair before he was able to put on a protective mask. Although he was "wheezing and coughing" the next day, and his symptoms lasted for weeks, the Dugway Army Hospital merely gave him cough medicine and antibiotics. The Dugway Safety Office assured him that the chemical was safe. However, by 1988, officials at Dugway had reevaluated the simulant's danger, and were becoming concerned that DMMP could cause cancer and kidney damage.¹⁶¹ Mr. Davenport is currently attempting to obtain compensation for his illness from the Department of Labor, since his exposure occurred when he was employed at Dugway as a civilian.
In 1992, several military personnel from the Arizona National Guard experienced chemical burns during a summer training exercise at the Dugway Proving Grounds. According to two physicians, a daughter from one of the guardsmen also received chemical burns when she later handled her father's duffle bag. One of these doctors, Dr. Michael Vance, was contacted by military officials and encouraged to modify his written findings on the possible cause of the daughter's injury.¹⁶² He refused.
According to scientists and doctors from the University of Utah, there is great concern over the potential health consequences not only for military personnel who work and train at Dugway, but also for civilians who live in a small town and on an Indian reservation near the Proving Grounds.
Moreover, physicians from the Utah Medical Society have complained about the lack of information provided to the medical community about the agents that are used in Dugway, despite repeated requests.¹⁶³
According to Dr. Cole, the use of potentially harmful chemical and biological agents continues at Dugway even today. For example, he testified that the Army uses a simulant called Bacillus subtilis, "which is fairly harmless in many natural conditions, [but] is recognized as a potential source of infection and can cause serious illness in some people when they are exposed to it in large numbers and they inhale large numbers of those microorganisms."¹⁶⁴
Dr. Cole also testified about the lack of informed consent at Dugway in recent months. For example, in November 1993, a test that was intended to evaluate whether chemical agents could penetrate protective clothing used informed consent forms that did not mention the chemicals.¹⁶⁵

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¹⁶¹Hearing, May 6, 1994; testimony of Earl P. Davenport, veteran and former employee, Dugway Proving Ground.

 

¹⁶²Memorandum of phone interview with Dr. Michael Vance, Good Samaritan Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, March 21, 1994; in Committee files.

 

¹⁶³UMA Seeks Health and Safety Controls at Dugway," Bulletin of the Utah Medical Society, May 1992, Vol. 40, No. 5, p. 1; "UMA Joins Lawsuit Against Army," Bulletin of the Utah Medical Society, June 1992, Vol. 40, No. 6, p. 1; in Committee files.

 

¹⁶⁴Hearing, May 6, 1994; testimony of Dr. Cole.

 

¹⁶⁵Ibid.

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