Millions Of British Citizens Used In Secret BioWarefare Tests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalscience

Millions were in germ war tests
Much of Britain was exposed to bacteria sprayed in secret trials

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant
laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public.

A government report just released provides for the first time a
comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials
between 1940 and 1979.

Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and
micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being
told.

While details of some secret trials have emerged in recent years, the
60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert
experiments.

The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any
'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into
weather and air pollution.

The tests, carried out by government scientists at Porton Down, were
designed to help the MoD assess Britain's vulnerability if the Russians were
to have released clouds of deadly germs over the country.

In most cases, the trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives
which scientists believed would mimic germ warfare and which the MoD claimed
were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country who have
children with birth defects are demanding a public inquiry.

One chapter of the report, 'The Fluorescent Particle Trials', reveals how
between 1955 and 1963 planes flew from north-east England to the tip of
Cornwall along the south and west coasts, dropping huge amounts of zinc
cadmium sulphide on the population. The chemical drifted miles inland, its
fluorescence allowing the spread to be monitored. In another trial using
zinc cadmium sulphide, a generator was towed along a road near Frome in
Somerset where it spewed the chemical for an hour.

While the Government has insisted the chemical is safe, cadmium is
recognised as a cause of lung cancer and during the Second World War was
considered by the Allies as a chemical weapon.

In another chapter, 'Large Area Coverage Trials', the MoD describes how
between 1961 and 1968 more than a million people along the south coast of
England, from Torquay to the New Forest, were exposed to bacteria including
e.coli and bacillus globigii , which mimics anthrax. These releases came
from a military ship, the Icewhale, anchored off the Dorset coast, which
sprayed the micro-organisms in a five to 10-mile radius.

The report also reveals details of the DICE trials in south Dorset between
1971 and 1975. These involved US and UK military scientists spraying into
the air massive quantities of serratia marcescens bacteria, with an anthrax
simulant and phenol.

Similar bacteria were released in 'The Sabotage Trials' between 1952 and
1964. These were tests to determine the vulnerability of large government
buildings and public transport to attack. In 1956 bacteria were released on
the London Underground at lunchtime along the Northern Line between Colliers
Wood and Tooting Broadway. The results show that the organism dispersed
about 10 miles. Similar tests were conducted in tunnels running under
government buildings in Whitehall.

Experiments conducted between 1964 and 1973 involved attaching germs to the
threads of spiders' webs in boxes to test how the germs would survive in
different environments. These tests were carried out in a dozen locations
across the country, including London's West End, Southampton and Swindon.
The report also gives details of more than a dozen smaller field trials
between 1968 and 1977.

In recent years, the MoD has commissioned two scientists to review the
safety of these tests. Both reported that there was no risk to public
health, although one suggested the elderly or people suffering from
breathing illnesses may have been seriously harmed if they inhaled
sufficient quantities of micro-organisms.

However, some families in areas which bore the brunt of the secret tests are
convinced the experiments have led to their children suffering birth
defects, physical handicaps and learning difficulties.

David Orman, an army officer from Bournemouth, is demanding a public
inquiry. His wife, Janette, was born in East Lulworth in Dorset, close to
where many of the trials took place. She had a miscarriage, then gave birth
to a son with cerebral palsy. Janette's three sisters, also born in the
village while the tests were being carried out, have also given birth to
children with unexplained problems, as have a number of their neighbours.

The local health authority has denied there is a cluster, but Orman believes
otherwise. He said: 'I am convinced something terrible has happened. The
village was a close-knit community and to have so many birth defects over
such a short space of time has to be more than coincidence.'

Successive governments have tried to keep details of the germ warfare tests
secret. While reports of a number of the trials have emerged over the years
through the Public Records Office, this latest MoD document - which was
released to Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker - gives the fullest official
version of the biological warfare trials yet.

Baker said: 'I welcome the fact that the Government has finally released
this information, but question why it has taken so long. It is unacceptable
that the public were treated as guinea pigs without their knowledge, and I
want to be sure that the Ministry of Defence's claims that these chemicals
and bacteria used were safe is true.'

The MoD report traces the history of the UK's research into germ warfare
since the Second World War when Porton Down produced five million cattle
cakes filled with deadly anthrax spores which would have been dropped in
Germany to kill their livestock. It also gives details of the infamous
anthrax experiments on Gruinard on the Scottish coast which left the island
so contaminated it could not be inhabited until the late 1980s.

The report also confirms the use of anthrax and other deadly germs on tests
aboard ships in the Caribbean and off the Scottish coast during the 1950s.
The document states: 'Tacit approval for simulant trials where the public
might be exposed was strongly influenced by defence security considerations
aimed obviously at restricting public knowledge. An important corollary to
this was the need to avoid public alarm and disquiet about the vulnerability
of the civil population to BW [biological warfare] attack.'

Sue Ellison, spokeswoman for Porton Down, said: 'Independent reports by
eminent scientists have shown there was no danger to public health from
these releases which were carried out to protect the public.

'The results from these trials_ will save lives, should the country or our
forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons.'

Asked whether such tests are still being carried out, she said: 'It is not
our policy to discuss ongoing research.'







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AmerGovtPsychopathsExposer (31.10.2009 08:42)