Panel: Few subjects need compensation
f WASHINGTON — Most people
subjected to government-sanctioned
radiation tests during the Cold War
suffered little or no long-lastingeffect
and should not be compensated, an
» advisory panel says in its report to the
president.
The panel, which documented some
4,000 radiation experiments in an 18
month study, said that it found only
three cases — involving roughly 30
individuals — where compensation
clearly is warranted.
However, other cases may warrant
compensation when more information
about them is determined, it said. The
experiments, many of them highly se
cret, occurred over three decades be
ginning in the 1940s.
The findings by the 14-member
Advisory Committee on Human Ra
diation Experiments, were submitted
i
to the White House on Monday. Presi
dent Clinton was expected to outline
the government’s response, including
future actions, at a ceremony Tues
day.
Dr. Ruth Faden, the panel’s chair
man, said Monday that the committee
sought to establish a clear “frame
work” that calls for compensation in
any experiments where subjects were
deliberately misled, did not give clear
consent and where physical harm can
be shown.
Only three experiments, including
the deliberate injection of 18 indi
viduals with plutonium in the 1940s,
clearly met the panels’ criteria, she
said.
The advisory panel also rejected
suggestions that the government pro
vide widespread notification to the
subjects of past experiments. And it
1 I
“The damage is not physical injury, although
this, too, did occur in some cases, (but) the pain
felt by people who believe that they or their loved
ones were treated with disrespect. ”
Report sent to White House by the Advisory Committee on Human
Radiation Experiments
recommended against formal medical
fol lowup of experiments, concluding
they would be of little medical benefit
in experiments that occurred decades
ago.
Instead, the panel said the govern
ment should use the more than 100,000
documents gathered during its inves
tigation as a data bank for individuals
wishing more information about pos
sible human experimentation.
Faden, speaking to reporters at a
briefing, said the panel believed re
soundingly that individuals have a right
to know whether they were subjected
to a government-sponsored experi
ment. But that process, she said, should
start by providing individuals effi
cient access to documents.
Among the most troubling aspects
of the Cold War-era experiments was
the cloak of secrecy that surrounded
them, said Faden, a bioethicist at Johns
Hopkins University. Experiments of
ten were kept under wraps for decades
because of fear of bad publicity, the
advisory panel found.
It concludes that most of the 4,000
experiment s that the panel documented
involved adult patients who were given
low-dose radioactive tracers that “are
unlikely to have caused physical harm”
or resulted in long-term health con
cerns.
“The damage is not physical in
jury, although this, too, did occur in
some cases, (but) the pain felt by
people who believe that they or their
loved ones were treated with disre
spect,” the report said.
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Sheik moved to ‘Noplaceville’ prison
-NEW YORK—A day after being
convicted of conspiring to wage holy
war against the United States, Sheik
Omar Abdel-Rahman was moved
Monday from New York to a medical
prison in Missouri.
One of his lavfyers, Lynne Stewart,
complained to U.S. District Judge
Michael Mukasey that the blind sheik
had been taken “to a peculiarly inac
cessible part of the world.” Later, she
told reporters her client had been taken
“to Middle America, to Noplaceville.”
The sheik, who has diabetes and
heart trouble, will be evaluated at the
U.S. Medical Center for Federal Pris
oners in Springfield, Mo. He arrived
there in a sedan guarded by police
with assault weapons.
After examining the sheik, doctors
will decide which prison he will be
sent to, prison spokesman Marty
Anderson said.
Abdel-Rahman wasconvicted Sun
day along with nine others in a sedi
tious conspiracy plot to attack the
United States through bombings, as
sassinations and kidnappings. He
could get life in prison without parole
when he is sentenced in late January.
The judge told defense lawyers he
could do nothing about the sheik’s
move to the maximum-security pri son
in Springfield, which has 922 inmates.
Another one ofthe sheik’s lawyers,
Abdeen M. Jabara, said the early morn
ing move was “a form of harassment
basically” and the distance from his
lawyers will make it harder for the
sheik to prepare for sentencing and
begin work on his appeal.
