Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Some Ill-Placed Trust...!

Once in a while, I run across a story that is really hard to believe. This is one of those stories!

Every time one of these stories surfaces, my faith in the PTB erodes just a little more! I know this happened a long time ago, but the fact that it is just now being acknowledged really disturbs me.

Albert Stevens: Radioactive Man
By Mike Devlin on Saturday, November 16, 2013

During the Manhattan Project, which would lead to the building of the first atomic bombs, researchers became increasingly concerned about the hazards of contact with plutonium. In one of the most horrifying and unethical experiments ever undertaken, 18 people were injected with plutonium without their consent to measure its effects. The most heavily dosed was a man named Albert Stevens, a house painter who received an injection that assaulted his body with 60 times the amount of radiation allowed to current workers every year until his death, over 20 years later.

Today, science has a pretty good handle on the dangers of radiation, but not so long ago, folks were attending atomic bomb parties and painting watch dials with radioluminescent paint. The Manhattan Project brought the fears of radiation’s effects to a head, especially the effects of the newly isolated element, plutonium, which many had become heavily exposed to during experimentation. To that end, they decided to initiate a study to determine exactly how dangerous plutonium was.

The plot was sinister. They would inject varying amounts of plutonium into unwitting patients and gauge its effects. To their credit, they chose people who had been diagnosed with a “terminal” condition who weren’t expected to live regardless of the results. Eighteen people were injected at three different sites, including the University of California Hospital in San Francisco. The first patient to receive the injection in California (dubbed CAL-1) was a house painter in his late fifties named Albert Stevens. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer.

Stevens was injected with two different isotopes of plutonium. He received a monstrous dose, about 0.95 micrograms in all, as he was not expected to live much longer anyway. But when doctors opened him up to perform surgery on his tumor four days later, they found that he was merely suffering from an extremely bad ulcer. Stevens was lied to and led to believe that he’d undergone a miracle recovery and was then studied. His urine and stool samples were carefully monitored. In the course of a year, he would absorb 60 times the amount of radiation that workers are now allowed to take annually. Stevens would go on to live more than 20 years, his blood filled with plutonium. He eventually succumbed to heart disease at the ripe age of 79. Some of the other 18 patients weren’t so lucky, but it is believed all of them died from pre-existing conditions and not the megadoses of radiation they’d been dealt.

Now I would love to think that this sort of thing would not ever happen again, but that would be foolish. Sometimes I think that we are not nearly as civilized as we would like to think!

Coffee out on the patio this morning. The morning should be pleasant, with the afternoon turning hot again!

16 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

And the people who should have been SHOT got off scott-free!

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
More often than not, they are regarded as heroes in their field!

Thanks for dropping by this morning!

Mamahen said...

Makes you leary of going to Drs for anything :( Tocool hear for sitting outside, so your patio sounds nice! Thanks for the iinvitev:))

linda m said...

Unbelievable what people will due in the name of science. This is one of the reasons I don't go to the doctor any more. I don't need someone experimenting on me. Would love to have coffee on your patio as it is only 19 degrees here.

Momlady said...

Remember the movie Soylent Green? Although just in the 40's here I must go clear overflow pipe. Brrr.

JO said...

There must be hundreds of these stories out there. It is scary.

It's still a little chilly this morning so your patio sounds good.

MamaHen said...

I wouldn't put anything past our government anymore.

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
Right now the temp on my patio is 60. Not too bad!

Government Doctors would scare me, considering all the experiments I've read about lately!

Thanks for coming by today!



Hey Linda...
I,for one, don't want to be part of any experiment done by the government!

19 is way too cold, I think! My 60s are way better!

Thanks for coming by today!



Hey Momlady...
I hate to hear about you having to go into the pond in this kind of weather! And yes, I do remember the movie very well!

Thanks for the visit today!



Hey Jo...
Just think of all the stories we never hear about! Scary is a good way to describe it!

Thanks, sweetie, for coming over today!

HermitJim said...

Hey Anne...
I have to go along with you on that! Sure makes it hard to trust them sometimes!

Thanks for coming over today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

Maybe the plutonium in his blood killed off all the bad diseases and allowed him to live to such a ripe old age.

HermitJim said...

Hey Dizzy...
It would certainly be nice to think so! Wonder what the odds are?

Thanks, buddy, for coming by today!

Caddie said...

In this Age of Enlightenment to all the dirty deeds of the past and present and which no doubt will continue into the far future, is it any wonder we are fast becoming an angry, fear-ridden and distrusting society? I have no doubt all of it is orchestrated from the beginning of humanity to indoctrinate us for "their" goals of control.

Caddie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

It is beyond my capability to understand how Radical Muslim mothers can strap bombs on their children and send them out to blow up sombody else.

This story of plutonium injections etc.has been confirmed many times over. And it smells the same.

Linda said...

I remember well the radioactive dials. Also, stores had a machine that x-rayed feet for shoe fitting. Remember those? Thankfully, my mother would not let us get on them. She did not allow us to play or step out of line when we shopped. All the kids in the store jumped on and off. We could only watch. Thank goodness for a strict mother.

HermitJim said...

Hey Sissy...
I'm afraid that you are right on that one.

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Bumpsstump...
The smell will never leave acts like this, no doubt!

Many thanks for dropping by today!



Hey Linda...
Both of those things I remember well. I had a watch with that dial on it at one time!

Thanks for coming over!