From 1955 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human subject research at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland.Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents, Commission on Life Sciences. The National Academies Press. In three volumes:
Vol. 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982). Vol. 2, "Cholinesterase Reactivators, Psychochemicals and Irritants and Vesicants (1984) Vol. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects" (1985) These experiments began after the conclusion of World War II, and continued until the public became aware of the experiments, resulting in significant outcry. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. A small portion of these studies were directed at psychochemical warfare; grouped under the title "Medical Research Volunteer Program" (1956–1975), driven by intelligence requirements and the need for new and more effective interrogation techniques.
Overall, about 6,720 soldiers took part in these experiments that involved exposures to more than 250 different chemicals, according to the Department of Defense (DoD). Some of the volunteers exhibited symptoms at the time of exposure to these agents, but long-term follow-up was not planned as part of the DoD studies. The experiments were abruptly terminated by the Army in late 1975 amidst an atmosphere of scandal and recrimination, as lawmakers accused researchers of questionable ethics. Many official government reports and civilian lawsuits followed in the wake of the controversy.
The chemical agents tested on volunteers included chemical warfare agents and other related agents:
Anticholinesterase nerve agents (VX, sarin) and common organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate pesticides Mustard agents Nerve agent antidotes including atropine and scopolamine Nerve agent reactivators, e.g. the common OP antidote 2-PAM chloride Psychoactive agents including LSD, PCP, cannabinoids, and BZ Irritants and riot control agents Alcohol and caffeine
History
Background and rationale After the conclusion of World War II, U.S. military researchers obtained formulas for the three nerve gases developed by the Nazis—tabun, soman, and sarin.
In 1947, the first steps of planning began when Dr. Alsoph H. Corwin, a professor of chemistry at Johns Hopkins University wrote the Chemical Corps Technical Command positing the potential for the use of specialized enzymes as so-called "toxicological warfare agents". He went on to suggest that, with intensive research, substances that depleted certain necessary nutrients could be found, which would, when administered on the battlefield, incapacitate enemy combatants.
In 1948, the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center began conducting research using the aforementioned nerve gases. These studies included a classified human subjects component at least as early as 1948, when "psychological reactions" were documented in Edgewood technicians. Initially, such studies focused solely on the lethality of the gases and its treatment and prevention.
A classified report entitled "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War" was produced in 1949 by Luther Wilson Greene, Technical Director of the Chemical and Radiological Laboratories at Edgewood. Greene called for a search for novel psychoactive compounds that would create the same debilitating mental side effects as those produced by nerve gases, but without their lethal effect. In his words,Throughout recorded history, wars have been characterized by death, human misery, and the destruction of property; each major conflict being more catastrophic than the one preceding it ... I am convinced that it is possible, by means of the techniques of psychochemical warfare, to conquer an enemy without the wholesale killing of his people or the mass destruction of his property.Greene, L. Wilson, "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War", U. S. Army Chemical Center, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland; August 1949.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the U.S. Army worked with Harvard anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher at its interrogation center at Camp King in Germany on the use of psychoactive compounds (mescaline, LSD), including human subject experiments and the debriefing of former Nazi physicians and scientists who had worked along similar lines before the end of the war.George A. Mashour (2009), "Altered States: LSD and the Anesthesia Laboratory of Henry Knowles Beecher" , CSA Bulletin, Winter issue, pp 68-74. In the 1950s, some officials in the U.S. Department of Defense publicly asserted that many "forms of chemical and allied warfare as more 'humane' than existing weapons. For example, certain types of 'psychochemicals' would make it possible to paralyze temporarily entire population centers without damage to homes and other structures.""US Plans Study of Gas Warfare" [New York Times News Service], Sunday, 9 August 1959, The Milwaukee Journal, Part I, pg 2. Soviet advances in the same field were cited as a special incentive giving impetus to research efforts in this area, according to testimony by Maj. Gen. Marshall Stubbs, the Army's chief chemical officer.
In June 1955, the United States Department of Defense appointed a so-called Ad Hoc Study Group on Psychochemical Agents, which seems to have acted as a central authority on the research of psychochemical at Edgewood Arsenal and other installations where such experimentation occurred.
