Army Secret Chemical Testing in St. Louis and other Cities 1950 - 1960

Video Transcript:

This next story is so unbelievable we didn't think it could possibly be true. But after receiving thousands of records and declassified reports from the Army, it's confirmed that during the Cold War, the United States military conducted secret tests on unsuspecting people in the city of St. Louis. A local sociologist will make her findings public tomorrow, but she spoke first to the I-teams, Lisa Zignan. Lisa Martino Taylor's life work has been to uncover details of the Army's ultra-secret military experiments carried out in St. Louis and other cities during the 1950s and 60s. The study was secretive for a reason. They didn't have volunteers stepping up and saying, yeah, I'll breathe. Zink cadmium sulfide with radioactive particles. These Army archive pictures show how the tests were done in Corpus Christi, Texas in the 1960s. In Texas, planes were used to drop the chemical, but in St. Louis, the Army placed chemical sprayers on buildings and station wagons. City officials were kept in the dark about the tests. The Cold War cover story was that the Army was testing smoke screens to protect cities from a Russian attack. The truth, according to Martino Taylor, was much more sinister. It's pretty shocking. The level of duplicity and secrecy, clearly they went to great lengths to deceive people. By making hundreds of freedom of information act requests, she uncovered once classified documents that confirmed the spraying of Zink cadmium sulfide. The greatest concentration of this compound was sprayed near the Pruitt Igo housing complex, just south of downtown St. Louis. It was home to 10,000 low income people and an estimated 70 percent were under the age of 12. Martino Taylor claims they all unknowingly inhaled this compound, mourning, noon, and night, so the government could measure its effects on their lungs. So this is in violation of all medical ethics, all international codes, and the military's own policy at that time. In 1994, the In Congressman Richard Getpart asked the Army to open its records and explain the St. Louis testing. We want to make very sure that nothing went on that would harm anyone and that all the facts were out on the table. Documents released in the 90s showed the Army placed sprayers on this former Knights of Columbus building on Lindel and in Forest Park. The Army always insisted that chemical compound was safe. Martino Taylor believes documents prove otherwise. There's a lot of evidence that indicates that people in St. Louis and the city, particularly in minority communities, were subjected to military tests that was connected to a larger radiological weapons development and testing project. For the first time, she links the St. Louis testing to a company called U.S. Radium, a company notorious for lawsuits involving radioactive contamination of its workers. The United States Radium had this reputation where they had been legally liable, found legally liable decades prior for producing a radioactive powdered paint that killed many young women who painted fluorescent watch tiles. While the Army admits it added a fluorescent substance to the zinc cadmium compound, details of whether it was radioactive remain secret. Documents uncovered to date indicate the Army never conducted follow-up studies to see whether the compound caused long-term health issues. In 1972, after years of crime, poverty and decline, the government destroyed the Pruittigo housing complex. Lisa Ziegman, News Channel 5, ITN. Now the company U.S. Radium no longer exists. Martino Taylor has placed all of her research, including the declassified documents online, and will link you to that data at ksdk.com. She will make all of her findings public tomorrow at St. Louis Community College, Mariam campus, and the meantime, if you remember the spring, the ITN's Lisa Ziegman would like to hear from you. You can email her at lzgman at ksdk.com.