U.S. Army Operated Covert Human Testing Project on Blacks: Spraying Radioactive Chemicals on Segregated Area of St. Louis

Government Deceived Public about Chemical Warfare Testing The greatest concentration of raioactive spraying in St Louis was at the Pruit-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12 From [HERE] and [HERE] Newly disclosed documents have revealed details on how the U.S. military carried out testing of chemicals on major U.S. cities during the 1950s and 1960s. Sociologist Lisa Martino-Taylor of St. Louis Community College says zinc cadmium sulfide was sprayed in several cities without residents’ knowledge. The military- sponsored studies targeted a segregated, high-density urban area, where low-income persons of color predominantly resided. Report is [HERE]

Lisa Martino-Taylor: "It was pretty shocking, the level of duplicity and secrecy. Clearly they went to great lengths to deceive people. There’s a lot of evidence that indicates that people in St. Louis in the city, particularly in minority communities, were subjected to military tests that was connected to a larger radiological weapons development and testing project."

While it was known that the government sprayed 'harmless' zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population in St Louis, Taylor claims that a radioactive additive was also mixed with the compound. 

She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying which exposed the unwitting public, predominantly in low-income and minority communities, to radioactive particles. Importantly, the military decieved the public into beliveing that testing was done for defensive measures to protect civilians residing in the targeted city - designed to test massive smoke clouds in which to hide U.S. cities from Soviet air attacks. However, the report reveals that these tests were conducted to test the effectiveness of chemical warfare as a war tactic to harm the enemy.

In Corpus Christi, the chemical was dropped from airplanes over large swathes of city.  In St Louis, the Army put chemical sprayers on buildings, like schools and public housing projects, and mounted them in station wagons for mobile use.

'The study was secretive for reason. They didn't have volunteers stepping up and saying yeah, I'll breathe zinc cadmium sulfide with radioactive particles,' said Professor Martino-Taylor to KSDK. Through her research, she found photographs of how the particles were distributed from 1953-1954 and 1963-1965.

Despite the extent of the experiment, local politicians were not notified about the content of the testing. The people of St Louis were told that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack.

She accrued hundreds of pages of declassified information, which she has made available online.

In her research, she found that the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents.  She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12.

Professor Martino-Taylor became interested in the topic after hearing independent reports of cancers among city residents living in those areas at the time.

Military Lied About Purpose of Testing. 

Three distinct narratives emerge regarding the St. Louis aerosol study of 1953. The first was an “admission” by military officials that the aerosol studies were designed to test massive smoke clouds in which to hide U.S. cities from Soviet air attacks. The aerosol studies were thus described as defensive measures to protect civilians residing in the targeted city. A different narrative emerges internally however, from the official Air Force Biological Program historian, Dorothy Miller, in 195210. According to Miller, the United States military wanted to understand the “predictable dispersal of aerosol clouds over the potential target areas” (Guillemin: 103). Although not terribly specific, Miller‟s Air Force version of events leading up to the aerosol releases, indicates a military project of an offensive nature, where chemical dispersal becomes the focus, rather than one of chemical coverage or blanketing to hide potential victims. On the heels of Miller‟s official report, the Army discussed the study in their own classified report, advising that the studies were in fact, “part of a continuing program designed to provide the field experimental data necessary to estimate munitions requirements for the strategic use of

chemical and biological agents against typical target cities” (U.S. Army, 1953a: 118).11 More specifically, officials outlined four “specific objectives” of the tests:

1. To determine the reproducibility of street level dosage patterns in an essentially residential area under given meteorological conditions;

2. To determine whether the street level dosage pattern from a point source is affected by the source position, that is, when the generator is located at an intersection, at a point midway between intersections, at a point within a block, or on a rooftop.

3. To determine the effect on dosage patterns of day and night meteorological conditions.

4. To obtain data on the penetration of the aerosol cloud into residences at various distances from the aerosol disperser, and to determine whether there is any residual background or lingering effect of the cloud within buildings (U.S. Army, 1953b: 119)12.

Despite military officials‟ claims that the aerosol release objectives were to test smoke screen defenses for American civilians, the studies were in fact, as Miller alluded, undertaken to advance offensive warfare tactics against civilians in similarly featured Soviet cities. The tests‟ objectives and selection of targeted areas were part of a vast, complex plan to advance use of chemical, biological and radiological agents in warfare against civilian populations in other countries. As the world recoiled in horror over the events at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Nuremberg, what had occurred in Japan was an ugly foreshadowing of future warfare tactics, whereby the newest of weaponry and methods of warfare would aim squarely at civilians. [REPORT pdf]

'This was a violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the military's own policy at that time,' said Professor Martino-Taylor.

'There is a lot of evidence that shows people in St. Louis and the city, in particular minority communities, were subjected to military testing that was connected to a larger radiological weapons testing project.'

Previous investigations of the compound were rebuffed by the military, which insisted it was safe.  

However, Professor Martino-Taylor believes the documents she's uncovered, prove the zinc cadmium silfide was also mixed with radioactive particles.

She has linked the St Louis testing to a now-defunct company called US Radium. The controversial company came under fire, and numerous lawsuits, after several of its workers were exposed to dangerous levels of radioactive materials in its fluorescent paint.

'US Radium had this reputation where they had been found legally liable for producing a radioactive powdered paint that killed many young women who painted fluorescent watch tiles,' said Professor Martino-Taylor. 

In her findings, one of the compounds that was sprayed upon the public was called 'FP2266', according to the army's documents, and was manufactured by US Radium. The compound, also known as Radium 226, was the same one that killed and sickened many of the US Radium workers.

The Army has admitted that it added a fluorescent substance to the 'harmless' compound, but whether or not the additive was radioactive remains classified.

Professor Martino-Taylor has not been able to find if the Army ever followed up on the long term health of the residents exposed to the compound. In 1972, the government destroyed the Pruitt-Igoe houses.

Upon learning of the professor's findings, Missouri lawmakers called on the Army to detail the tests.

'I share and understand the renewed anxiety of members of the St. Louis communities that were exposed to the spraying of (the chemicals) as part of Army tests during the Cold War,' Senator Claire McCaskill wrote to Army Secretary John McHugh.

'The impacted communities were not informed of the tests at the time and are reasonably anxious about the long term health impacts the tests may have had on those exposed to the airborne chemicals.'

Senator Roy Blunt called the findings 'absolutely shocking.'

'The idea that thousands of Missourians were unwillingly exposed to harmful materials in order to determine their health effects is absolutely shocking. It should come as no surprise that these individuals and their families are demanding answers of government officials,' Senator Blunt said.