In Fayoum, Egypt, two of the
sheik’s sons called their father Is con
viction unjust, saying he had tele
phoned Monday to tell them about it.
Abdallah Abdel-Rahman, 20, and
18-year-old Abdel-Rahman Omar
Abdel-Rahman spoke on the doorstep
ofthe family’shome, where the sheik’s
two wives and 10 children live.
Abdallah said his father told them
to be patient and pray.
“We are not surprised because the
United States is the enemy of Islam,”
Abdallah said.
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Emboldened France vows
to continue nuclear tests
PAPEETE, Tahiti — Emboldened by luke
warm reaction to its second nuclear test in the
South Pacific, France reaffirmed its commit
ment Monday to press'ahead with more under
ground blasts.
The environmental group Greenpeace called
Sunday’s test beneath Fangataufa Atoll in French
Polynesia “an enormous affront.” Australia and
New Zealand lodged formal protests with the
French government, and New Zealand called in
its French ambassador.
But the United States and other key allies
merely expressed “regret” at the test, and Brit
ain and Germany reacted with indifference.
“I haven’t heard any demands — I’ve only
heard regrets,” Foreign Minister Herve de
Charette of France said at a meeting of Euro
pean foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Premier Alain Juppe said Monday that France
will conduct up to six more tests and “be among
the first” to sign a global test ban treaty next
year.
President Jacques Chirac has promised to
sign the treaty after the tests, which he contends
are safe and necessary.
The Foreign Ministry repeated on Monday
that France might shorten the series of tests,
now planned to end by June, if it gets enough
information from the first few blasts.
But environmental groups ana tne nations or
the South Pacific have reacted angrily to the
tests, which break a three-year moratorium. The
world’s other nuclear powers, except China,
have not tested nuclear arms since 1992.
“It is a wrong call for France politically, and
it is irresponsible environmentally,” said New
Zealand’s prime minister, Jim Bolger.
Sunday’s blast also provoked swift condem
nation from the prime minister of Australia.
Japan, Russia, the United States, Chile, Swe
den and the European Commission merely ex
pressed “regret.” Germany and Britain —
Europe’s other nuclear power — carefully
avoided criticizing the blast.
“If the French decide there is a need for tests
before a comprehensive test ban treaty, that is a
matter for them,” the British Foreign Office
said in a statement.
The White House defended its reaction. “The
use of the word' regret’ in respect to one of our
dose European allies is strong indeed,” said
presidential spokesman Mike McCurry.
“If the French decide there is a need for tests
before a comprehensive test ban treaty, that is a
matter for them,” the British Foreign Office
said in a statement.
Computer can re-check Pap smears
WAbHiNUiUiN — A computer system to
help doctors more reliably double check Pap
smears for signs of cervical cancer in women
has been approved-by the Food and Drug Ad
ministration. • ,
The AutoPap QC system by NeoPath Inc. of
Redmond, Wash., the First computer of its kind
to be approved by the FDA, is to replace the
random method of rescreening Pap smears that
laboratories currently use.
F; In the Pap smear, the standard test for detect
ing cervical cancer, tioetors scrape cells of the
cervix and examine them for abnormalities.
Cervical cancer is easily ireat^, if in the
early stages, j , '3 f'*i .-sit■
But laboratories'miss the., ^bnon^atcells
between 5 percent afad 25 peitenFb^ieltime,
_dependingjm.the lab, an-FBA-^okaswoHiaa».
said.
The AutoPap, approved Friday, will auto
matically rescreen the pool of Pap smears that
labs using it have determined are normal, and
then select 10 percent of the most suspicious
samples for a second, manual screening.
Lab technicians known as cytoteclinologists
currently view thousands of samples under mi
croscopes daily. The labs are required by law to
randomly select 10 percent of all reviewed
samples for a second analysis.
: £• But the FDA cautioned that the system isirot
error-proof. \
“What this new product does is-it increases
the number of abnormal slides identified in the
Pap smear reading process, but it’s not fool
proof,” FDA spokeswoman Sharon Snyder slid.
sTkere- Garwrtill be reading effors£