In the shadows of the Manhattan Project’s quest for an atomic bomb, an unsettling chapter of scientific history unfolded, one where human beings became subjects in radiation experiments. A cascade of secrecy shrouded these experiments, conducted between 1945 and 1947, involving unwitting participants and classified substances like plutonium, polonium, and uranium.
The first documented plutonium injection occurred on April 10, 1945, at the Oak Ridge Army Hospital, where Ebb Cade, an African American man, became an unwitting participant after a car accident left him hospitalized. The lack of consent in this and subsequent experiments remains a profound ethical breach.Friedell himself supervised the first human injection of plutonium at Oak Ridge. In a letter to Hempelmann, Friedell wrote, “I think that we will have access to considerable clinical material here, and we hope to do a number of subjects.”
While the injected amounts were not expected to produce immediate effects, the long-term risk of cancer for these individuals was a grim reality brushed aside. The experiments in Chicago saw cancer patients injected with doses of plutonium under the guise of gaining essential information for the future. However, as later interviews revealed, consent was often dubious or non-existent, with participants misled about the nature of their injections.
The experimentation extended beyond injections. The University of Rochester, a hub of radiation research during the war, saw subjects injected with isotopes such as plutonium and polonium. Misinformation was prevalent, with one advisory committee member suggesting that the utility of plutonium in controlling “growth processes” might offer benefits. This deceptive language clouded the truth: these substances held no therapeutic promise.
Despite the veil of secrecy, some details did emerge. The son of one subject, Jan Stadt, declared, “My mother, Jan Stadt, had a number, HP-8. She was injected with plutonium on March 9th, 1946. She was forty-one years old, and I was eleven years old at the time. My mother and father were never told or asked for any kind of consent to have this done to them.”
These human experiments continued at various institutions, including the University of California, where between April 1945 and July 1947, three individuals were injected with plutonium. The justifications were often cloaked in a language of necessity and benefit to future patients, but ethical considerations were trampled in the process.
In the years that followed, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) attempted to manage the fallout from these experiments. Notably, in March 1947, Major Brundage of the AEC approved further research involving radioactive substances, but by the end of that year, an abandonment of such human experimentation programs was ordered. Yet, this did not mark an end to such practices, as human experimentation resumed at the University of California by summer 1947 under AEC contract.
A memorandum from the Atomic Energy Commission dated April 1947 recommended that human experimentation not be made public because it could negatively impact public opinion or lead to legal action. Due to this concern, the findings of this research were mostly kept confidential.
When the AEC took over from the Manhattan District in 1947, the protocol was revised to include the necessity of documenting patient consent and having a “reasonable hope” that the substance would benefit the patient medically. Unfortunately, these guidelines were implemented after the fact, and doctors continued to examine samples from the initial thirty patients without informing them of the reasons.
Relevant articles:
– Chapter 5: The Manhattan District Experiments, Department of Energy (.gov)
– Human Radiation Experiments, Nuclear Museum, Jul 11, 2017
– Chapter 5: Human Experimentation Continues, Department of Energy (.gov)
– Case: Radiation Experiments, Queensborough Community College