DISCLAIMER The following is a staff memorandum or other working document prepared for the members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. It should not be construed as representing the final conclusions of fact or interpretation of the issues. All staff memoranda are subject to revision based on further information and analysis. For conclusions and recommendations of the Advisory Committee, readers are advised to consult the Final Report to be published in 1995. MEMORANDUM TO: Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments FROM: Advisory Committee Staff DATE: June 9, 1995 RE: Documentary Update on Project Sunshine "Body Snatching" In a February staff memorandum (Briefing Book 11, Tab I-1) we discussed the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) fallout data gathering programs, Projects Gabriel and Sunshine. As part of Project Sunshine, which sought to measure strontium-90, the AEC engaged in an effort to collect baby bones from domestic and foreign sources. As discussed in the prior memorandum, the project involved the use of a cover story (those without clearance being told that the skeleton collection would be used to study naturally occurring radiation, and not that from fallout). Key participants in Project Sunshine at its onset included the AEC's Division of Biology and Medicine (DBM), its Director John Bugher, Columbia University's Dr. J. Laurence Kulp, and the University of Chicago's Dr. Willard Libby (who became an AEC Commissioner). A 1955 transcript classified as "secret" (located in the classified materials at the National Archives and recently declassified at the Committee's request), sheds more light on the role of tissue sampling in Project Sunshine. The transcript shows that considerable thought had been devoted to best ways to establish channels to procure "human samples," and the impact of secrecy on the effort. AEC Commissioner Willard Libby, who was a primary proponent of Project Sunshine, explained the great value of "body snatching," and noted that the AEC had even employed an "expensive law firm" to "look up the law of body snatching." The transcript further shows, as was also shown by the materials in the February Briefing Book, that the AEC tissue sampling program relied on personal contacts with medical professionals and other acquaintances who themselves lacked security clearance and were not aware of the still secret Sunshine efforts. The transcript does not indicate discussion of the need to reveal the activity to the subjects of sampling (where alive) or their family members. We attach pertinent excerpts from the transcript as Attachment 1. Please let us know if you would like the complete 196 page transcript. 1 The Importance of "Body Snatching" to Project Sunshine The transcript records a January 18, 1955 "Biophysics Conference" convened by the DBM to discuss the Gabriel-Sunshine program in light of the hydrogen bomb testing that was taking place in the Pacific. At the onset of the meeting, DBM director Bugher explained that the hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific required an acceleration of the research program: (Tr.3) The picture we had two years ago of being able to continue in a reasonably measured pace with respect to problems in environmental contamination has obviously not been possible to maintain. That is, events have overtaken us, and we must of necessity put on an accelerated program here as an expression of the fact that weapons have taken an enormous leap in energy release during the intervening time. Dr. Bugher alluded in particular to the worldwide public attention that followed upon the accidental irradiation of the Marshall Islands following the March, 1954 Bravo test: (Tr. 2-3) The events of this spring during the Castle [nuclear weapons test] series were such as to bring very dramatically to the public attention the fundamental character of the things with which we are dealing and the necessity for precise knowledge and good prediction. The meeting was then turned over to Dr. Libby, who was now an AEC Commissioner. Dr. Libby began by stating that there was no effort more important to the AEC than Sunshine. However. "[t]here are great gaps in the data." He explained that: (Tr. 6) By far the most important [gap] is human samples. We have been reduced to essentially zero level on the human samples. I don't know how to get them but I do say that it is a matter of prime importance to get them and particularly in the young age group. The supply of stillborns had evidently been shut off: (Tr. 7) We were fortunate, as you know to obtain a large number of stillborns as material. This supply, however, has now been cut off also, and shows no signs, I think, of being rejuvenated. 2 Therefore, Libby told the audience, expertise in "body snatching" would be highly valued: (Tr. 8) So human samples are of prime importance and if anybody knows how to do a good job of body snatching, they will really be serving their country. Libby recalled that when Project Sunshine was created in 1953, a law firm was hired to study this problem: (Tr. 12) I don't know how to snatch bodies. In the original study on the Sunshine at Rand [the Rand Corporation] in the summer of 1953, we hired an expensive law firm to look up the law of body snatching. This compendium is available to you. It is not very encouraging. It shows you how very difficult it is going to be to do legally. The law firm memorandum has not yet been located by the staff. The Availability of "Channels" of Supply The conferees discussed the need for a wide enough variety of samples to cover age ranges and potential variations among body parts. Dr. Kulp, from Columbia, explained that there were "channels:" (Tr. 16-17) Dr. Kulp: . . . we have the channels in these places where we are getting everything. We have three or four other leads where we could get complete age range samples from different other geographic localities. These three are Vancouver, Houston, and New York. We could easily get them from Puerto Rico and other places. We can get virtually everyone that dies in this range. Commissioner Libby: These are operative materials? Dr. Kulp: No. This is all deaths between one and thirty. Commissioner Libby: That is wonderful. Dr. Kulp: We have 20 coming from Vancouver and 20 from 3 Houston in this range that have already been taken. So the channel is there, and the samples are