Des repas comportant des aliments radioactifs ont été servis à une quarantaine d’enfants handicapés mentaux dans le cadre d’expériences sur le nucléaire effectuées aux Etats-Unis entre 1946 et 1956 par des chercheurs du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) et de l’université de Harvard. Ces tests, qui n’avaient jamais été tenus secrets, étaient cependant passés inaperçus, et viennent d’être révélés par la presse de Boston. Les autorités de l’Etat du Massachusetts ont ouvert une enquête.
Des repas comportant des aliments radioactifs ont été servis à une quarantaine d’enfants handicapés mentaux dans le cadre d’expériences sur le nucléaire effectuées aux Etats-Unis entre 1946 et 1956 par des chercheurs du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) et de l’université de Harvard. Ces tests, qui n’avaient jamais été tenus secrets, étaient cependant passés inaperçus, et viennent d’être révélés par la presse de Boston. Les autorités de l’Etat du Massachusetts ont ouvert une enquête.
Les » cobayes » étaient des enfants âgés de quinze à dix-sept ans, placés dans une école spécialisée du Massachusetts, la Fernald State School de Waltham, près de Boston. Ils ont reçu des céréales contenant du calcium et du fer radioactifs, à des doses équivalentes au triple de ce qu’un Américain moyen recevait à l’époque durant un an en s’alimentant normalement. Ces études étaient financées partiellement par la commission de l’énergie atomique américaine.
A l’insu des parents
L’un des responsables de cette recherche, le biochimiste du MIT Robert Harris, estimait à l’époque que le faible niveau des doses injectées ne menaçait pas la santé des enfants. » Nous sommes en train de sélectionner un groupe parmi nos patients les plus éclairés, dont votre fils, pour un régime alimentaire spécial » comportant de hautes doses de minéraux et de vitamines, avaient écrit aux parents les responsables de cette recherche, sans les informer du but réel des tests.
Depuis plusieurs semaines, des révélations affluent sur des expériences nucléaires américaines menées sur des êtres humains lors de la guerre froide. Un rapport du General Accounting Office (l’équivalent de la Cour des comptes) au Congrès américain a ainsi révélé récemment que des matières radioactives avaient été larguées clandestinement près des zones habitées dans les années 40 et 50 (le Monde du 18 décembre). Le secrétaire à l’énergie, Hazel O’Leary, a promis de mener une enquête interne sur ces tests et de divulguer tous les documents officiels sur ce sujet. _ (UPI, AFP.)
A 53-year-old man who learned this week that he may have been among the boys who were fed radioactive milk in 1949 at the Walter E. Fernald State School in Waltham, Mass., expressed outrage at having been used as a « guinea pig. »
Some scientists, meanwhile, defended the experiments, saying the research, which began in 1946, had involved only low levels of radiation.
State and Federal officials are examining old school records, correspondence and researchers’ notes to try to determine what happened when scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology fed the radioactive milk to a group of boys who had been led to believe that they were joining a « science club. »
In a letter dated Nov. 2, 1949, Dr. Malcolm J. Farrell, who was then the school’s superintendent, asked parents for consent to the experiments. The letter made no mention of radiation, saying only that the children would receive a « special diet » to study the way the body absorbed cereals, iron and vitamins. It added that blood tests would be administered. Remembers Blood Tests
« The science club, that’s what they called it, » recalled the 53-year-old former resident of the school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The man, who has cerebral palsy, said he had entered Fernald in 1949, when he was 9, because his father had a drinking problem and was unable to care for him at home.
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The man remembered being a part of the science club and having blood tests, but he did not remember what other kinds of tests had been performed on him. When The Boston Globe reported the radiation experiments last Sunday, he grew concerned.
« I thought they were taking me for a guinea pig, » he said after learning of the research, « and I didn’t like being taken for a guinea pig. I did not know about the radiation part. »
The man, who said that he was unaware of any medical problems as a result of radiation exposure, left the school in 1976 and now lives alone in Watertown, just outside of Boston, where he is a factory worker. Won’t Call Energy Department.
Energy Secretary Hazel R. O’Leary said last week that the people who had been exposed to radiation from clandestine cold war experiments should be compensated by the Government. Mrs. O’Leary asked those who thought they might have been exposed to call a toll-free number, 1-800-493-2998.
But the man said that despite the possibility of compensation, he had no plans to call. « I don’t want this to be a big issue, » he said. « I’m through with that place. I want to forget that place and not think about it. I don’t want them to come back. »
Asked why he felt so negatively about the school, he said: « They treated the children cruelly. They hit them a lot. » ‘Viewed as Sub-Human’
Gerald Ryan, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, would not confirm whether the man had been involved in the radiation tests.
Mr. Ryan said his department was assembling a commission of doctors, scientists, advocates for the mentally retarded and radiation specialists to investigate the matter. « They’re going to assemble soon to pore over all the documents, » he said. « At M.I.T. and Harvard, we anticipate that the records will be really first-rate and easy to trace. »
Mr. Ryan added: « There is a strong suspicion that this type of testing has gone on elsewhere. Tests like this were done for a variety of reasons. People with mental retardation were a very vulnerable population. Many were viewed as sub-human. They were closed off from the rest of society. They were easily controlled. »
A member of the Energy Department’s environmental safety and health office will join the state investigation, said Sam Grizzle, a department spokesman. The request for Federal assistance was made by Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who issued a report in 1986, « American Nuclear Guinea Pigs: Three Decades of Nuclear Experimentation on U.S. Citizens. »
M.I.T. is searching its records to see if it can learn who took part in the experiments and whether they gave consent.
Dr. Constantine Maletskos, who was part of the team of M.I.T. scientists that conducted the experiments, said: « I had nothing to do with the consent forms because I was not involved in that. But the radiation going to each individual was extremely low — low by the standards of those days and low by today’s standards. » Would Be ‘Permissible’ Today
Francis X. Masse, the director of radiation protection programs at M.I.T., said he had reviewed the experiments this week and had found that « the amount of radiation they received in the 40’s would be permissible under Federal guidelines today. »
Mr. Masse said the M.I.T. scientists had never concealed the fact that they were using radiation. The results were published in 1954 in the Journal of Nutrition.
« If it was not presented to the parents — and I’m not sure that it wasn’t — it was somehow left out at the Fernald School level, » Mr. Masse said. « And I’m amazed that that could happen. There was no fear of radiation at that time. This was the wonderful new tool we had. You would not think of buying shoes without having your feet X-rayed. My feeling is that you probably would have gotten more volunteers if you had mentioned radiation. »
