Consolidated List of Human Radiation Experiments

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CONSOLIDATED LIST OF HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS A number of human radiation experiments have been identified from the recent document search efforts in addition to those previously described in the 1986 of purpose, numbers of subjects, radioisotopes, degree of severity, dates and places, the following are given as examples: A1 though these experiments represent a broad spectrum i n terms Iron Metabolism in Human Pregnancy as Studied with the Radioactive Isotope Iron-59 ingestion studies were conducted at the Vanderbilt University Hospital during the years 1942-1949 to determine the absorption o f iron during pregnancy. Researchers also studied iron-59 distribution in fetal tissues and transfer rates from the women to fetuses. women ingested tracer amounts of Fe-59, and 466 o f these women were studied during return visits to Vanderbilt between 1947 and 1950. The journal article in American Journa7 o f Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol 61, 1951, p p 477-486, notes that the 466 women received single doses ranging from 1.8 to 120 mg of Fe-@-I. Another article located i n the American Journal o f Epidemiology, vol ,90, 1969, pp 1-10 notes that the fetal radiation doses have been estimated as 5 - 15 cGy (rad). The early studies were funded by the Nutrition Foundation, the Rockefeller foundation, and the State of Tennessee. Follow-up studies to determine long-term health effects in children born to these mothers were funded by the Public Health Service and the Atomic Energy Commission. Radiation doses to maternal blood were estimated to be about 0.2 rad. A small I increase in cancer incidence was observed in these children (3 cases in 634 exposed children compared to none in 655 comparison children). One group o f 819 healthy pregnant 2. Uptake o f Iodine-131 in Thyroids of Psychiatric Patients Iodine-131 was injected into hospital patients to study the thyroid gland and investigate new methods for treating thyroid cancer. the Atomic Energy Commission describes the "problem o f investigating I psychiatric patients with radioiodine" to supply baseline information about normal thyroids. Sixty-five of the human subjects were patients from the Langley Porter Clinic for mental diseases. whether any abnormal thyroid function existed in patients with mental disorders. No abnormal thyroid function was found, so this group constituted a normal thyroid control group. The- Atomic Energy Commission partially funded this work, and the research is described by Dr. Robert Stone in a progress ' report of the University of California Radiation Laboratory for the period July 1, 1949 to April 15, 1950. The results were published as "Thyroid Function in Mental Disease Measured with Radioiodine, 1-131," in the American A laboratory report to They were studied to determine

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23. Distribution o f Chlorine-38, Sodium-24, and Bromine-82 in Extracellular Fluids of Chronically I11 Patients The total volume o f extracellular fluids in 15 humans was studied at Brookhaven National Laboratory during the period 1952 to -1953. Five chronically i l l hospital patients were injected with C1-38 and Na-24, prepared at the Brookhaven Reactor. 0.3 rep (0.3 rad) would not be exceeded. times post-injection and counted for radioactivity. considered to be "normal" subjects for purposes of this study. funded by the Atomic Energy Commission, and was reported in BNL-1326, "Chloride, Bromide, Sodium, and Sucrose Spaces in Humans," by J.L. Gamble, 4, 1953. Reference is made in the text to three other related studies in normal human subjects to determine extracell ul ar fluid volumes. Ten other patients were injected with Cl-38 and Total radiation doses were planned so that the weekly dose limit o f Blood samples were drawn at various This work was The patients were 4. Neonatal Iodine-131 Uptake Studies University of Tennessee, Memphis, Van Middlesworth. Funded by Atomic Energy Commission to check for hypothyroidism. microcuries, with maximum doses about 60 rep in newborns. come nt, but signed records are not available. , and six black) were included in the study. An article in the AMA American Journa7 o f Diseases o f Children, 1951, pp 439-442, by Van Middlesworth describes the experiment. A journal article (Journa7 o f Nuclear Medicine vol 4, 1963, p 162) mentions a study conducted by the State University of Iowa, supported in part by grants from Atomic Energy Commission Biology and Medical Division (AT(ll-1)291) and the American Cancer Society (T-159C). 1-131 intramuscular radioiodine to study thyroidal uptake. Eight newborns received oral radioiodine. Scientists included R.T. Morrison, J.A. Birbeck, There was informed Seven male infants (one white Seventeen newborn infants received 1 uc Studies using iodine-131 in newborns are cited in the following: Pediatrics, Sosin; and Pediatrics vol 26, 1960, p 771. The first article notes that Martmer et a1 reported in 1956 on the tyroid uptake of 1-131 in 6 5 premature and 5 term infants (aged 1 to 63 days). The infants received a 5 microcurie oral dose. The second article cites a second study in 1960 reported by Ogborn, et a l , where the radioiodine uptake in the thyroid o f 28 newborns (3 to 7.5 days old) was studied. The infants received a dose of 5 microcuries. This appears to be the same study. Commission' sponsored the study. It is not known if Atomic Energy 5. Uptake of Radioiodine in Human EmbryosStudies were conducted at the University of Iowa during 1953 on the uptake of iodine-131 in human embryo thyroids. Dosages o f 100 to 200 microcuries of