flowing in. Commissioner Libby: That is fine, Larry. Maybe you can reveal your technique to the other groups. Dr. Kulp further explained: (Tr. 81) Down in Houston they don't have all these rules. They claim that they can get virtually and they intend to get virtually every death in the age range we are interested in that occurs in the City of Houston. They have a lot of poverty cases and so on . . . . Furthermore, before coming down to this conference I talked at some length with the Dean of the Columbia Medical School, and he has contacts all over the world where he is sure we can develop identical programs. In particular, we could develop a program in Australia, South America, Africa, in the Near East, and in Scandinavian countries, if the conference and the people here would like to have this developed. Secrecy and the "Body Snatching Problem" The conferees discussed the way in which secrecy inhibited the program, but also noted the public relations consequences of openness. Dr. Libby suggested that the Commission might help make human samples more readily available by downgrading the "Sunshine classification:" (Tr. 12) At least the existence of the project I hope we will get away with revealing. Whether this is going to help in the body snatching problem, I don't know, I think it will. It is a delicate problem in public relations, obviously. I don't know. This is a major objective. Dr. Kulp explained that the difficulties could be overcome by good personal relations: (Tr. 186-87) You have to have personal interest in and almost a friendly tie to develop this, because you have to have the medical records. Yet 4 you have the security problem to deal with, too. I found in these cases that we have been able to develop that there was enough understanding and confidence so that the men did not require you to tell them anything except that they realized it was something confidential. They could guess, and they probably didn't guess very far wrong, but they were willing to cooperate on the basis that this was an important thing. I think with this connection through one of the top medical people who is internationally known, it will not be hard at all to establish the sites that we should establish. Dr. Bugher of DBM said the AEC was exploring a special security clearance: (Tr. 187) There is the system of L clearance, whereby when the need exists, we can disclose even restricted data to individuals not Q cleared, but who have had a preliminary check. That might be something which could be done without that individual having to fill out any forms or anything of the kind. For this purpose you are not dealing with irresponsible people. You are dealing with directors of hospitals and pathologists, and persons in general who have an understanding of the seriousness of the project in which we are engaged . . . . There was also discussion of the use of a "blind:" (Tr. 187-188) Dr. Bugher: . . . Then the other side of it is that we have a real interest in other things in the bones. I sometimes get worried that we don't take full advantage of our material. We are interested in trace elements of all kinds for that matter. So we have a potential chemical study here which is quite far-reaching. The thing that Dr. Kulp outlined is one way of getting human material. Are there any other schemes we might employ? Mr. Eisenbud [an AEC New York office official]: If you need to do it behind a blind as you might even want to do in the event it was declassified--you would still have a potential public relations problem--the blind could be the trace elements program as we have discussed. I am currently exploring with a medical examiner in 5 New York the chance of using his toxicological experiments for that. There would be a three way tie. We would give them a little support. That would give them the incentive of correlating everything in the New York metropolitan area, and we would take a good slice of it. Foreign Sampling Finally, there was discussion of the need for resources from other countries. Colonel Maxwell of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project suggested the Armed Services could provide some help for specimens of the local population. The possibilities included Germany, a native hospital in Formosa and the Navy unit in Cairo. (Tr. 189-190) Dr. Bugher explained that, in other contexts, it had been necessary to pay by the sample: (Tr. 190-191) I don't think that in other areas where one wants human material collected you have ever been successful unless you had someone locally responsible who got paid by the sample. Over the years in the Rockefeller Foundation in the yellow fever studies, we got tens of thousands of liver specimens all through Latin America by that scheme. Of course, we lost a few agents, too, who got shot or knifed, but not very many actually. It was a complete failure in Africa, though, for interesting reasons irrelevant to this thing. You almost always have to have somebody who sees some reward for himself in doing this work. It is too much to ask of people that they maintain a pure exalted scientific enthusiasm and are just collecting samples. The Sunshine Research Becomes Public As noted above, following the irradiation of the Marshall Islands in 1954, weapons testing and fallout became the subject of growing international debate. In 1956, Democratic Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevenson raised the issue during the Presidential Campaign. In October of that year Dr. Libby gave a presentation on the strontium research at the dedication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's new building in Washington. In February, 1957 Dr. Kulp's report on "Strontium-90 in Man," based on data from the worldwide network, appeared in Science. (Attachment 2) 6 In May and June, 1957 the Congressional Joint Committee on Atomic Energy held its first major hearing on fallout. In June, in response to a proposal from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the collection of children's milk teeth to measure strontium-90, Commissioner Libby wrote that the idea was good, but: (Attachment 3) However, I would not encourage publicity in connection with the program. We have found that in collecting human samples publicity is not particularly helpful. We could get the teeth going by having investigators make their own collections. The samples need not be too large. Dentists would help. 7