Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments EXPERIMENTS: WHAT IS LISTED AND WHY The list of experiments assembled and described by the Advisory Committee began with those explicitly identified in the Advisory Committee's charter, specifically: (1) The experiment into the atmospheric diffusion of radioactive gases and test of detectability, commonly referred to as "the Green Run test," by the former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Air Force in December 1949 in Hanford, Washington; (2) Two radiation warfare field experiments conducted at the AEC's Oak Ridge office in 1948 involving gamma radiation released from non-bomb point sources at or near ground level; (3) Six tests conducted during 1949-1952 of radiation warfare ballistic dispersal device containing radioactive agents at the U.S. Army's Dugway, Utah site; (4) Four atmospheric radiation-tracking tests in 1950 at Los Alamos, New Mexico; and (5) Any other similar experiments which may later be identified by the Interagency Working Group. To these initial instances, the Advisory Committee added those identified by Representative Markey in 1986 and described in the report of the hearings he sponsored, "American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Radiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens" (Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing Office, 1986). To these were added those publicly announced by the Department of Energy. The President's initial charge to the agencies, conveyed by the Secretary to the Cabinet on January 19, 1994, was that Each Agency should establish forthwith an initial procedure for locating records of human radiation experiments conducted by the Agency or under a contract or grant of the Agency. As a result of the search process thus begun, the agencies have produced a substantial volume of information about human radiation experiments but, as the scope of Advisory Committee's interests covers a fifty-year period, many early records have been difficult to find. Consequently, in addition to the agency process, the Advisory Committee has also sought to identify such experiments though the published literature, and as a result in several instances has been able to help identify where records might be located, or to provide clarifying interpretations of confused records. In addition, members of the public have come forward with their stories and documents, and these too have provided additional information. Throughout this process, the goal has never been comprehensiveness or completeness, in part because the records required to achieve such a goal no longer exist, but more importantly because the Advisory Committee's "research interests" are more directed at a substantive understanding of the governmental and ethical context of these activities rather than a definitive history. Such an understanding is the fundamental requirement for fulfilling the Advisory Committee's principal charges, namely, (1) determination of "the ethical and scientific standards and criteria by which it shall evaluate human radiation experiments," (2) evaluation of "the extent to which human radiation experiments were consistent with applicable ethical and scientific standards as determined by the Committee," and (3) recommending such changes in policy and remedies as would address the current situation. Documentation for the experiments listed, which varies considerably, may be retrieved in the Advisory Committee's Public Reading Room.