General William M. Creasy, former chief chemical officer, U.S. Army, testified to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1959 that "provided sufficient emphasis is put behind it, I think the future lies in the psychochemicals.""Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Warfare Agents", Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, June 1959 (No. 22). This was alarming enough to a Harvard psychiatrist, E. James Lieberman, that he published an article entitled "Psychochemicals as Weapons" in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1962. Lieberman, while acknowledging that "most of the military data" on the research ongoing at the Army Chemical Center was "secret and unpublished", asserted that "There are moral imponderables, such as whether insanity, temporary or permanent, is a more 'humane' military threat than the usual afflictions of war."Lieberman, E. James (1962), "Psychochemicals as Weapons"; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January issue).
The experiments The Edgewood Arsenal human experiments took place from approximately 1948 to 1975 at the Medical Research Laboratories—which is now known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD)—at the Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The experiments involved at least 254 chemical substances, but focused mainly on midspectrum incapacitants, such as LSD, THC derivatives, benzodiazepines, and BZ. Around 7,000 U.S. military personnel and 1,000 civilians were test subjects over almost three decades. A result of these experiments was that BZ was weaponized, although never deployed.Researchers tested pot, LSD on Army volunteers Richard Willing, USA Today, 4/6/2007
According to a DoD FAQ, the Edgewood Arsenal experiments involved the following "rough breakout of volunteer hours against various experimental categories": Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Agent Exposure Studies FAQs. What types of tests were conducted at Edgewood? September 08, 2008
Experimental category Percentage of volunteer hours Incapacitating compounds 29.9% Lethal compounds 14.5% Riot control compounds 14.2% Protective equipment and clothing 13.2% Development evaluation and test procedures 12.5% Effects of drugs and environmental stress on human physiological mechanisms 6.4% Human factors tests (ability to follow instructions) 2.1% Other (visual studies, sleep deprivation, etc.) 7.2%
Acetylcholine related experiments Much of the experimentation at Edgewood Arsenal surrounded the modulation of acetylcholine or acetylcholinesterase, or the deactivation and reactivation of substances which did the same. These experiments represented a significant enough proportion of the total experimentation to earn a dedicated volume in the main experimental documentation. Much of the follow-up data on the acetylcholine-related experiments are lacking or entirely missing, due to a combination of remaining classification and failures on the part of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and United States Department of Defense to follow the subjects of the experimentation.
Anticholinesterase experiments Anticholinesterases are substances that interfere with the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase and therefore sustaining the effect of acetylcholine or butyrylcholine within the chemical synapses, resulting in a cholinergic crisis, and possibly death if untreated.
Long-term side effects of exposure to anticholinesterases, including at levels below the threshold for profound illness and death, can include paralysis and peripheral neuropathy, sleep disturbance, genetic mutation and cancer. In total, 1,406 subjects were tested with 16 agents, some of which included reactivating agents and protective agents.
Anticholinergic experiments Anticholinergics are substances that interfere with the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system by inhibiting acetylcholine, resulting in what is essentially the opposite effect of a cholinesterase inhibitor to the extreme. This can result in anticholinergic syndrome, and possibly death if untreated.
Available data from both experiment patients and pharmaceutical research indicates that short-term exposure to anticholinergic compounds, especially the extremely limited exposures described in the documentation, is associated with no long-term effects. In the decades since their introduction to medical use, research has begun to suggest a causal relationship between long-term anticholinergic drug use and later development or worsening of dementia. In total, 1,752 subjects were tested with 21 agents, some of whom received exposure to more than one chemical agent.
Cholinesterase reactivator experiments Cholinesterase reactivators are substances which reactivate acetylcholinesterase which has been inactivated by an anticholinesterase. This action can be precipitated through a variety of mechanisms, including directly binding and deactivating the anticholinesterase itself, blocking the reaction between the anticholinesterase and the acetylcholinesterase, changing the release of acetylcholine, blocking acetylcholine's cholinolytic effect, or by increasing the excretion of the anticholinesterase.
Available data from the experiments and from prescribing information from modern marketing of these substances concludes that little risk exists of long-term effects from exposure. It is noted, however, in both the prescribing information for modern variants and in toxicological research on the subject that it has been the subject of insufficient research to conclude this beyond a reasonable doubt. In total, 219 subjects were tested with four agents.
Psychochemical related experiments The 1976 report on the matter identifies the sole objective of the psychochemical experiments as determining the impact on morale and efficacy such agents would have on military units. It appears that these experiments specifically were first called for in 1954 after the attendees of the First Psychochemical Conference informed the Department of Defense that human trials were indicated. In 1957, the first report of such trials were received, detailing a four-person experiment wherein they attempted to successfully decontaminate themselves of a mock agent while under the influence of LSD.
LSD experiments