Epigraphs Note on Terminology Acknowledgments Introduction

epresenting Col. Warren’s office, and W. Langham representing the Santa
Fe group.” Folder 4, Box S0F01B230, ACHRE, RG 220.
4. “Distribution and Excretion of Plutonium Administered Intravenously to
Man,” September 20, 1950, Division of Health and Biology, Folder 5, Box
S0F01B230, ACHRE, RG 220.
5. Welsome, The Plutonium Files, p. 475.
6. Details of those government experiments were declassified in 1994. On
June 5, 1945, for example, a University of Rochester letter marked “Secret”
details plans for “increasing the human metabolism studies.” Ten additional
patients are scheduled for “injection with T [code for uranium],” the letter
states. “The preparation and analysis will be done by Dr. Hodge,” notes the
author, Dr. Andrew Dowdy, to Dr. W. F. Bale, of Rochester’s “Special Problems
Division.” The letter is cc’d to Dr. Hodge. Dr. Andrew Dowdy to Dr.
W. F. Bale, Special Problems Division. University of Rochester intramural
correspondence, Box S0F01B230, ACHRE, RG 220.
The following year, 1946, Hodge was given direct responsibility for the
experiments. L. H. Hemplemann and Wright H. Langham, “Detailed Plan of
Product Part of Rochester Experiment.” This document has a section called
“General Plan of the Rochester Experiment” at p. 5, which details Hodge’s
involvement in the uranium experiments. Document marked 9000528, Box
S09F01B230, ACHRE, RG 220.
7. The document, titled “Detailed Plan of Product [code for plutonium] Part
of Rochester Experiment,” includes a section on other human experiments.
The medical director, Stafford Warren, had determined that “fifty subjects”
were needed, ten for each substance, the document explained, “in order to
establish, on a statistically significant number of subjects, the metabolic
behavior of the hazardous material, product [code for plutonium], radium,
postum, tuballoy [code for uranium] and lead.” Under the subheading “Personnel
and Distribution of Responsibility,” a single name is listed for the
uranium experiments: “Harold Hodge.” Both patient accounts are from
University of Rochester Monthly Progress Reports, for April 1947 (M-1968)
and February 1947 (M-1954), Box S09F01B230, ACHRE, RG 220.
An internal Rochester report on the experiments, “The Tolerance of
Man for Hexavalent Uranium,” noted that for the final subject, the alcoholic,
the experiments had been successful, and that the “rise in urinary
catalase and protein” from the man’s liver suggested that, for uranium exposure,
“tolerance had been reached.” Samuel Basset, Albert Frenkel, Nathan
Cedars, Helen Can Alstine, Christine Waterhouse, and Katherine Cusson,
“The Tolerance of Man for Hexavalent Uranium,” Folder 4, Box S0F01B230,
ACHRE, RG 220.
8. Dr. Sweet wanted to study whether uranium could be used in “therapy of
brain tumors.” See Bob Bernard, interviewed by Newell Stannard in 1975, for
Hodge link to uranium injections on Bill Sweet’s patients at Massachusetts
General Hospital. DOE Opennet #0026691. However, according to an internal
report from the Union Carbide Nuclear company, the Atomic Energy