The plutonium files : America's secret medical experiments in the Cold War
Welsome, Eileen.
Adult Nonfiction RA1231.R2 W45 1999

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From Publishers' Weekly:

In a deeply shocking and important expos‚, Welsome takes the lid off the thousands of secret, government-sponsored radiation experiments performed on unsuspecting human "guinea pigs" at U.S. hospitals, universities and military bases during the Cold War. This riveting report greatly expands on Welsome's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1994 articles in the Albuquerque Tribune, which told how 18 men, women and children scattered in hospital wards across the country were injected with plutonium by U.S. Army and Manhattan Project doctors between 1945 and 1947. As Welsome demonstrates, the scope of the government's radiation experimentation program went much further. She documents how, between 1951 and 1962, the army, navy and air force used military troops in flights through radioactive clouds, "flashblindness" studies and tests to measure radio-isotopes in their body fluids. Additionally, she reveals that cancer patients were subjected to total-body irradiation, and women, children, the poor, minorities, prisoners and the mentally disabled were targeted for radio-isotope "tracer" studies, frequently without their consent and in some cases suffering excruciating side effects and premature deaths. In 1993, Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary launched a campaign to make public all documents relating to the experiments, which had been kept secret. Welsome cogently argues that O'Leary's efforts resulted in a Republican vendetta that led to her ouster. Written with commendable restraint, this engrossing narrative draws liberally on declassified memos, briefings, phone calls, interviews and medical records to convey the enormity of the irradiation program and the bad science behind the flawed and dangerous testsÄand to document the government's systematic cover-up. Anyone who cares about America's history, moral health and future should read this book. 8-city author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

From Library Journal:

The appalling fact that, at the height of the cold war, legions of unsuspecting citizens were injected with plutonium by doctors working for the U.S. government first came to light in the 1970s. But it was Welsome's subsequent stories about individual victims (first published in the Albuquerque Tribune) that really brought the horror home. Her detective work in tracking down individuals from the scant clues buried in censored documents won her a Pulitzer Prize and led to a full admission by the Department of Energy. Here, for the first time, she presents a detailed account of the atrocities she uncovered. She paints a chilling picture, detailing the way researchers quickly became indifferent to the welfare of test subjectsÄwho ranged from people with fatal illnesses to randomly chosen, mostly healthy hospital patients, prisoners, and healthy pregnant women. This well-documented account should be required reading for all those concerned with the moral aspects of medical research and the need for accountability in medicine and government. Recommended for all public and academic libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/99.]ÄMarit MacArthur, Auraria Lib., Denver (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.