Human Radiation Research Review

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NAVAL MEDICAL REBEARCH A N D DEVELOPMENT COMMAND NATIONAL NAVAL MEDICAL CENTER From: Commanding Officer, Naval Medical Research and Development To: Chief, Bureau o€ Medicine and Surgery (BUMED-02) subj: HUMAN RADIATION RESEARCH REVIEW Encl: (1) Naval Blood Research Laboratory's report 1. In response to reference (a), t h e following information is a . Name and Location of Activity: Naval Medical Research and Development Command (1) Command point of Contact: LCDR Knechtges, DSN 295- (2) NAVMEDRSCHDEVCOM and its laboratories have neither a history nor records of exposing humans t o ionizing radiation f o r the purposes of studying the adverse reactions of radiation, Sources of ionizing radiation were used in some studies tm study human physiology and diseases, but most of these studies involved the routine, accepted uses of radiation. Examples include blood studies using radioisotope labeled platelets and red blood cells. b. Status of Search Effort: Command is nearly complete w i t h exhaustive search of all known and available records. Because of the short fuse response required to meet reporting requirements of reference (a), most o f the laboratories are submitting individual reports under separate cover. (1) Beginning in the 1 9 4 0 i s , t h e Navy Medical Department required reports of all medical research to be sent to the predecessor organization of t h e Defense Technical Information Center (DT C). Records dating back t o approximately 1954 are presently Pre-1954 records are in hard copy form (2) NAVMEDRSCHDEVCOM initiated a comprehensive search of the DTIC's online database, f i n d recorQs of any studies that involved the use of humans and ionizing radiation for all branches of service. yielded 3,200 records, which were provided to t h e Naval Medical This search used key words to

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Subj: HUMAN RADIATION RESEARCH REVIEW Information Management Center (NAVMEDINFMANCEN) as a hardcopy printout and magnetic tape. Since then, t h e Naval Dosimetry center has reviewed the citations of these records and narrowed down the search to approximately 155 records. Paper copies of these reports were obtained by NAVMEDINFMANCEN and have been reviewed for relevancy. For pre-1954 records, a manual search of hard copy records by DTIC was preformed, and copies of any records were obtained by t h e Naval Dosimetry Center, preliminary review of their records and library holdings f o r research reports or documents involving the use of human subjects and ionizing radiation. The laboratories are conducting a recordby-recormreview to ensure no records were overlooked. ( 3 ) NAVMEDRSCHDBVCOM laboratories have completed a ollection of Navy medical research technical reports ations dating back to 1943. The records cataloged headings of radiation have been pulled and examined for However, NAVMEDRSCHLNSTITUTE is systematically every record to ensure none were overlooked. (5) Laboratories that no longer exist include the c a l Research Units in Illinois,.Guam, and Ethiopia; for atories, we have ascertained that nearly all research document6 were forwarded to BUMED f o r disposition losure. Tracking the location of these records is ifficult, if not impossible. Some of the records were ferred to the National Archives. However, according d of the military section at the National Archives, general correspondence dating up to about 1950 is thermore, these letters are not electronically The Naval Medical Research Institute has the most t are filed according to the 1926 Navy Filing Manual. search Experiments Involving Ionizing Radiation and Human U s e : Except for the Naval Blood Research Laboratory, our laboratories a r e submitting individual reports. The Naval Blood Research Laboratory's input is provided 88 enclosure (1). All records of in-house research pertaining to ionizing ation and human use are being preserved, As for records of lian contract research overseen by NAVMEDRSCHDEVCOM, a l l contractors have been required to submit copies of their reports research t h a t was Eunded by NAVMEDRSCHDEVCOM should be archived