Guinea pigs

Sometimes ignorance causes undo harm but other times harm is done on purpose. The testing of nuclear weapons has been both. When the first bomb was tested in New Mexico in 1945 many military people were too near the explosion and were exposed to dangerous radiation. Did the scientist know about this hazard? Some say if they didn't they should have. Later when the H-bomb was tested in the Pacific many Islanders suffered deadly doses of radiation and most feel it was on purpose. The government wanted to see the results and humans were used as guinea pigs. This year marks 75 years since the United States launched its immense atomic testing program in the Pacific. The historical fallout from tests carried out over 12 years in the Marshall Islands, then a UN Trust Territory governed by the US, have framed seven decades of US relations with the Pacific nation. It is estimated that the lives of 400,000 Islanders were shortened by various forms of cancer. This ranks right up there with the Tuskegee Institute where Blacks were used to test drugs for syphilis although it effected far fewer people the game was the same.