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The human embryos showed The information gained from his 1-131 were given to pregnant women scheduled for therapeutic abortion. aborted embryos were sectioned and autoradiographed. thyroid uptake at four weeks, nearly one month sooner than was previously of radioiodine across the placental barrier. study was also useful for determining the amount of radioiodine that could be given to pregnant women and the time it could be given in terms of protect ng the unborn child. This work appears to have been funded by the Atomic Energy Commission. The work is reported in the Monthly Status and Progress Report o f the Commission's Division o f Biology and Medicine for the month of June 1953. This finding was important to medicine in understanding transmission The number o f subjects is not known. 6. Strontium Injection Studies During the Strontium Metabolism meeting at the Atomic Energy Commission, Division o f Biology and Medicine'on January 27, 1954, a discussion was held on pathological changes produced by strontium. Dr. Joseph Hamilton mentioned that Dr. Friedell administered 10 millicuries o f strontium-89 to a patient, which was considered to be "about a lethal dose." This evoked a "searching of minds" for cases o f accidental exposure in humans and a number o f such instances were recalled. Alamos) mentions the intravenous injection o f strontium-89 to study distribution of strontium among serum proteins. whether this study was human or animal, or whether it is related to the study noted in the above paragraph. ,The Health Division Progress Report, November 20-December 20, 1954 (Los The summary does not state For perspective, in June 1993, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the injection o f strontium-89-chloride for palliation o f painful bone metastases. The approved dosage is 4 millicuries. 7. Plutonium Ingestion Study On May 13, 1946, six male employees of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Manhattan Engineer District in Chicago drank a water solution containing 400 counts per minute (about 0.18 nanocuries) of plutonium-239. documented in a June 26, 1946, memorandum from E.R. Russell to J.J. Nickson (Director of the Health Division at the Metallurgical Laboratory). The purpose o f this study was to investigate the gastrointestinal absorption and fecal excretion rate o f ingested plutonium. results to improve the interpretation o f plutonium exposure and bioassay data collected from occupationally exposed persons. experiment was entirely voluntary, and the amounts o f plutonium were sufficiently low as to be barely detectable in urine and feces with instrumentation available in 1946. The study is Scientists also hoped to use Participation in this At least two o f the subjects were still

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A series o f metabolic experiments were conducted at Charity Hospital and Tulane University. The primary focus of the experiments was to investigate the role of electrolytes in congestive heart failure patients. The total number o f subjects studied is not well known and some may have participated more than once. published. Approximately 269 subjects were included in the study, although some of these subjects may have participated i n more than one study. to examine the radiation effects on the human subjects. The radioisotope studies examined retention times, excretion rates, biologic decay rates, and a variety of other physiological parameters. Follow-up journal articles describing the studies have been Uptake of Tritiated Thymidine by Tumors in Cancer Patients 6 In 1962, tritiated (H-3) thymidine, a DNA synthesis tracer, was injected into four cancer patients scheduled for surgery. The rate of tritium uptake was studied in tumors and in normal cells. The study also examined the tumor cell proliferation process. Tissue was removed from the tumor and from normal skin fopcomparison. Results confirmed previous results in experimental animals: that tumor cells do not necessarily proliferate faster than normal cells. The study was a joint project o f the Northwestern University Medical School, the Veterans Administration Research HospAtal, and the Argonne National may have been one of the principal scientists. in "Uptake of Tritiated Thymidine by Human Tumors In Vivo," Laboratory Investigation vol 11, no. 5, May 1962, pages 360-364. Thymidine Injection Experiment, Argonne National Laboratory. ) 10. Effect of Oral or Injected Phosphorus-32 on Hemoglobin Metabolism i n Patients with Polycythemia Vera This study was conducted by the Health Division o f the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago Hematology Clinic (six patients) and at the University o f Minnesota (one patient). Five patients received an oral dosage of 15-40 millicuries P-32, and two patients were injected with undetermined amounts of P-32 in a study o f the metabolism o f hemoglobin metabolism in man. These experiments took place between October, 1944, and Jacobson, and C.J. Watson, in Report CH-3760, Metallurgical Laboratory, Chicago, July 10, 1946 (National Archives, Argonne Collection). This report does not address whether patient benefit was expected or observed. Laboratory, with funding from the Atomic Energy Commission. Or. R. Baserga J Other participating scientists Five of the case descriptions are reported in "Studies of the

