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. TAB J MEMORANDUM TO: Members of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments FROM: Advisory Committee Staff DATE: August 31, 1994 RE: Update on Experimental Mapping: Navy and Air Force Experiments The committee staff has received just under two hundred pre- 1975 human radiation experiments from the Navy and Air Force. With the listings, the Navy sent supporting documentation for some of their experiments. We have requested supporting documentation from the Air Force.1 {1 As might be expected, additional experiments continue to turn up. For example, we have located a late 1940's Navy report on atomic-warfare related experimentation, which lists additional experiments.} The breakdown of the experiments given to us by the Navy and Air ] Force is as follows: Navy (115) Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Experimental -- 28 Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Accepted -- 11 Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Unknown -- 13 Intentional Releases -- 4 Biodistribution -- 11 Experiments of Opportunity -- 8 External - Partial -- 2 External - Total -- 3 Tracer -- 28 Unknown or Other -- 7 Air Force (83) Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Experimental -- 5 Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Accepted -- 12 Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Unknown -- 5 Intentional Releases -- 0 Biodistribution -- 1 Experiments of Opportunity -- 1 External - Partial -- 4 External - Total -- 2 Tracer -- 45 Unknown or Other -- 8 Items worth noting include 1) the predominance of tracer experiments; 2) the limited number of either partial or total body external radiation experiments in both groups. In addition, the Navy had significant numbers of experimental diagnostic experiments. Those experiments categorized as "Therapeutic/Diagnostic - Accepted" are basically non-radiation experiments which simply used x-rays or radioactive tracers in accepted ways in the course of the experiments. There has been some debate as to whether or not we should be putting these experiments into our data-base, but for now we are continuing to abstract them. 1 It is notable that both of these agencies presented us with well-organized materials. The Navy supplied us with binders containing fact sheets and supporting material. Unfortunately, the supporting material for particular experiments is frequently scant. As with past accessions, almost all of the material we were provided is available in publications or publicly-available agency reports. For those experiments which merit further research, we should easily be able to obtain published articles referred to in the fact sheets and abstracts. Official protocols, contracts, and medical records will be more elusive. Organization of Experiments The abstraction of these two collections highlights an issue which has existed in this process for some time now: the working definition of an experiment. Thus far, we have loosely individuated experiments mainly by their publication trail, so that four different articles represent four different experiments. This system is lacking in its ability to group closely-related experiments, however. Over the life of a piece of research, a research team may publish multiple articles and apply for several grants, all relating to the same basic work. While specific authors of the articles may vary, for the most part several senior researchers will remain constant through the project, while assisting junior scientists and post-docs rotate through the lab. While the resultant articles will have different titles and address slightly different questions, over the course of the project they will tend to cluster around similar techniques and scientific hypotheses. A group of closely related experiments, conducted by a core group of scientists in a particular lab might be called a "research program". While the parameters of a specific research program may be ambiguous, we believe that over the life of the committee, it may prove to be a useful organizing principle. As such, we will now begin putting experiments into our data-base clustered into research programs, where possible. Some such programs will contain but a single experiment (as denoted by a publication); others will contain dozens. Within any given program, individual experiments will continue to be abstracted and described. As we have reported in regard to the DOE-sponsored experiments, the data available on subject profiles is scant. Obtaining detailed information on this topic for many of these experiments will require searching patient records and private files. Before we undertake this, the Committee will have to decide which cases should be selected. Below is