In response to criticism about secret radiation tests in such states as Utah, key federal agencies said Tuesday they have revised rules to better ensure that test participants are fully informed and not coerced into "volunteering."
But Congress was also told that legal loopholes still exist that could allow field tests - such as those at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground from the 1950s through the 1970s - to possibly proceed secretly in violation of normal environmental rules.That was according to testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which is following up on an 18-month study finished last year by President Clinton's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.
That panel, and Deseret News investigations, identified 77 field tests at Dugway of arms that spread radioactive material; eight other intentional meltdowns of small nuclear reactors there; and dozens of medical tests in Utah that used radiation, with most using only in small amounts to help trace blood cells.
Nationally, the panel identified 4,000 human radiation experiments between 1944 and 1974.
Officials from the Defense and Energy departments and the National Institutes of Health testified they have revised rules to better ensure that test participants are fully informed of all risks, and that risks are minimized and are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits.
Gordon K. Soper, principal deputy to the assistant defense secretary for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, noted that the presidential panel worried many soldiers had been coerced into "volunteering" to march near atomic bomb detonations to test effects on them and their maneuvers.
"To fix this, Defense Department regulations will be revised to ensure that officers and senior non-commissioned officers in the chain of command are not present during the research recruitment briefing of personnel under their command, and that an ombudsman be present," Soper said.
Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, said, however, that he worries that not all federal agencies doing human research have yet adopted similar rules, "and human subject research that is not sponsored or connected to a federal agency still is not protected in any way."
Glenn, the ranking Democrat on the committee who helped lead calls for a review of radiation tests, was also upset that the loopholes could allow radioactive field tests to be conducted in violation of normal environmental law.
Bernice Steinhardt of the U.S. General Accounting Office said it found that the Environmental Protection Agency relies on agencies doing classified research "to have their own internal environmental monitoring."