THIS IS A DRAFT--THE CONTENTS DO NOT REPRESENT FINAL CONCLUSIONS AND/OR RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS AND ARE SUBJECT TO REVISION BASED ON COMMITTEE REVIEW AND DISCUSSION For intentional releases as for biomedical experimentation, the historical record shows that manyofthe basic ethical questions that are we ask now werealso raised at the time. Those proposing intentional releases often (but not always) weighed levels of risk and debated what, if anything, the public should be told. In the interim since the releases took place, a large body of environmental lawhas been established, which generally requires the government to review proposed releases and to provide for public disclosure and comment. As discussedin the final sections, however, the imposition of secrecy can underminethese procedures. It is not entirely clear, therefore, that current laws would prevent something like the Green Run from happening today. - Box: Intentional Releases and the Charter Thirteen The Advisory Committee's charter includes in its definition of human radiation experiments "experiments involving intentional environmental releases of radiation that (A) were designed to test humanhealth effects of ionizing radiation; or (B) were designed to test the extent of human exposure to tonizing radiation." Beyond this general instruction, the charter called for the Committee to "provide advice, information, and recommendations" on the following thirteen experiments and similar experiments: “(L) the experiment into the atmospheric diffusion of radioactive gases and test of detectibility, commonly referred to as "the Green Run test,” by the former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and the Air Force at the Hanford Reservation in Richland, Washington; "(2) two radiation warfare field experiments conducted at the AEC's Oak Ridge office in 1948 involving gamma radiation released from non-bomb point sources or at near groundlevel; "(3) six tests conducted during 1949-52 of radiation warfare ballistic dispersal devices containing radioactive agents at the U.S. Army's Dugway, Utah, site; and (4) four atmospheric radiation-tracking tests in 1950 at Los Alamos, New Mexico.” These and related events are described in more detail below. In spite of minor L:AFINALREP\IR-407 WPD (tcs) 4/7/95 3.13 pm 3