Toxic exposures : mustard gas and the health consequences of World War II in the United States
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Mustard gas is typically associated with the horrors of World War I battlefields and trenches, where chemical weapons were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Few realize, however, that mustard gas had a resurgence during the Second World War, when its uses and effects were widespread and insidious.Toxic Exposures tells the shocking story of how the United States and its allies intentionally subjected thousands of their own servicemen to poison gas as part of their preparation for chemical warfare. In addition, it reveals the racialized dimension of these mustard gas experiments, as scientists tested whether the effects of toxic exposure might vary between Asian, Hispanic, black, and white Americans. Drawing from once-classified American and Canadian government records, military reports, scientists' papers, and veterans' testimony, historian Susan L. Smith explores not only the human cost of this research, but also the environmental degradation caused by ocean dumping of unwanted mustard gas.As she assesses the poisonous legacy of these chemical warfare experiments, Smith also considers their surprising impact on the origins of chemotherapy as cancer treatment and the development of veterans' rights movements. Toxic Exposures thus traces the scars left when the interests of national security and scientific curiosity battled with medical ethics and human rights"--,Provided by publisher.

"Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States investigates the human and environmental costs of war. One hundred years ago, mustard gas entered our world as a terrifying weapon of World War I. As the Second World War began, nations prepared for another chemical war. Scientists, physician researchers, and military officials turned to soldiers as human subjects in chemical weapons research. They conducted race-based mustard gas experiments on four racialized groups: African Americans, Japanese Americans, Puerto Ricans, and white Americans. Toxic Exposures demonstrates the failure to protect human rights in the effort to advance medical knowledge and promote national security. This book situates the American mustard gas story within a web of linked and parallel activities in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Allied scientists conducted mustard gas experiments on more than 2500 Canadians, 2500 Australians, 7000 Britons, and 60,000 Americans. The health consequences were not just immediate but also long term, not just for soldiers but also civilians, and not just on faraway battlefields but also at home. Toxic Exposures uses an historical approach to explore the far-reaching consequences of medical research on mustard gas during the Second World War. It draws on a range of evidence from government records, military reports, scientists' papers, and veterans' testimony. It demonstrates that the science of war affected soldiers' health, race-based medical science, ocean pollution, and cancer treatment. World War II, that much-studied war, left a toxic legacy that is still with us more than seventy years later. "--,Provided by publisher.