![]() ![]() The long term effects of mustard gas exposure only began to be investigated in the 1990s. Navy sailor at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi wears protective clothing and a gas mask designed for use in chemical warfare, Corpus Christi, Texas, Aug. However, African-American and Japanese-American military service members were recruited to determine if the skin effects of mustard gas were different for those groups.Ī U.S. The majority tested were Caucasian because the majority of servicemen were Caucasian. This investigation also uncovered the lack of policies for tests on human subjects and found that the purpose of some of the experiments was to discover whether there were racial distinctions in reaction to mustard gas. It was impossible to learn the identities of many of the men, since recordkeeping was spotty and varied greatly by test site. It was determined that no central database of participants existed. One open field test on Puerto Ricans was done outside the United States at remote San Jose Island, Panama Canal Zone.Īfrican-American and Japanese-American service members were recruited to determine if the skin effects of mustard gas were different for those groups.Īfter years of ignoring veterans who had participated in these experiments, the government finally issued a directive in the 1990s for The Institute of Medicine to research the long term impact of these experiments on veterans. A variety of tests were performed at arsenals and bases (Edgewood Arsenal, Md, Camp Sibert, Ala., Bushnell Field, Fla., Dugway Proving Ground, Utah), the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and some universities including the University of Chicago. ![]() ![]() Experimentation took place at numerous sites across America. Some wore protective clothing and apparatus but others were left exposed. The protocol for the field tests consisted of placing men in open ground areas that became saturated with mustard gas. This penetration often resulted in moderate to severe chemical burns. Outfitted with protective clothing, participants were placed in a gas chamber for an hour or more until penetration of the clothing occurred. The greatest amount of full body system exposure occurred in the chamber and field tests. The National Toxicology Program of Health and Human Services has outlined three types of mustard gas experiments on the military in World War II – patch or drop tests on the skin, closed chamber tests and open field tests. Mustard gas experiments were conducted on U.S servicemen in order to test protective equipment. Loel Putnam in gas mask and protective cloth permeable helmet at a chemical warfare decontamination demonstration at Fort Bliss, Texas, Sept. More than 60,000 servicemen were affected, some seriously.Ī close-up view of Sgt. The experiments were for purposes of testing clothing, skin ointments and other protective apparatus to determine their efficacy in the event of enemy mustard gas attacks. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) noted on their website that “volunteer” soldiers and sailors were participants in Department of War experiments during the war. Secretly, mustard gas experiments were performed on U.S servicemen. However, only isolated incidents of use by Germany and Japan occurred. Chemical weapons were manufactured and stockpiled by the United States for possible use against the enemy. However, what is mainly unknown is the magnitude of exposure of American soldiers to mustard gas – an exposure created by their own government. Chemical substances were seldom used on the battlefield. ![]() In contrast, World War II is considered to be a war free of such tactics. The cloak of concealment about the mustard gas exposure experienced by World War II servicemen continued for decades. In World War I, deadly chemicals were utilized as agents of destruction Vietnam’s Agent Orange had long-range unintended effects, some of which were no less deadly. During the last century, World War I was notable for mustard gas attacks decades later, the Vietnam War was linked to Agent Orange. Exposure to harmful chemicals has long been associated with modern warfare. ![]()
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