Excerpt
Military Once Used SF Fog For Simulated Germ-Warfare Attack, Exposing 800,000 To Harmful Bacteria
July 10, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- In what sounds like a conspiracy theory, the fog over San Francisco was used by the U.S. military in the 1950s as a way to mask the spreading of a biological agent in simulated germ-warfare attacks.
Leonard Cole, the director of the Terror Medicine and Security Program at Rutgers Medical School, called it one of the largest human experiments in history.
For a period of 20 years between 1949 and 1969, the U.S. Army conducted more than 200 secret biological warfare tests over populated areas. Among the first was in the 1950s along San Francisco's bay coastline.
A Navy minesweeper went back and forth for a couple of days in September spraying a bacteria called Serratia marcescens in a mist that was unnoticed due to the region's fog.
In his book, "Clouds of Secrecy," Cole said it was touted as harmless bacteria, but that wasn't the case.
Nearly all of San Francisco received 500 particle minutes per liter. In other words, nearly every one of the 800,000 people in San Francisco exposed to the cloud at normal breathing rate (10 liters per minute) inhaled 5,000 or more particles per minute during the several hours that they remained airborne.
Cole said a careful inspection of the medical literature would have shown that bacteria was responsible for not only making some people ill over the course of 50 years, but also in a few instances caused their death.
"Here's an experiment involving human subjects, but the purpose of the experiment was not to see anything about the survival of the individuals," Cole said.
San Francisco Residents Target of Military Experiment
July 14, 2015
San Francisco’s famous fog has become a celebrated part of SF living. Residents have even personified the fog, naming it Karl. Most wouldn’t expect Karl to be involved in a “simulated germ-warfare attack,” but he has quite a nasty past. In 1950 the U.S. Military conducted what has been described as “one of the largest human experiments in history,” aided by Bay Area fog.
In September of 1950, without alerting San Francisco residents, the U.S. Navy sprayed a fog of two kinds of bacteria into “Karl.” The bacteria used, Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii, were believed to be harmless, but the effects left some residents ill and others dead. The death of Edward Nevin occurred in 1950 after he fell ill with a urinary-tract infection containing Serratia marcescens.
Mr. Nevin was recovering from prostate surgery when he was diagnosed with the infection. The bacteria eventually spread to his heart and he died a few weeks later. This story hits close to home here at the firm, as Edward Nevin is the great grandfather of James Nevin, one of our four partners at Brayton Purcell LLP.
The experiment helped the military to conclude that “a successful BW [biological warfare] attack on this area can be launched from the sea, and that effective dosages can be produced over relatively large areas.” Over the next twenty years, 239 more “germ-warfare” tests would occur in the United States in populated areas, including New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.
When Edward Nevin’s grandson tried to sue the government for the wrongful death of his grandfather, it was ruled that the U.S. government was immune to a lawsuit for negligence and that they were “justified in conducting tests without subjects’ knowledge.” The effects of the experiment are still seen today, as Serratia marcescens has shown up in Bay Area health crises since the initial spray. Today, the bacteria is known to cause serious, life-threatening illness in patients with compromised immune systems.
Would you ever expect something like your city’s fog to be used in a government experiment that could have deadly effects?
San Francisco's fog is famous, especially in the summer, when weather conditions combine to create the characteristic cooling blanket that sits over the Bay Area.
But one fact many may not know about San Francisco's fog is that in 1950, the US military conducted a test to see whether it could be used to help spread a biological weapon in a "simulated germ-warfare attack." This was just the start of many such tests around the country that would go on in secret for years.
The test was a success, as Rebecca Kreston explains over at Discover Magazine, and "one of the largest human experiments in history."
But, as she writes, it was also "one of the largest offenses of the Nuremberg Code since its inception."
The code stipulates that "voluntary, informed consent" is required for research participants, and that experiments that might lead to death or disabling injury are unacceptable.
The unsuspecting residents of San Francisco certainly could not consent to the military's germ-warfare test, and there's good evidence that it could have caused the death of at least one resident of the city, Edward Nevin, and hospitalized 10 others.
This is a crazy story; one that seems like it must be a conspiracy theory. An internet search will reveal plenty of misinformation and unbelievable conjecture about these experiments. But the core of this incredible tale is documented and true.
'A successful biological warfare attack'
It all began in late September 1950, when over a few days, a Navy vessel used giant hoses to spray a fog of two kinds of bacteria, Serratia marcescens and Bacillus globigii — both believed at the time to be harmless — out into the fog, where they disappeared and spread over the city.
"It was noted that a successful BW [biological warfare] attack on this area can be launched from the sea, and that effective dosages can be produced over relatively large areas," concluded a later-declassified military report, cited by the Wall Street Journal.
Successful indeed, according to Leonard Cole, the director of the Terror Medicine and Security Program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. His book, "Clouds of Secrecy," documents the military's secret bioweapon tests over populated areas. Cole wrote:
Nearly all of San Francisco received 500 particle minutes per liter. In other words, nearly every one of the 800,000 people in San Francisco exposed to the cloud at normal breathing rate (10 liters per minute) inhaled 5,000 or more particles per minute during the several hours that they remained airborne.
This was among the first but far from the last of these sorts of tests.
Over the next 20 years, the military would conduct 239 "germ-warfare" tests over populated areas, according to news reports from the 1970s (after the secret tests had been revealed) in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, and other publications (via Lexis-Nexis), and also detailed in congressional testimony from the 1970s.
These tests included the large-scale releases of bacteria in the New York City subway system, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and in National Airport just outside Washington, DC.
In a 1994 congressional testimony, Cole said that none of this had been revealed to the public until a 1976 newspaper story revealed the story of a few of the first experiments — though at least a Senate subcommittee had heard testimony about experiments in New York City in 1975, according to a 1995 Newsday report.
All the views expressed in, and at the source of, these articles may not necessarily reflect those of T.E.A. Watchers.
Click article heading to go to article source.