8. People Were Injected With Radioactive Elements
While developing the atomic bomb via the Manhattan Project, the United States government reasonably concluded that it needed to understand what it was dealing with and the power behind it. Oppenheimer and others who led the project knew, in a worst-case scenario, what they were doing could cause the earth’s atmosphere to catch on fire and end life on earth. Thus, it made perfect sense to run some experiments to see what the effects of radiation would be on people. And what better way to test radiation than on involuntary subjects?
In one experiment, weapons-grade plutonium – a highly radioactive element that is produced as a byproduct of nuclear fission – was injected into the bloodstreams of 18 unconsenting patients. Outside of the body, plutonium is pretty harmless and is stopped by barriers such as the skin. Once inside the body, though, it destroys DNA from within and drastically increases the risk of cancer; high doses can kill within seconds. Only five of the 18 patients lived longer than 20 years.
In other experiments, women and children were given food and drink that had been laced with radioactive elements. But testing living subjects wasn’t enough. The government exhumed bodies of people who had died from the exposure to radiation to see the continued effects of radiation on their corpses.