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Nuclear bomb test veterans were exposed to unnecessary risks

we look back now at the veterans of atom bomb tests and conclude that, whatever the law says, these men were exposed to unnecessary risk.

Soldiers deserve better treatment, Manchester Evening News, November 23, 2010 “…..All but one of ten test cases were deemed to have been brought to court too late, and with veterans unable to prove the Ministry Of Defence was negligent, and that radiation was the probable cause of illness. So the veterans fail at law.

That will not stop an overwhelming majority of people agreeing with one of those veterans, Arthur Hart, aged 73, from Warrington, when he says that what happened to him and others was “morally wrong”.

The ship he was aboard in the South Pacific in 1956 did not avoid the mushroom cloud from a bomb test, he says, but sailed into it “to see how servicemen would react”. Three years later he developed skin lesions and latterly bowel cancer.

The idea of service personnel being used as guinea pigs is not unique. From 1941 to 1989, 18,000 British soldiers were experimented upon at Porton Down with chemical and biological agents………..we look back now at the veterans of atom bomb tests and conclude that, whatever the law says, these men were exposed to unnecessary risk.

Comment: Soldiers deserve better treatment – Manchester Evening News

November 26, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | civil liberties, UK | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radiation