Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 22, 1994 TAG: 9410250019
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
In an interim report, the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments said it had documented at least 400 cases of human medical experiments involving radiation and had ``fragmentary indications'' of 1,000 more.
It also said it found that hundreds of intentional releases of radiation - many more than previously suspected - had occurred as part of the country's nuclear programs between the 1940s and 1975. It was not clear from the data provided how many of those releases involved exposure of the public or what levels of exposure were involved.
But Dr. Ruth Faden, the committee's chairwoman, said detailed information about many of the cases may never be known because of scant or missing documents. She also complained of ``significant roadblocks'' still being erected by government officials who refuse to declassify information about many of the radiation releases involving nuclear weapons programs.
``In a lot of cases, we may never have the kind of detailed information for drawing moral evaluations,'' said Faden, a professor of bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.
The advisory committee, charged by President Clinton last December to examine the extent of human radiation testing during the Cold War, will issue its final findings in six months, including recommendations on whether the government should compensate victims of improper or unethical actions.
Faden said that of the 400 biomedical experiments involving human subjects documented so far, it is clear some may have had therapeutic goals while others were aimed simply at learning more about radiation's effects on the body - something that was largely a mystery early in the nuclear age.
In many cases, it remains unclear whether the subjects had given proper consent in many of the experiments, she said.
But Faden said it is clear from documents uncovered so far that even in the 1940s and early '50s there was active debate ``at the highest reaches of government'' about whether humans should be used to learn more about radiation.
There were clear policies in place to safeguard subjects, ``but in some instances, these policies were not followed,'' Faden said at a news conference.
She and Daniel Guttman, the panel's executive director, said while there are gaps in the information about medical experiments, even less information has been made available about the intentional releases of radiation, largely stemming from the government's nuclear weapons programs.
A General Accounting Office report last year cited only 13 such releases, but the advisory panel has learned of at least several hundred such cases, and there likely are even more, said Guttman. He said the Defense Department continues to argue that details about the releases should remain classified for national security.
by CNB