Interim Report on Human Radiation Experiments, US Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command

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1. Reference message, HQDA, DACS-ZA, Feb 94, subject: Records and Radiation Testing. 2. The U.S. A m y Chemical and Biological Defense Command (CBDCOM) submits the following interim report in response to the referenced 3. T h e following organizations possibly conducted or sponsored human radiation experiments: (1) The radiological mission was assigned to the Chemical Corps in 1948. The Radiological Division was created as a component of the Technical Command, *a subordinate organization of the Chemical Corps, effective 19 August 1948 to perfonn or coordinate all work on radiological aspects of warfare. The division was located at the Army Chemical Center, MD. It was in existence from (2) In March 1951, the Technical Command was abolished and renamed the Chemical and Radiological Laboratories (CLRL), a subordinate organization of the Chemical Corps' Research and Engineering Command. The Radiological Division continued as a separate division under CCRL at the Army Chemical Center. (3) On 1 February 1956, CCRL was redesignated the Chemical Warfare Laboratories (CWL) of the Chemical Corps Research and Development Cornand. The mission of CWL was to conduct the Chemical Corps' research and development program in the fields of offensive and defensive toxic chemical, radiological, smoke, and flame warfare. The Radiological Division continued as a separate division under the Director of Development, CWL at the Army Chemi- (4) On 1 July 1960, CWL was redesignated the Chemical Re= search and Development Laboratories (CRDL). Concurrently, the Radiological Division was renamed the Radiological Laboratory (5) On 1 September 1960, the Radiological Laboratory was made a separate Class I1 activity of the Chemical Corpsc Researoh and Development Cornand and redesignated the U.S. Amy Chemical Corps Nuclear Defense Laboratory located at the A m y Chemical

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INTERIM REPORT ON HlMAN RADIATION EXPERIHJWFS (1) On 1 August 1962, with the establishment of the U . S . Army Materiel Comand (AMC) and the abolishment of the Chemical. Corps as a separate technical service, NDL was assigned to the Munitions Command (MUCOM), a major subordinate command of AMC. The NDL continued to be located at the Army Chemical’ Center, which was redesignated Edgewood Arsenal in 1963. (2) In 1970, NDL became part of the Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) and was redesignated the Nuclear Efforts Laboratory (NEL). The NEL continued to be located at Edgewood Arsenal, which became the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1971. About one year later, the personnel originally assigned to NDL were moved to the Aberdeen Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. a current major subordinate command of AMC. 4 . Location of Records: a. Records of the Chemical Corps and its subordinate organi- (1) A portion of the Radiological Division’s technical reports, administrative histories, and correspondence are held by the Corporate Information Office of CBDCON. Prior to 1951, the technical reports were numbered in the Technical Command Report (TCR) Series or the Technical Command Interim Report (TCIR) (2) A portion of the Chemical and Radiological Laboratories’ technical reports, administrative histories, and correspondence are held by the Corporate Information Office. From 1951 to 1956, the technical reports were numbered in the CRLIR and CRLR Series. In 1952, these two series were stopped and new subdesignations indicating the type of report, to include: formal, interim, final, engineering, foreign materiel, or special, were used. ( 3 ) A portion o f the Chemical Warfare Laboratories technical reports, administrative histories, and correspondence are held by the Corporate Infomation Office. From 1956 to 1960, the technical reports were numbered in the CWLR Series. ( 4 ) A portion of the Nuclear Defense Laboratory reports, administrative histories, and correspondence are held by the corporate Infomation Office. Technical reports published after 1960 are numbered in the NDL-TR Series and technical memoranda are numbered in the NDL-TM Series. b. Records of the Nuclear Defense Laboratory as an AMC (1) Portions of the technical reports of NDL are held by the Corporate Information Office. The latest report is dated June

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INTERM =PORT ON HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS 1969. The ARL Technical Library located in the Aberdeen Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground also has a collection of NDL technical 5 . Efforts Undertaken to Determine if Records Contain Human a. The Information Services Division, Corporate Information (I) This division manages the CBDCOM Technical Library. The Technical Library began its search by identifying three bibliographies published by the NDL and its predecessor organizations. The bibliographies included abstracts of all research reports published by NDL, reports prepared by NDL personnel and published by other agencies, and reports resulting from research conducted under contract to NDL. These bibliographies are: NDL-TR-25, Bibliography, with Abstracts, of Reports of Nuclear Defense Laboratory and Its Predecessors. AD-359 590 A m y Nuclear Defense Laboratory, October 1961 to June 1965. NDL-TR-72, Bibliography, with Abstracts, of Reports of U.S. NDL-SP-31, Bibliography, with Abstracts, of Reports of U.S. Amy Nuclear Defense Laboratory, June 1965 to July 1968. ( 2 ) Using the aforementioned bibliographies, Technical Library personnel are in the process of retrieving all abstracted reports available in the collection. To date, 270 reports have been retrieved. There are 170 reports remaining. An estimated two man-days are required to complete the task of locating the reports. A majority of the reports have assigned ”AD numbers” and are available from the Defense Technical Information Center b. Historical Division, Corporate Information Office: (1) This division has approximately four linear feet of radiological reports, administrative histories, and correspondence relating to the Chemical Corps‘ radiological mission dating from approximately 1947 to 1962. An initial review of these records failed to disclose any information concerning human radiation (2) The division also has approximately 150 file cabinets of records relating to the Chemical Corps, filed in chronological order. An initial review of these records also failed to disclose any information concerning human radiation experiments.

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INTERIM REPORT ON HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS c. Records Systems Division, Corporate Information Office: (1) The Record Systems Division began the search for radiological records on 7 Jan 94 by going to the Records Holding Area, tal and Receipt) for classified records (1940-1970). The following records centers have been identified a$ holding potential classified radiation testing records: Office of the Adjutant General Kansas City Records Center Kansas City 1, Missouri Shipment No. RI 1415-54 Dept of the Army Office of the Adjutant General U.S. Army Records Center Shipment No. CRU 399-59 for the unclassified records that have been forwarded to the Records Holding Area. A report on these findings will be made upon completion of the search. (3) Division personnel also held a meeting with representatives from three directorate Administration Offices of the Engineering, Research and Technology, and Operations Directorates of the Edgewood Research, Development and Engineering Center, a subordinate organization of CEDCOM, to assess the records currently maintained within their respective offices. All three directorates reported finding no radiation records. 6. Findings of Records Concerning Possible Human Radiation Expera. As an interim response, to date, the Infomation Services Division has found two contractor reports describing possible human radiation experiments. Both reports concern the same company, Foster D. Snell, Inc., and date from the early 1950s. The project title for both contracts was "Removal of Radioactive Contaminants from Human Skin (U)." One report is classified SECRET and one is FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. There are also four

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unclassified progress reports associated with the contracts. Part I1 of the final report f o r CBDCOM will address these two experiments and any other experiments discovered in the records search. b. Declassification to the lowest possible level of all classified reports discovered will be initiated immediately. 7. A final report in response to the referenced message will be completed upon review of all discovered pertinent reports. As directed, biweekly reports will be submitted until completion of the final report. 8 . POC f o r the above information is the CBDCOP~Command Historian,