The Messed Up Truth Of The Edgewood Experiments

From at least 1948 to 1975, the U.S. Army was involved in human experimentation involving chemical agents at Edgewood Arsenal (via the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs). But over half a century later, they continue to be less than forthcoming about the experiments, even with their own subjects. And while information has slowly trickled out over the years, the military and Department of Veterans Affairs have done their best to try to evade responsibility at every turn.

For years, these experiments were kept a secret even from the soldiers who were being tested on. After years of being evasive, the U.S. Army was finally forced to admit that they were conducting chemical tests on human subjects. But while they've always insisted that the subjects were volunteers, the lack of documentation regarding these experiments makes it questionable if the people involved were actually giving their full and informed consent.

This isn't the first time that the United States government has experimented on its own citizens. But many of their experiments had their origins at Edgewood. Even the well-known Project MKULTRA had its budding start at thee facility. This is the messed-up truth of the Edgewood experiments.

After the Second World War, the U.S. Army put some of its efforts toward studying the nerve gasses that the Third Reich had invested in, including tabun, soman, and sarin. According to The New Yorker, both the Soviet Union and the American governments were interested in acquiring Nazi knowledge about chemical weapons. While the Soviet Union reportedly relocated a nerve-gas plant behind the Iron Curtain, the Americans recruited the Nazi scientists who developed the chemical formulas.

In "Hard Right Turn," Jerry Carrier writes that many Nazi doctors and scientists were recruited by the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, and many were brought to the Edgewood facility. And most of the scientists brought over had already been identified as Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg Trials. "Several secret U.S. government mind control projects grew out of these Nazi experiments at the Edgewood Arsenal. These projects included Project Chatter in 1947, and Project Bluebird in 1950 [later renamed Project Artichoke]," Carrier writes.

Recruited scientists included Freidrich Hoffman and Dr. Karl Tauboeck, who were both involved in chemical experiments for the Nazi Reich. The Alliance For Human Research Protection writes that not only did they continue working on chemical experiments for the U.S. Army and CIA, but they also conducted tests on soldiers using oxygen deprivation. A CIA memorandum noted that "some subjects became exhilarated, talkative, or quarrelsome, with emotional outbursts or fixed ideas. Some complained of headache or numbness. Voluntary coordination and attention are impaired ... burns and bruises are not noticed."

Although some sort of consent form was given to the service members at some point, it's questionable if any of the soldiers were fully informed about the experiments they were participating in. NPR reports that while the soldiers did sign consent forms, they didn't know what they were being exposed to, and "some of the soldiers have suffered physical and psychological trauma since the tests." The 1994 General Accounting Office report on human experimentation also notes that many of the people subjected to the human experimentation "complained that they had not been fully informed about risk involved," according to "Military Neuroscience and the Coming Age of Neurowarfare" by Armin Krishnan.

The 1975 U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure also found that "the consent information was inadequate by current standards," per Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents. But according to The Baffler, informed consent has never really been extended to people in the military. Court cases like Chappell v. Wallace, Feres v. United States, and United States v. Stanley have repeatedly set the precedent that the state has broad immunity from wrongdoing when it involves people in the military since any damages are considered to be "incident to service."

Mustard agent was also used in the human experiments at the Edgewood facility in various forms. Acutely toxic levels of mustard liquid were reportedly used and would often cause immediate poisoning symptoms. And according to Military Medicine, the rate of documented injuries was incredibly high. At one point over a two-year period, over 1,000 cases of acute mustard agent toxicity were reported. Experiments were also conducted using gas chambers, and they often lasted between one to four hours. People who were given less protection often suffered from "severe burns to the genital areas, including cases of crusted lesions to the scrotum."

Although these experiments were more common at the Edgewood facility during the Second World War, they continued well after the conflict ended. Some service members were only notified in 1996 that they'd been a participant in mustard agent testing, per the "Chemical Weapons Exposure Project: Summary of Actions and Projects." In addition, NPR reports that sometimes, the experiments were also grouped by race "to see what effect these gasses would have on black skins."

Riot control agents, including irritants and blister agents, were also tested at the Edgewood facility. Military Medicine writes that about 1,500 people were involved in the human testing experiments of riot control agents, including CS, chloropicrin, Adamsite, and other ocular and respiratory irritants. Exposure was typically through aerosol, dermal, or eye application. For some people, exposure to CS lead to erythema, vesicles, burns, hepatic dysfunction, and urinary abnormalities. Some even showed allergic dermatitis after repeated exposure.

According to "Celebrating 85 Years of CB Solutions," the Edgewood facility was instrumental in supporting the Vietnam War with riot control agents. Even the Army Research and Development wrote in 1968 that Edgewood developed three munitions that were being used in Vietnam "with very good results." Meanwhile, "Inhalation Toxicology," edited by Harry Salem and Sidney A. Katz, notes that the United States doesn't recognize riot control agents to be chemical warfare agents.

The Report of the Comptroller General of the United States also confirms that during at least one point, the U.S. Army also used dogs in their "experiments on new nonlethal riot gasses."

The 1975 report by the U.S. Army Inspector General called "Use of Volunteers in Critical Agent Research" writes that "the lack of factual information available to quickly respond to the inquiries illustrated an inadequacy of the Army's institutional memory on this subject area. This inadequacy was aggravated by inconsistencies in the limited data which was available." These sentiments were echoed by the General Accounting Office. The IG report also notes that many of the requests for experiment approvals failed to even mention what specific nerve gas agents would be used under which circumstances. "The available records gave the impression that the submission of the initial request[s] amounted to nothing more than a perfunctory action for the purpose of obtaining blanket approval for ongoing research projects," it reads.

According to the "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists," the U.S. Army also failed to provide any follow-up medical care and failed to anticipate any long-term health consequences. And even when veterans like Nathan Schnurman, a Navy test veteran, continued to suffer from long-term health problems and got the Department of Veterans Affairs to admit that human experimentation had occurred on him, he was unable to get them to admit that it had any relation to his current health problems. Even the Navy records he was able to find were "erroneous and incomplete."

Although the three-volume study published by the Institute of Medicine between 1982 and 1985 claimed that there were no "significant long-term health effects in Edgewood Arsenal volunteers," many veterans have reported experiencing long-term health effects that can be attributed to the human experimentation at the Edgewood facility (per the "Deployment Health Support Directorate"). Unfortunately, NPR reports that many who participated in the experiments have also since passed away.

Black Then writes that many servicemen suffered from a variety of adverse health effects following the Edgewood human experiments, including peeling skin, cancer, motion disorders, and psychological issues. And although many veterans meet all of the requirements to apply for benefits if they can prove that they have an illness linked to a chemical the U.S. Army exposed them to, NPR reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to press for more information and proof and will deny benefits to veterans for decades.

Per NPR, though veteran Harry Bollinger, who participated in the human experiments, is proud of his service, "that time in his life is tainted: by the pain he felt as a human test subject in military experiments, and by the VA that told him it wasn't real."