joining a "science club". the university of california hospital in san francisco exposed 29 patients, some with rheumatoid arthritis, to total body irradiation (100–300 rad dose) to obtain data for the military. in the 1950s, researchers at the medical college of virginia performed experiments on severe burn victims, most of them poor and black, without their knowledge or consent, with funding from the army and in collaboration with the aec. in the experiments, the subjects were exposed to additional burning, experimental antibiotic treatment, and injections of radioactive isotopes. the amount of radioactive phosphorus-32 injected into some of the patients, 500 microcuries (19 mbq), was 50 times the "acceptable" dose for a healthy individual; for people with severe burns, this likely led to significantly increased death rates. between 1948 and 1954, funded by the federal government, researchers at the johns hopkins hospital inserted radium rods into the noses of 582 baltimore, maryland schoolchildren as an alternative to adenoidectomy. similar experiments were performed on over 7,000 u.s. army and navy personnel during world war ii. nasal radium irradiation became a standard medical treatment and was used in over two and a half million americans. in another study at the walter e. fernald state school, in 1956, researchers gave mentally disabled children radioactive calcium orally and intravenously. they also injected radioactive chemicals into malnourished babies and then collected cerebrospinal fluid for analysis from their brains and spines. in 1961 and 1962, ten utah state prison inmates had blood samples taken which were mixed with radioactive chemicals and reinjected back into their bodies. the u.s. atomic energy commission funded the massachusetts institute of technology to administer radium-224 and thorium-234 to 20 people between 1961 and 1965. many were chosen from the age center of new england and had volunteered for "research projects on aging". doses were 0.2–2.4 microcuries (7.4–88.8 kbq) for radium and 1.2–120 microcuries (44–4,440 kbq) for thorium. in a 1967 study that was published in the journal of clinical investigation, pregnant women were injected with radioactive cortisol to see if it would cross the placental barrier and affect the fetuses. fallout research cover of the final report of project 4.1, which examined the effects of radioactive fallout on the natives of the marshall islands in 1957, atmospheric nuclear explosions in nevada, which were part of operation plumbbob were later determined to have released enough radiation to have caused from 11,000 to 212,000 excess cases of thyroid cancer among u.s. citizens who were exposed to fallout from the explosions, leading to between 1,100 and 21,000 deaths. early in the cold war, in studies known as project gabriel and project sunshine, researchers in the united states, the united kingdom, and australia tried to determine how much nuclear fallout would be required to make the earth uninhabitable. they realized that atmospheric nuclear testing had provided them an opportunity to investigate this. such tests had dispersed radioactive contamination worldwide, and examination of human bodies could reveal how readily it was taken up and hence how much damage it caused. of particular interest was strontium-90 in the bones. infants were the primary focus, as they would have had a full opportunity to absorb the new contaminants. as a result of this conclusion, researchers began a program to collect human bodies and bones from all over the world, with a particular focus on infants. the bones were cremated and the ashes analyzed for radioisotopes. this project was kept secret primarily because it would be a public relations disaster; as a result parents and family were not told what was being done with the body parts of their relatives. these studies should not be confused with the baby tooth survey, which was undertaken during the same time period. irradiation experiments between 1960 and 1971, the department of defense funded non-consensual whole body radiation experiments on mostly poor and black cancer patients, who were not told what was being done to them. patients were told that they were receiving a "treatment" that might cure their cancer, but the pentagon was trying to determine the effects of high levels of radiation on the human body. one of the doctors involved in the experiments was worried about litigation by the patients. he referred to them only by their initials on the medical reports. he did this so that, in his words, "there will be no means by which the patients can ever connect themselves up with the report", to prevent "either adverse publicity or litigation". from 1960 to 1971, dr. eugene saenger, funded by the defense atomic support agency, performed whole body radiation experiments on more than 90 poor, black, advanced stage cancer patients with inoperable tumors at the university of cincinnati medical center during the cincinnati radiation experiments. he forged consent forms, and did not inform the patients of the risks of irradiation. the patients were given 100 or more rads (1 gy) of whole-body radiation, which in many caused intense pain and vomiting. critics have questioned the medical rationale for this study, and contend that the main purpose of the research was to study the acute effects of radiation exposure. from 1963 to 1973, a leading endocrinologist, dr. carl heller, irradiated the testicles of oregon and washington prisoners. in return for their participation, he gave them $5 a month, and $100 when they had to receive a vasectomy upon conclusion of the trial. the surgeon who sterilized the men said that it was necessary to "keep from contaminating the general population with radiation-induced mutants". dr. joseph hamilton, one of the researchers who had worked with heller on the experiments, said that the experiments "had a little of the buchenwald touch". in 1963, university of washington researchers irradiated the testicles of 232 prisoners to determine the effects of radiation on testicular function. when these inmates later left prison and had children, at least four of them had offspring born with birth defects. the exact number is unknown because researchers never followed up on the status of the subjects. chemical experiments nonconsensual tests from 1942 to 1944, the u.s. chemical warfare service conducted experiments which exposed thousands of u.s. military