
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401140158
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WALTHAM, MASS.                                LENGTH: Medium

HEARING EXAMINES RADIATION RESEARCH

Two former patients at a school for the mentally retarded told Thursday of how they were guinea pigs in food studies using radioactive particles 40 years ago as members of a "science club."

"At that particular time, I could not read or write," said Austin LaRocque, a former patient at the Fernald State School. "I had no knowledge of anything, other than I did what I was told, when I was told."

His comment came during the first congressional hearing in what promises to be a long investigation into government-backed atomic experiments during the first two decades of the Cold War, spurred by recent reports of plutonium tests on people after World War II.

Only small doses of radiation were administered to about 120 students at Fernald. But experts told a panel headed by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Edward Markey, both Massachusetts Democrats, that the Fernald experiments were deplorable because the researchers failed to get the full consent of participants or their guardians.

The tests also were faulted for not having any direct benefit to the participants.

"It was a typical failing of research in those days," said Dr. Kenneth Ryan, a Harvard Medical School professor who helped develop more stringent federal guidelines in the 1970s for research involving humans.

Radioactive isotopes were given in milk and cereal to students at Fernald to see if a chemical in oatmeal would interfere with the body's ability to absorb iron and calcium, said David Litster, head of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT and Harvard faculty were involved in the studies.

LaRocque and Charles Dyer, another former student, said they didn't know until they were told of news reports this month that the tests they participated in as members of a "science club" involved radioactive material.

Litster said the average intake of irradiated iron by the children averaged about 230 millirems.

He said about "300 millirems is the natural amount of radiation we are exposed to by living in Boston."

by CNB