Human Radiation Experiments Information
Since the discovery of ionizing radiation, a number of human radiation experiments have been performed to understand the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination on the human body, specifically with the element plutonium.
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Experiments performed in the United States
Main article: Human radiation experiments in the United StatesNumerous human radiation experiments have been performed in the United States, many of which were funded by various U.S. government agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Commission. Experiments included (amongst other things):
- injecting radioactive substances into babies and pregnant women[1]
- implanting radioactive material within the cervix of women
- irradiating the heads of children[2]
- feeding radioactive material to mentally disabled children(Tanner Spencer)[1]
- exposing U.S. soldiers and prisoners to high levels of radiation[1]
- irradiating the testicles of prisoners, which caused severe birth defects[1]
- illegally exhuming bodies from graveyards to test them for radiation (without the consent of the families of the deceased)[3]
On January 15, 1994, President Bill Clinton formed the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), chaired by Ruth Faden of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. The committee was created to investigate and report the use of human beings as test subjects in experiments involving the effects of ionizing radiation in federally funded research. The committee discovered the causes of the experiments, and reasons why the proper oversight did not exist, and made several recommendations to prevent future occurrences of similar events. The final report issued by the ACHRE can be found at the Department of Energy's website here: [1].
For further information, please see: Human radiation experiments in the United States
See also
- MKULTRA
- Project SUNSHINE
- Nuclear and radiation accidents
- Radiation poisoning
- Radioactive contamination
- Human experimentation
- Totskoye range nuclear tests
- Walter E. Fernald State School
References
- ^ a b c d # The Plutonium Files: America's secret medical experiments in the Cold War, by Eileen Welsome, Dial Press, c1999, New York, N.Y., ISBN 0-385-31402-7
- ^ Kaye, Jeff. "Documentary on Early U.S. Radiation Experiments on Black Children". firedoglake. http://my.firedoglake.com/valtin/2011/05/25/documentary-on-early-u-s-radiation-experiments-on-black-children-video-trailer/. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
- ^ http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/scotorgrev/Documents/Project%20Sunshine%20%20slippery%20slope.pdf
Further reading
- Killing Our Own: The disaster of America's experience with atomic radiation, by Harvey Wasserman, Delacorte Press, c1992, ISBN 978-0440045670
- The Treatment: The Story of Those Who Died in the Cincinnati Radiation Tests, by Martha Stephens, Duke University Press, c2002, Durham, N.C., ISBN 0-8223-2811-9
- Bravo for the Marshallese: Regaining Control in a Post-Nuclear, Post-Colonial World, by Holly M. Barker, Wadsworth, 2004. ISBN 0-534-61326-8
- Chair's Perspective on the Work of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments by Ruth Faden
External links
- PROJECT SUNSHINE AND THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
- The nuclear bodysnatchers
- Grave injustices
- "A Little of the Buchenwald Touch": America's Secret Radiation Experiments
- Cheryl Welsh, Outlaw nonconsensual human experiments now The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, June 16, 2009.
- Embassy of the Republic of the Marshall Islands
- The Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
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Categories: Radiobiology | Bioethics | Human experimentation in the United States | Radiation health effects
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