a sample of research programs from the Air Force and Navy collection. In parentheses at the end of each entry is the experiment category as well as the number of individual experiments or publications within that program. Air Force ù A series of cancer whole body radiation experiments conducted at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, 1954-63. The experiments, which may have been relied on by the nuclear powered airplane program (NEPA), involved over 250 subjects, making it one of the largest TBI research programs.. (TBI -- 2) 2 ù A 1953 experiment in which subjects viewed a nuclear blast to test the abilities of their retinas to adapt. Several suffered retinal damage. (External-partial -- 1) ù Experiments conducted 1968-71 in which patient radiation exposure during routine dental exams. Conducted at Dental Consult Services. (External-partial -- 2) ù A 1967 UCLA study of nuclear workers accidentally exposed to assess chromosomal change. Chromosomal damage noted. (Opportunity -- 1) ù A 1965 tracer study of deuterium oxide and tritium distribution and dosimetry in the human body , conducted at Brooks Air Base. (Biodistribution -- 1) ù Tracer studies done in the early 1960's at Brooks Air Base on cardia output. Much of the work was mathematical modelling. (Tracer -- 2) ù A series of I-131 thyroid-uptake studies conducted in the mid-1960s at Hospital Saint-Pierre, testing thyroid uptake in humans subjected to cold. ( Tracer -- 2) ù A 1968 tracer study on water distribution and weight-loss in space flight using tritium. (Tracer -- 1) ù A study on G-forces conducted at Brooks Air Base in 1969 which included a variety of albumin, erythrocytes, testosterone, and glycine tracer studies. (Tracer -- 1) ù Studies on weightlessness and G-force effects on pilots from the late 1960s. All involved radioactive tagging of various body fluids. (Tracer -- 6) *note: It is unclear whether or not this was one research program. Investigator's changed, and there is no information about the institution. ù A series of blood composition studies done at Brooks Air Base in the late 1960s, all involving tagging with Fe-59, I- 125, Cr-51, or H-3. (Tracer -- 11) ù A series of studies at Brooks Air Base, 1963-67, investigating the effects of prolonged bedrest or sitting on physiology. All used standard tracer techniques. (Tracer - - 11) 3 Navy ù Blood tracer studies done at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda (NNMC) by J. Sode in 1962 and 1972 involving Ca and K uptake in. (Tracer -- 2) ù Water retention studies done at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL), San Francisco, in 1959 using Tritium oxide. (Tracer -- 4) ù Several tracer experiments at NNMC in 1957 in which fat and albumin were tagged to measure blood-volume and pancreatin changes. (Tracer -- 2) ù Hematological studies conducted at NNMC over a fifteen-year period by a team consisting of E.R. King, R.P. Spencer, and T. Mitchell. (Tracer -- 5) ù Studies of bone using radiogallium at NNMC in 1950. (Tracer -- 3) ù Cisternography studies done at NNMC in the early 1970s. (Tracer -- 2) ù An extended program at the Naval Blood Research Lab (Boston University), beginning in 1964, on platelet survival. (Tracer -- 5) ù A number of projects on blood done at Cairo University starting in the mid-1960s. (Tracer -- 12) ù A 1951 study at the Bronx V.A. hospital on radiation sickness. (External -partial -- 1) ù Retrospective studies done at NNMC from 1956 to 1960 by a team headed by W.B. Looney on late health effects (25-30 years) of radiation exposure. (Experiment of Opportunity -- 5) ù Histopathological studies of Thorium dioxide, 1955-60, at NNMC. (Biodistribution -- 4) ù 1956 studies of Thorium distribution at University of Rochester. (Biodistribution -- 2) ù Experiments on Gallium excretion rates done at NNMC in 151- 52. (Biodistribution -- 2) ù A study of decontamination of human skin at the NRDL in 1956. (Intentional Release -- 1) ù A 1958 NRDL study of decontaminating hands. (Intentional Release -- 1) ù Studies of renal functioning and the urinary tract done at Great Lakes Naval Hospital in 1972. (Therapeutic/Diagnostic -- 2) ù A study on pressure effects on the inner ear (Aerotitis Media) at the Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (SMRL) in 1946. (Therapeutic/Diagnostic -- 2) 4 ù A 1972 study at Boston Naval Hospital using Ga-67 to detect breast cancer. (Therapeutic/Diagnostic -- 2) ù 1972 studies at San Diego Naval Hospital on lung cancer detection. (Therapeutic/Diagnostic -- 2) ù A 1954 study at Cleveland Deaconess Hospital on the use of partial body x-rays for treatment of Amenorrhea and sterility. (Therapeutic/Diagnostic -- 1) ù Studies done in 1961-62 using TBI as treatment for far- advanced malignancies. (TBI -- 3) 5