- =WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military in 1967
conducted tests using the deadly sarin nerve agent in a Hawaiian rain forest
as part of a sweeping Cold War series of chemical and biological experiments
on land and sea, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
-
- Military units involved in the Hawaii test, dubbed "Red
Oak, Phase 1," were not identified and there was no indication of
harm to troops or civilians from explosions to determine the effectiveness
of artillery shells using sarin in the jungle.
-
- But the Defense Department, releasing five new reports
in a continuing series on tests conducted in the 1960s and 70s, urged any
troops involved who might have suffered ill-effects to contact the Pentagon.
-
- The Red Oak tests in April and May of 1967 were conducted
in both the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve on Hawaii and near Fort Sherman
in the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama phase used only a simulated nerve
agent, not sarin.
-
- Sarin is a volatile, deadly nerve agent that can be inhaled
or absorbed through the eyes and skin. A sufficient dose within minutes
causes difficult breathing, runny nose, confusion and dimming vision --
then coma and death.
-
- Very little information is available involving the long-term
effects of low-level exposure to sarin.
-
- The Pentagon on Thursday also released details on four
other tests -- three in the Panama Canal Zone and a fourth in an unspecified
jungle environment -- but said none used deadly chemical or biological
agents.
-
- MAJOR COLD WAR PROGRAM
-
- In addition to the riot-control agent tear gas, however,
some of the tests used normally occurring bacteria that more recent information
has indicated can cause acute infections of the ear, brain lining, lung,
urinary tract and other body sites.
-
- The tests were all part of a major U.S. military review
put in motion by former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in 1961 shortly
after President John F. Kennedy's inauguration. That study consisted of
150 separate projects.
-
- "As part of the Project 112 review, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff convened a working committee that recommended a research, testing
and development program for chemical and biological weapons," the
Pentagon said in the five new fact sheets.
-
- The United States acknowledged in reports during the
summer and earlier this month that it carried out a sweeping Cold War-era
test program of chemical and germ warfare agents at sea in the Pacific
and on American soil and in Britain and Canada.
-
- The tests of such nerve agents as sarin, soman, tabun
and VX were carried out from 1962 to 1973 both on land and at sea "out
of concern for our ability to protect and defend against these potential
threats," an earlier Pentagon statement said.
-
- An unknown number of civilians were also exposed at the
time to "simulants," or what were then thought to be harmless
agents meant to stand in for deadlier ones, the Defense Department said.
Some of those were later discovered to be dangerous.
-
- More than 5,500 members of the U.S. armed forces were
involved, including 5,000 who took part in ship-board experiments in the
Pacific.
-
- To date, more than 50 veterans have filed claims related
to symptoms they associate with exposure to the tests, according to the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
-
- All of the tests were coordinated by an outfit called
the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah.
-
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