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11. Arsenic-76 Biodistribution and Excretion Studies Twelve hospital patients were injected intravenously potassium arsenite, to study the uptake, retention, distribution, and excretion of arsenic. The study was conducted by the Argonne National Laboratory in 1947, in Chicago. The subjects included five males and seven females hospitalized with leukemia, Hodgkin's disease, polycythemia vera, melanocarcinoma, and carcinoma o f the parotid, and ranged in age from 18 to 67. Amounts o f As-76 administered were 0.5 to 13.8 millicuries. The study was reported in "Arsenic-76 Preliminary Studies," a progress report, by Laboratory, Biology Division, June 1, 1947 (Part of CH-3830, National Archives, Argonne Collection). 12. Colloidal Gold-198 Studies at Oak Ridge The Seventh Annual Report of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (June 30, 1953), described the administration of colloidal gold-198. The experiment was conducted in the hope of having a therapeutic effect on two individuals who had cancer o f the liver. advanced cancer were injected with colloidal Au-198, shortly before their , to study the metabolism and biodistribution o f colloidal gold. A des?rep rt on these experiments results was published in Cancer 6(2), March 1953. The Sixth through Ninth annual reports of the Oak Ridge Institute o f Nuclear Studies (June 30, 1955) describe the early clinical use of injected I therapeutic properties of various radioisotopes for treating cancer. cases, a therapeutic benefit to the patient was hoped for. However, there were also a number o f metabolic studies that were conducted using terminally i l l cancer patients to determine the biodistribution and retention o f different radioisotopes, and their rates of excretion from the body.. These studies were supported by the Atomic Energy Commission and are considered to be pioneering studies in the development of the field of nuclear medicine. Several other human subjects with Some of the work was reported in Radiology 61(4):534-613, 1953; The purpose of these studies was to investigate the In many 14. Decompression Sickness Studies using Radioactive Gases Human subjects breathed air tagged with radioactive nitrogen and argon gases. Nitrogen uptake was then monitored. 1980's at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These experiments took place during the

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15. In-Vivo Calibration Studies Using Humans Administered Niobium-9Em, Barium-133, and Strontium-85 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (and other DOE laboratories) Subjects in the United Kingdom were injected with radioact.ive barium or strontium, or inhaled radioactive niobium, and then were whole-body or chestcounted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and other DOE sites in the for in-vivo counting equipment and to intercalibrate the various U.S. and British in-vivo counting centers. Several studies took place during the period 1978-1989. H.E. Palmer at Pacific Northwest Laboratory and H. L. Anderson at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were two o f the principal scientists for the study. The purpose o f these studies was to develop accurate calibration factors 16. Ozone Effects on Overall and Regional Lung Function Human subjects inhaled radioactive nitrogen or carbon dioxide to determine functional changes that might be caused by l o w concentrations o f ozone from contract from the Department of Energy (DOE) from 1977 to 1978. The study was performed by the University of Washington under a 17.,, Technet i um-99 In - Vi vo Count i ng Experiments Subjects were injected with technetium-99 microspheres and then placed in the whole-body counter at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to determine whether technetium-99 could be used to calibrate in-vivo counting equipment for direct measurements of plutonium-239 in workers accidentally exposed to 18. Calibration Studies on Los Alamos Firemen Ingesting Radionuclides Firemen at the Los Alamos National Laboratory ingested small amounts of radioactive materials and participated in a study to calibrate the HUMCO I T liquid scintillation counter and compare results with measurements. made on earl i er versions o f who1 e-body counters. Zinc-65 (1 microcurie) was administered orally to humans and four animal atomic testing and activation products. The in-vivo time changes were observed using the liquid The study was intended to examine the effects of fallout from 19. Retention and Excretion of Iodine-131 in Man A series o f studies were performed to measure the biological retention halftimes in man and their excretion from the body using ultra-high-sensitive 1 iquid scintillation counters. Tracer amounts of radioisotopes were administered, and rates of retention and excretion were measured using the whole-body counting equipment. A summary from the May 16, 1994 Los Alamos press release notes a study in which 26 people ingested 8 microcuries o f

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iodine-131. The intent o f the study was to determine how long the body body radiation counter. Another report, LAMS-2455, Biological and Medical Research Group (H-4) of the Health Division - Semiannual Report January Through June 1960, contains a report of the injection of 28 subjects …