University of Washington researchers have violated the Nuremberg Code and the federal regulations governing the conduct of human experiments, according to new documents obtained by JunkScience.com through the Freedom of Information Act. The air pollution research in question was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In the experiment, human study subjects were exposed for two hours to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in diesel exhaust at a concentration of up to 200 micrograms per cubic meter.
The EPA determined as far back as 2004 that any exposure to PM2.5 can cause death within hours of inhalation, and that there is no safe exposure to PM2.5. The 200-microgram level is almost six times higher than EPA’s maximum permitted hourly exposure (i.e., 35 micrograms per cubic meter). Death is the EPA’s primary public health concern for PM2.5.
Given that the experiments are non-therapeutic in nature (i.e., not undertaken to provide health benefits to the study subjects), they are ipso facto illegal — i.e., federal researchers cannot risk the lives of study subjects merely to gain scientific knowledge.
The illegality of the experiments is compounded by federal regulations requiring that informed consent be obtained from the study subjects, which includes warning of reasonably foreseeable adverse health outcomes.
The University of Washington researchers, however, failed to warn the study subjects about the EPA’s primary concern with PM2.5 — i.e., death. Below is the relevant excerpt from a consent form approved for use in February 2010.
Stay tuned for more on this developing story…
The EPA studies using children breathing diesel exhaust started in 2001, so don’t lay this one on Pres. Obama.
This is part of ongoing human testing. Though it is shocking, though the government may go through the motions of investigations like the Church Committee hearings on MKULTRA, no one is indicted or punished. Only the whistleblowers get punished. And many of these programs just go “black” when they are discovered.
Last year, a program in St. Louis in the 1950s and 1960s started getting publicity. The military admits to using zinc cadmium sulfide on a low income housing area called Pruitt Igoe, but a researcher has also found a connection with the Manhattan Project to this spraying, and alleges that the military used weaponized radiation. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/researcher-to-discuss-military-testing-in-st-louis-in-the/article_c7be3f5c-c2df-5cc4-91eb-70386fb37250.html
http://gradworks.umi.com/35/15/3515886.html
Project Censored wrote a report in 2006 on some of the programs involving electromagnetic frequencies.
http://www.projectcensored.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ElectromegnaticWeapons.pdf (the link is correct even though misspelled)
How long until Americans demand answers, exposure, and criminal penalties for all scientists and government officials involved, justice for the many victims, and permanently closing down these universities, facilities, and agencies that engage in this work?
Whenever anything like this comes up, whether it’s climate emails or benghazi or ar-15’s to mexican drug gangs, there’s always 2 issues to it, 1 is the story and the other is our little pravda media hiding it from view.
2 hours of exposure is a very long time! I’ve been exposed to it for about 3 or 4 minutes inside a shop before the doors were opened and the rig driven out. It is nasty!
Can you imagine if a for-profit company did this (ie. a drug company exposing unknowing people to diseases so they could test their medicines)?
There would be congressional investigations, indictments from Holder’s people, speeches from the White House, exposes on every MSM network, movies, books etc.
But its okay if the government and a “non-profit” university commit international crimes!
Great work. It is about time EPA has its feet held to a fire. They have peddled misleading information around the country for years and caused grievous harm to many Americans.
EPA practices double standards over what they call environmental threats. They want mercury emissions from power plants to be below what occurs in nature and then they require mercury-laden CFLs to be used in your home as a cure for global warming. I wonder if anything will be done about solar panels containing carcinogens being recommended for homes as a cure for global warming?
James Rust, Professor
So water boarding can’t cause death, but it sends the media into a frenzy. PM2.5 testing can cause death (according to EPA) and is widespread, yet the media ignores it? No bias there.
iheartagw: Marijuana smokers say some amazing things, you have to check their sources!
If ANY exposure to PM2.5 is deemed unsafe, how is it that marijuana smokers say marijuana smoking is safe?