Human radiation experiments

use of brainwashing - "...CIA has told the Committee that MKULTRA involved human experimentation using every research "avenue" listed in the MKULTRA document except for radiation. The agency also noted that most of the MKULTRA records were deliberately destroyed in 1973 by the order of then-Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms. In early September 1991. the agency found a document that summarized work done for ARTICHOKE which states that "[i]n addition to hypnosis. chemical and psychiatric research. the following fields have been explored...other physical manifestations. including heat and cold, atmospheric pressure, radiation." Although there is no indication from this document that radiation was explored on humans directly. it makes clear that CIA did "explore" radiation as a possibility for the defensive and offensive use of brainwashing and other interrogating techniques. In another MKULTRA project, CIA secretly provided funding for the construction of a wing of Georgetown University Hospital in the 1950s so that it would have a locale to carry out clinical testing of its biological and chemical programs. Dr. Charles F. Geschickter, a Georgetown doctor who conducted cancer research and experimented with radiation therapy, acted as cover for CIA financing. CIA also tried unsuccessfully to enlist AEC to co-fund the project by appealing to its interest in Geschickter's radiation research. Geschickter testified before Congress in 1977 that CIA money helped fund his radioisotope lab and equipment. Thus, CIA money seems to have helped fund radiation-related medical research as a cover for the agency's real interest in chemical and biological research..." (MK-Ultra: The CIA and Radiation).

ionizing radiation - "...In January 1994, the Clinton administration established a Human Radiation Interagency Working Group to coordinate a Government-wide effort to uncover the nature and extent of any Government-sponsored experiments on individuals involving intentional exposure to ionizing radiation. The working group represents the Administration's response to Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's promise to comb Government files for information on hundreds of experiments conducted on people in the 1940's and 1950's. To assist in identifying those people who may have been harmed by secret experiments utilizing ionizing radiation, the Clinton administration solicited complaints from possible victims by installing several telephone hotlines. As of September 1994, 86 percent of the 21,996 callers to the radiation hotline were veterans who believed they had participated in various radiation "experiments." A VA advisory committee has concluded that activities other than atomic weapons tests and occupation force activities resulted in the exposure of veterans to ionizing radiation during their military service prior to 1970. (Note 36) The committee concluded that the records for many individuals who were exposed to such activities are inadequate or inaccessible. Additionally, the committee concluded that information pertinent to military exposures is not always adequate to evaluate the health risks..." (Is Military Research Hazardous To Veterans' Health)

informed consent - "...About 15 years ago, a reporter at the Albuquerque Tribune discovered evidence that during the Cold War, the U.S. government carried out radiation experiments on U.S. citizens without their knowledge or consent, all under the shadow of classified research. When the story hit the newswires, the U.S. public was outraged. President Bill Clinton responded by establishing the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), calling on it to review Washington's past actions and recommend steps that would prevent such heinous human experiments from ever taking place again...So while it seems crazy, it's true: Today, in a country that for the last eight years has been defined by questionable intelligence-gathering techniques and interrogation methods, the U.S. government is no more restricted in carrying out nonconsensual, classified research on human subjects than it was after World War II. Thus, it's time for the Obama administration to reexamine the guidelines for classified experimentation on human subjects and close any loopholes that would allow a person to be unknowingly subject to experimentation. In fact, a prohibition on waiving informed consent in classified human-subject experiments should be the centerpiece of any new legislation--the waiver of this right being perhaps the most offensive aspect of the Cold War research programs...Is the United States carrying out human-subject research without consent right now? We don't know. But speculation about the future of research and experimentation doesn't inspire confidence. Jonathan Moreno, a biomedical expert and author of Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans, writes, "Among the next generation of weapons is one that may involve a different sort of radiation than that emitted by atomic fission: microwaves. Electromagnetic waves may be used to disrupt an enemy soldier's central nervous system, to cause epileptic seizures." Anyone who doubts that the U.S. military may be considering such research need only consult a 2006 navy directive PDF that includes guidelines for waiving consent and suggests the potential for research involving "severe or unusual intrusion, either physical or psychological, on human subjects (such as consciousness-altering drugs or mind-control techniques)..." (Outlaw nonconsensual human experiments now)

Human radiation experiments 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. 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 (Wikepedia).

RELATED READING:

• Unethical human experimentation in the United States
• More Human Radiation Test
• Nuclear tests ravage family's health
• The Effects of Low-dose Radiation
• The human cost of Soviet nuclear tests
• Nuclear Issues
• The Human Radiation Experiments
• The nuclear bodysnatchers
• Resources on Non-consensual Human Experimentation
• Human Radiation Experiments Final Report (Video)