November 24, 2000
"Guinea pig" airman tells of nerve gas ordeal
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/001124/80/apya2.html
By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Ken Earl was a 19-year-old national serviceman in the Royal Air Force in 1953. He was short of money, a little homesick, and missing his girlfriend.

So when he saw an offer on a notice board of a weekend pass home and an extra two- and-a-half shillings a day for volunteers to help find a cure for the common cold, he went for it.

"I thought about the extra money, and the chance to get home, see my parents, see my girlfriend, and being able to afford to go by coach and not have to hitch hike, so I volunteered," Earl, now 67, told Reuters in an interview.

He got far more than he bargained for.

"What they tested on me was the most deadly compound ever invented by man. The substance they used on me is 26 times more dangerous than potassium cyanide and 20 times more dangerous than cyanide gas," he said. "And I thought it was a cold virus."

DEADLY NAZI NERVE GAS

The substance was in fact Sarin -- a deadly nerve gas developed by the Nazis. Initially, it causes breathing difficulties, tightness in the chest and blurred vision. Victims then suffer muscle spasms and eventually die of suffocation due to a complete breakdown of the nervous system.

Earl, a fit and active young man when he joined the RAF, now relies on a walking stick to get around, parts of his spine have seized up completely, he suffers from breathing difficulties and has had constant kidney and bowel problems.

He was one of more than 20,000 people in the past 80 years who were used as human guinea pigs in weapons experiments at Porton Down, the government's chemical and biological warfare research centre.

In one experiment conducted in 1951, volunteers wearing special masks were put into a gas chamber and instructed to inhale nerve gas through their noses and exhale it through their mouths using a port in the wall of the chamber.

GOVERNMENT "GRATEFUL"

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) maintains that no harm was done. It announced this week that it will conduct a full medical assessment of any Porton Down survivor who wants it.

"Suggestions have been made that some Porton Down volunteers suffer unusual patterns of ill health because of their participation. The MoD has seen no scientific evidence to support that belief, but takes such suggestions seriously. Therefore we are offering volunteers the opportunity for a thorough medical assessment if they have concerns about their health," it said in a statement.

But an MoD spokeswoman told Reuters the government has not yet decided whether any further action will be taken if the medical assessments show that volunteers' health was damaged.

The MoD added, however, that the government was "grateful to all those whose participation in studies at Porton Down made possible the research to provide safe and effective protection for UK armed forces against chemical and biological weapons."

"IT'S TIME THEY CAME CLEAN"

The inspiration for Earl and other former Porton Down volunteers to pressure the government for answers came partly from American, French and British veterans of the Gulf War, some of whom believe they were poisoned by the very treatment designed to protect them from chemical and biological weapons.

Earl, who never even knew he was being tested with such weapons, says of the government and the scientists who experimented on him: "It's time they came clean on this."

He describes how he was led into a gas chamber along with a small group of other volunteers, seated at a table and asked to roll up the sleeve on his left arm.

His medical records -- which he finally obtained from Porton Down 47 years after his tests -- show that two pieces of material were then taped to his bare forearm.

"Twenty drops, each containing 10 mg of GB (Sarin) were placed in ordered rows on the layers of material," the records say. After 30 minutes of exposure to the gas, he was asked to remove the material and leave the chamber.

"We weren't told anything at the time," Earl said. "I remember asking one of the other guys 'have you got a sore throat or anything?' and he said 'no, nothing', and nor did I.

"And I thought, well, we've got away with this. I've got a weekend pass, an extra two-and- a-half shillings a day, and I haven't even got a cold."

DEATH PROMPTED INQUIRY, 56 YEARS ON

Another human guinea pig exposed to the same tests at Porton Down in the same month and same year was Ronald Maddison.

Maddison, a 20-year-old RAF serviceman, didn't catch a cold either. He died on May 6, 1953 after drops containing 200 mg of the deadly Sarin gas were dropped onto his arm.

Not until 46 years later did the British government give in to mounting pressure and announce a full criminal investigation into Maddison's death by police in Wiltshire where the Porton Down research centre is based.

A police spokesman said the investigation was "ongoing", but declined to give details.

Legal experts say the inquiry could result in charges of assault or corporate manslaughter against the MoD.

Rob Evans, a journalist who writes for the Guardian newspaper, spent five years interviewing more than 100 former volunteers and scientists from Porton Down. His findings were published in a book called "Gassed" out this month.

Evans says the government scientists at Porton Down were conducting the "longest- running programme of chemical warfare experiments in the world."

The government's offer of a medical assessment for surviving volunteers, is too little, too late, he says.

"It appears obvious that the MoD has bowed to political pressure and has been forced to act, but this is too little to satisfy the demands of the volunteers," he told Reuters.

"The only way to solve this festering question is to have a fully independent inquiry into whether or not the human guinea pigs suffered long-term illness as a result of the experiments."

Even now, up to 100 volunteers are still taking part in tests involving chemical and biological weapons.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said military equipment such as so-called "NBC suits" -- nuclear, biological and chemical suits -- is being tested on humans at Porton Down.

Asked if the volunteers were being exposed to the gases used in chemical and biological weapons, the spokeswoman said: "In extremely small amounts, yes."