personnel to mustard gas, in order to test the effectiveness of gas masks and protective clothing. from 1950 through 1953, the u.s. army conducted operation lac (large area coverage), spraying chemicals over six cities in the united states and canada, to test dispersal patterns of chemical weapons. army records stated that the chemicals which were sprayed on the city of winnipeg, manitoba, canada, included zinc cadmium sulfide, which was not thought to be harmful. a 1997 study by the u.s. national research council found that it was sprayed at levels so low as not to be harmful; it said that people were normally exposed to higher levels in urban environments. to test whether or not sulfuric acid, which is used in making molasses, was harmful as a food additive, the louisiana state board of health commissioned a study to feed "negro prisoners" nothing but molasses for five weeks. one report stated that prisoners did not "object to submitting themselves to the test, because it would not do any good if they did." a 1953 article in the medical/scientific journal clinical science described a medical experiment in which researchers intentionally blistered the skin on the abdomens of 41 children, who ranged in age from 8 to 14, using cantharide. the study was performed to determine how severely the substance injures/irritates the skin of children. after the studies, the children's blistered skin was removed with scissors and swabbed with peroxide. operation top hat in june 1953, the united states army formally adopted guidelines regarding the use of human subjects in chemical, biological, or radiological testing and research, where authorization from the secretary of the army was now required for all research projects involving human subjects. under the guidelines, seven research projects involving chemical weapons and human subjects were submitted by the chemical corps for secretary of the army approval in august 1953. one project involved vesicants, one involved phosgene, and five were experiments which involved nerve agents; all seven were approved. the guidelines, however, left a loophole; they did not define what types of experiments and tests required such approval from the secretary. operation top hat was among the numerous projects not submitted for approval. it was termed a "local field exercise" by the army and took place from september 15–19, 1953, at the army chemical school at fort mcclellan, alabama. the experiments used chemical corps personnel to test decontamination methods for biological and chemical weapons, including sulfur mustard and nerve agents. the personnel were deliberately exposed to these contaminants, were not volunteers, and were not informed of the tests. in a 1975 pentagon inspector general's report, the military maintained that operation top hat was not subject to the guidelines requiring approval because it was a line of duty exercise in the chemical corps. holmesburg program chloracne resulting from exposure to dioxins, such as those that albert kligman injected into prisoners at the holmesburg prison from approximately 1951 to 1974, the holmesburg prison in pennsylvania was the site of extensive dermatological research operations, using prisoners as subjects. led by dr. albert m. kligman of the university of pennsylvania, the studies were performed on behalf of dow chemical company, the u.s. army, and johnson & johnson. dow chemical wanted to study the health effects of dioxin and other herbicides, to discover how they affect human skin, because workers at its chemical plants were developing chloracne. in the study, kligman applied about the same amount of dioxin as that to which dow employees were being exposed. in 1980 and 1981, some of the people who were used in this study sued kligman because they were suffering from a variety of health problems, including lupus and psychological damage. kligman later continued his dioxin studies, increasing the dosage of dioxin which he applied to the skin of 10 prisoners to 7,500 micrograms of dioxin, which is 468 times the dosage that the dow chemical official gerald k. rowe had authorized him to administer. as a result, the prisoners developed inflammatory pustules and papules. the holmesburg program paid hundreds of inmates a nominal stipend to test a wide range of cosmetic products and chemical compounds, whose health effects were unknown at the time. upon his arrival at holmesberg, kligman is claimed to have said, "all i saw before me were acres of skin ... it was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time." a 1964 issue of medical news reported that 9 out of 10 prisoners at holmesburg prison were medical test subjects. in 1967, the u.s. army paid kligman to apply skin-blistering chemicals to the faces and backs of inmates at holmesburg, in kligman's words, "to learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process." psychological and torture experiments u.s. government research the united states government funded and performed numerous psychological experiments, especially during the cold war era. many of these experiments were performed to help develop more effective torture and interrogation techniques for the u.s. military and intelligence agencies, and to develop techniques for americans to resist torture at the hands of enemy nations and organizations. truth serum in studies running from 1947 to 1953, which were known as project chatter, the u.s. navy began identifying and testing truth serums, which they hoped could be used during interrogations of soviet spies. some of the chemicals tested on human subjects included mescaline and the anticholinergic drug scopolamine. shortly thereafter, in 1950, the cia initiated project bluebird, later renamed project artichoke, whose stated purpose was to develop "the means to control individuals through special interrogation techniques", "way to prevent the extraction of information from cia agents", and "offensive uses of unconventional techniques, such as hypnosis and drugs". the purpose of the project was outlined in a memo dated january 1952 that stated, "can we get control of an individual to the point where he will do our bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self preservation?" the project studied the use of hypnosis, forced morphine addiction and subsequent forced withdrawal, and the use of other chemicals, among other methods, to produce amnesia and other vulnerable states in subjects. in order