Researchers in the United States have performed thousands of
human radiation experiments to determine the effects of
atomic radiation and
radioactive contamination on the human body, generally on people who were poor, sick, or powerless.
[55] Most of these tests were performed, funded, or supervised by the
United States military,
Atomic Energy Commission, or various other
US federal government agencies.
The experiments included a wide array of studies, involving things like feeding radioactive food to mentally disabled children or
conscientious objectors, inserting
radium rods into the noses of schoolchildren, deliberately releasing radioactive chemicals over U.S. and Canadian cities, measuring the health effects of radioactive fallout from nuclear bomb tests, injecting pregnant women and babies with radioactive chemicals, and irradiating the testicles of prison inmates, amongst other things.
Much information about these programs was
classified and kept secret. In 1986 the
United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce released a report entitled
American Nuclear Guinea Pigs : Three Decades of Radiation Experiments on U.S. Citizens.
[56] In the 1990s
Eileen Welsome's reports on radiation testing for
The Albuquerque Tribune prompted the creation of the
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments by
executive order of president
Bill Clinton, to monitor government tests