The Plutonium Files
Encyclopedia
The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War is a 1999 book by Eileen Welsome
.
It is a history of U.S. government-engineered radiation experiments
on unwitting Americans, based on the Pulitzer Prize
–winning series Welsome wrote for the Albuquerque Tribune.
The purpose of the experiments was to assess the effect of radioactivity on the human body. For example, between April 1945 and July 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium
by doctors associated with the Manhattan Project
. None of these men, women, and children were told what was being done, and none gave informed consent. Most of the subjects, Welsome writes, "were the poor, the powerless, and the sick -- the very people who count most on the government to protect them".
These medical experiments were covered up for 40 years. When they became public, the government apologized but not a single doctor or hospital was publicly blamed.
One reviewer stated that Welsome's book is a "powerful indictment of an important part of the Manhattan Project and a warning of the evil that supposedly high-minded people can do when convinced of their own superiority and devoted to a goal that blinds them to simple humanity".
Eileen Welsome
Eileen Welsome is an American journalist. She received a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1994 while a reporter for The Albuquerque Tribune. She was awarded the prize for her articles about the government's human radiation experiments conducted on unwilling and unknowing Americans during...
.
It is a history of U.S. government-engineered radiation experiments
Human radiation experiments
Since the discovery of ionizing radiation, a number of human radiation experiments have been performed to understand the effects of ionizing radiation and radioactive contamination on the human body, specifically with the element plutonium....
on unwitting Americans, based on the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
–winning series Welsome wrote for the Albuquerque Tribune.
The purpose of the experiments was to assess the effect of radioactivity on the human body. For example, between April 1945 and July 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
by doctors associated with the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. None of these men, women, and children were told what was being done, and none gave informed consent. Most of the subjects, Welsome writes, "were the poor, the powerless, and the sick -- the very people who count most on the government to protect them".
These medical experiments were covered up for 40 years. When they became public, the government apologized but not a single doctor or hospital was publicly blamed.
One reviewer stated that Welsome's book is a "powerful indictment of an important part of the Manhattan Project and a warning of the evil that supposedly high-minded people can do when convinced of their own superiority and devoted to a goal that blinds them to simple humanity".
See also
- Experimentation on prisonersExperimentation on prisonersThroughout history prisoners have been frequent participants in scientific, medical and social human subject research. The history of research involving prisoners has been exploitative and cruel, and many of the modern protections for human subjects evolved in response to the abuses in prisoner...
- Harold HodgeHarold HodgeHarold Carpenter Hodge was a well-known toxicologist who published close to 300 papers and 5 books. He was the first president of the Society of Toxicology in 1960. He received a BS from Illinois Wesleyan University and a PhD in 1930 from the State University of Iowa, publishing his first paper in...
- Unethical human experimentation in the United States