Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments


             ABOUT THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS GOPHER


The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE),
appointed by the President to investigate and report on the use
of human beings as subjects of federally funded research using
ionizing radiation, has constructed this gopher to provide public
electronic access to information about its activities.  Created
by Executive Order and subject to the Federal Advisory Committee
Act (FACA), the Advisory Committee is obligated to provide public
access to its activities, processes and papers.  The Advisory
Committee believes, however, that the nature of the subject it is
investigating and the human stories that comprise it place on it
a special responsibility to disseminate as broadly as possible
the results of its investigations, the implications of that
history for our own time, and its best judgment concerning the
rights and responsibilities of those involved.  This gopher
represents an positive effort to make that information available
proactively and in advance of its availability at the National
Archives following the completion of the Advisory Committee's
work.

This gopher is a comprehensiveguide to what the Advisory
Committee has done and what it intends to do, and contains
information about what has been discovered and what is planned,
subject to the limitations of time and resources.  It contains,
therefore, complete records of Advisory Committee actions as
approved to date; complete descriptions of the primary research
materials discovered and analyzed to date; complete descriptions
of the print and non-print secondary resources used by the
Advisory Committee to date; a copy of the Interim Report of
October 21, 1994; and other information.  Some information is
presented in summary rather than full form.  For example, the
gopher does not contain information on government records at the
document level, although it does contain information about how to
get such information.  It also does not contain complete
descriptions of the experiments identified by the Advisory
Committee as of research interest, although it does give
identifying information for all of those so selected.   The
gopher is also prospective as well as retrospective.  There is a
schedule of the Advisory Committee's future meetings and guidance
on presenting information to the Advisory Committee at those
meetings or otherwise.

Questions about the Advisory Committee and its activities should
be directed to Steve Klaidman (sklaidma@achre.gov).  Questions
about this gopher and its contents should be directed to David
Saumweber (dsaumweb@achre.gov).