This is old news, but it was news to me. Some reports are here, here, and here. Dispersion of this compound and other microorganisms were conducted in America and England without informing the public. The official rationale for these trials was that they were done to learn about germ warfare, but why the secrecy? Because people in the affected areas would have surely objected, and these areas included large cities like St. Louis, Corpus Christi, Winnipeg, and Fort Wayne.
The official bodies subsequently attempted to determine — after the fact — possible bad effects, such as lung cancer, on the health of the guinea pig people involved. I for one don’t trust their studies because they did not examine the effects on longevity, or birth defects, or the additive effects when combined with exposure to other chemicals. I suspect the choices of scientists. I always suspect whitewash when it comes to government studies and assurances. I always expect sloppy and biased science in such cases. I always suspect government because, if it was stupid enough and callous enough to do this in the first place (just as it exposed millions to radiation using atomic tests) and if it did this in secrecy which suggests it couldn’t make a case to the human guinea pigs, then why should I trust its studies?
In the English study, we find the following admission:
“Cadmium accumulates in the body, especially in the kidneys and to a much lesser extent in the liver. About 5% of cadmium is absorbed through the gut. When cadmium is absorbed through the lungs or the gut it becomes bound to albumen or to the cystine-rich protein, metallothionein. In the kidneys, the lysosomes of the proximal tubules degrade the metallothionein and so release the bound cadmium. Once there, the kidneys cannot make enough metallothionein and the free cadmium will damage them. The most sensitive indication of cadmium-induced renal damage is an increased urinary excretion of low molecular weight proteins, and particularly of beta-2-microglobulin, as there is a decrease in renal tubular absorption. There is uncertainty about the fate of ZnCdS when it is breathed deep into the lungs. It is known that cadmium ions can enter the cell surface fluid and pass into cells in the lung. Like other transition metals cadmium participates in oxidation and reduction reactions.”
In a report coming out of the National Academy of Sciences we learn that “The U.S. Army released the chemical compound zinc cadmium sulfide from airplanes, rooftops, and moving vehicles in 33 urban and rural areas as part of a Cold War program to test the way biological weapons might disperse under different conditions. ”
Isn’t it obvious that no one in the U.S. Army or government can be held or is held or has been held responsible for such decisions and programs, and that such an arrangement done in secrecy violates both common sense and any reasonable ethical standard? To me it shows once again how bad our governing arrangements are.
This report also, in so many words, tells us that when this compound was dispersed, the effects on people were unknown. It says
“Information on how zinc cadmium sulfide affects human health is sparse,…”
This statement was made 30 years or more after the tests were conducted.
” Because limited laboratory research on the toxicity of zinc cadmium sulfide has been performed on animals, and no data exist on humans, the committee based its conclusions about the ability of the compound to cause cancer on what it called a ‘worst-case’ assumption: that the compound is every bit as toxic as its most toxic component — cadmium.”
But everyone who has studied beginning chemistry knows that a compound doesn’t behave like the elements that compose it.
“For non-cancer toxicity, the committee based its conclusions on what is known about cadmium sulfide, a compound that has some properties similar to zinc cadmium sulfide. “
That’s just great, fellas. You couldn’t even or didn’t even find studies of the actual compound used.
“In some cities the Army dispersed microorganisms — either alone or in combination with zinc cadmium sulfide. Recent research indicates that the microbes used do not produce disease in healthy people, but could produce disease in people with weak immune systems. The committee was not asked to assess the possible health effects of these tests, nor was it asked to address the ethical and social issues raised by the testing program as a whole. “
Isn’t this reassuring? They dispersed combinations of stuff, all with unknown effects, and all in secrecy. The microorganisms were likely to have been bacteria. From the Guardian article, we learn what some of that stuff may have been and was in England. It included in England “serratia marcescens bacteria, with an anthrax simulant and phenol.” Also: “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.”
How reassuring is it to learn that the microbes do not affect healthy people. Who is healthy and who is not? This is not an all-or-none thing. Who can say that a toll is not taken on those termed healthy? And what difference does it make? Why should the less than healthy, whatever that means, be exposed?
And we also learn that the National Academy “was not asked to assess the possible health effects of these tests.”
I thoroughly distrust the links of the National Academy and, thus, its studies to the government and U.S. Army:
“This study was funded by the U.S. Department of the Army. The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, non-profit organization that provides independent advice on science and technology under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences.”
But I will take what I can get as one source of information.
You know what my bottom line is. I haven’t read a news item in 30 years that didn’t indict our form of government and confirm me in my anti-state view. And if I have run across some news item or some move made by government that actually was a good move, I’ve forgotten what it was because it has been buried so deeply in the heap of bad moves. And this item about secretly spraying populations with chemicals and microbes just adds to the heap of bad news about the state.
9:02 am on January 22, 2012
