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The Atomic Energy Commission has conducted a staff inquiry into a biological experiment undertaken by the Manhattan Engineer District near the end of World War I1 t o determine how plutonium, a man-made radioactive material,is deposited and excreted inthe human body. At that time, thousands of workers inthe defense industry were involved i n handling plutonium and i t was essential to establish realistic criteria for protecting their health. For this purpose, accurate information was needed about the retention of this material inthe human body a d about i t s rate of excretion. experiments i n animals, but it was recognized that reliable information pertaining to man could be obtained only from persons who had received i n - j ect ions of known amounts of plutonium. A great deal had already been learned from Between 1945 and 1947, 18 hospital patients in hospitals located i n New York, Tennessee, Illinois and California, were injected with soluble plutonium. No health effects that could be attributed to the injections were observed a t any t i m e . The amounts of plutonium ranged from about two body burdens up t o one injection of about 145 body burdens; most were about seven body burdens. A body burden is a term for the allowable amount of deposition in the body resulting from occupational exposure. All but one of the injections were given before the AEC was established in 1947. The subjects selected for the study generally were over 45 years old and suffered from chronic or malignant diseases that made survival for ten years highly unlikely. Nevertheless, four of these patients are still alive. The other patients died of the terminal illnesses diagnosed at the time of the injections
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o r of other illnesses not related to the injections. Scientific studies were conducted for varying periods up to five years on the patients after the injections. Much of what i s known today about the retention of plutonium i n man i s based on these experiments. scientific community has been aware of the existence of these studies for a number of years. I n 1972, Dr.Patricia W. Durbin of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, contributed a chapter tothe book "Radiobiology of Plutonium," i n which she reviewed the essential clinical information about the patients and presented a complete analysis of the data from this study. Early i n 1973, the Director of the Center for Human Radiobiology a t Argonne National Laboratory, arranged for clinical examinations and follow-up studies on three of the surviving patients.In addition, he obtained permission later i n 1973 for the exhumation of the body of one patient in order to determine the distribution of plutonium. Two papers describing the results of these recent studies will be presented at the International Congress for Radiation Research t o be held i n Seattle, Washington, i n The inquiry now being conducted by AEC staff seeks to establish the circumstances under which the original study was done, including the extent t o which the 18 patients,or their next of kin, were informed about the nature and purpose of the injections. Because of the strict secrecy surrounding plutonium at that time, it is uncertain what the patients may have been told. Furthermore, policy guidelines for the conduct of medical experimentation on humans and the concept of informed consent were then not yet clearly formulated.
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As a result of the inquiry,it was established that the last patient injected was informed and consented to receive the injection. the one patient injected after the AEC was established and a directive was issued requiring that witnesses be present when the patient is informed. Available evidence has not resolved the issue of whether the other surviving patients were informed. It isthe Cntent of the AEC to in sure that these patients will be informed through their personal physicians. Of the 18 patients who participated in this study, 13 were male and 5 female; 15 were white and 3 black; 13 were 45 years old or older at the time of i n j e c t i o n ; 2 were between 35 and 45; 2 were between 18 and 35, and 1 was 4 years old. Four patients area live today; the fate of three is unknown; all the others died of their diagnosed illnesses or conditions not related to the injections, nine within three years after injection, one each within fifteen and twenty-one years.