Hidden history of US germ testing.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4701196.stmHidden history of US germ testing (Courtesy : Frank) [Maybe we know now what the bird flu will be and why certain people are talking of an imminent subway strike in a city.] Fifty years ago, American scientists were in a frantic race to counterwhat they saw as the Soviet threat from germ warfare. Biologicalpathogens they developed were tested on volunteers from a pacifistchurch and were also released in public places.The remarkable story is told in a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Hotel Anthrax.In the 1950s, the Seventh-day Adventist Church struck an extraordinarydeal with the US Army. It would provide test subjects for experimentson

biological weapons at the Fort Detrick research centre nearWashington DC.The volunteers were conscientious objectors who agreed to be infectedwith debilitating pathogens. In return, they were exempted fromfrontline warfare.Fort Detrick was working on weapons it could use in an offensivecapacity as well as ways of defending its troops and citizens.Hotel Anthrax uses declassified documents, evidence from Senateinvestigations and personal testimony to trace the American bio-weaponprogramme during this period.The research involved anthrax, other lethal bacteria and biologicalpoisons. The scientists also conducted tests on an unsuspectingAmerican public.Rabbit feverMore than 2,000 volunteers, nicknamed the "white coats", passedthrough Fort Detrick between 1954 and 1973, where they worked as labtechnicians, as well as offering up their bodies for science.One white coat, George Shores,

tells of how he was infected withtularaemia or rabbit fever.Even my gums hurt. I don't think I have ever been so sick in all my lifeGeorge ShoresA giant metal sphere, known as the Eight Ball because of itsresemblance to a snooker ball, was used in the experiment. Techniciansexploded prototype bio-weapons inside the structure."They had like telephone booths all the way around the outside of theEight Ball and you went into the telephone booth and shut the door andput on a mask like a gas mask."It was hooked up to the material that was inside the Eight Ball andyou breathed it in," explained Mr Shores.He began to feel ill before too long."Even my gums hurt. I don't think I have ever been so sick in all mylife. First it started as a headache and achy feelings and it justkept progressing."I just wanted to breathe enough to keep alive. I would just takelittle gasps of breath and I would

hold it for as long as I couldbecause it hurt so bad."I can imagine if someone was using that agent in the battlefield thesoldier would just have to lie down - he would not be able to function."The white coat volunteers were not infected with the most lethalmicrobes. Their role was to test the effectiveness of new vaccines andantibiotics and as soon as they became ill, they were given medicaltreatment. Within a few days, George Shores began to recover.But America's Institute of Medicine is conducting a study of more than6,000 veterans who say their health has been compromised by secrettests in the Cold War years.Some of these were veteran sailors who were involved in tests known asSHAD - Shipborne Hazard and Defense - which involved spraying lethalchemicals such as sarin and nerve gases in the open sea.The BBC programme makers also obtained declassified documents preparedby the US Department of

Veterans Affairs which refer to a study ofnearly 100 SHAD veterans who have since died.It found the veterans were three times more likely to have developedone of a group of killer diseases as a sample group in the generalpopulation.It concludes: "This study does suggest that veterans who participatedin Project SHAD may be at increased risk for cerebrovascular andrespiratory diseases."Subway experimentBut it wasn't just the white coat volunteers and sailors who weresubject to experiments. Scientists used what they thought was aharmless simulant in major bio-weapon tests across US cities and onpublic transport.It was a bacteria which they believed was harmless but which wouldmimic the dispersal of deadly biological agents such as anthrax.But later research showed that the strain of Bacillus globigii , orBG, did pose a risk to people who were ill or whose immune system

wasfailing.The programme hears from a retired scientist whose job in 1966 was todrop light bulbs carrying BG on the New York subway. He would thenmeasure how the simulant might spread in the event of a real attack,using a motorised vacuum devise concealed inside a suitcase.Wally Pannier, 82, recalls: "We'd just drop light bulbs with thepowdered stimulant inside."I think it spread pretty good because you had a natural aerosoldeveloped every few minutes from every train that went past."It's very hard to try and put today's ethics on standards 20, 30, 40years agoDr Michael KilpatrickIn 1994, the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs conducted what itdescribed as a comprehensive analysis stretching back 50 years of theextent to which veterans were exposed to potentially dangeroussubstances without knowledge or consent.It was chaired by John D Rockefeller.In a damning report, it

concluded that the Department of Defense (DoD)repeatedly failed to comply with required ethical standards when usinghuman subjects in military research - and that the DoD demonstrated apattern of misrepresenting the danger of various exposures andcontinued to do so.Dr Michael Kilpatrick, a medical adviser to the DoD, claims theconcerns which SHAD veterans have been raising may, finally, bechanging that behaviour."It's very hard to try and put today's ethics on standards 20, 30, 40years ago. That's not to excuse it. I think they were trying toprotect people using the medical science that was available at that time."We're taking a look at any current tests that require consent of ourmilitary personnel."We're making sure that there is an archive, a registry, a way to getback to all of the information."Hear part 1 of Hotel Anthrax at Radio 4's Listen again page.Part 2 is on Monday, 20 February,

2006 at 2000 GMT.LISTEN AGAIN TO THE LATEST PROGRAMMEListen to the programme Download the mp3 (16 MB)Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4701196.stmPublished: 2006/02/13 15:31:10 GMT© BBC MMVI "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

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