Re: "The Plutonium Files"- A Question of Ethics

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@tricity.wsu.edu>]

FOR THE RECORD .  .  .

Although it is likely trivial in the larger scheme of things, my experience
with Eileen Welsome might prove interesting to some, and, given the recent
discussion of her book "The Plutonium Files" and her series of articles in
the Albuquerque Tribune in RadSafe, I feel constrained to set the record
straight insofar as my involvement, and to raise the question about
differing ethical bases and standards for the media and for scientists.

I was one of the many persons (telephone) interviewed by Eileen Welsome
prior to publication of her series of articles in the Albuquerque Tribune.
After the articles were published, I was shocked to find that Ms. Welsome
had attributed the identification of one of the participants in the Pu
injection experiments to me.  This I did not do.  To do so would have been a
violation of biomedical ethics as well as Washington State law.  Moreover,
bioethical and legal  considerations notwithstanding, I could not do so
simply because at the time of her interview with me I did not know the name
of the person she claimed I identified.   Since what Ms. Welsome had written
essentially stated or at least implied -- incorrectly --  that I had
committed a breach of ethics and possibly committed an illegal act to boot,
I therefore telephoned Ms. Welsome and requested that she send me a letter
documenting that she had made a misstatement of fact in her article, and
that I in fact had not identified any participant in the Pu injection
experiments by name.  Initially, Ms. Welsome declined to do so, attempting
to question the morality of the experiments and a raising a whole host of
issues unrelated to my request.  It was only when I indicated that I would
refer the matter to the Washington State Attorney General's office, which
provides legal counsel for the University, that she indicated that the
mistake had been made by her editor (!) and agreed to and ultimately did
send me a brief letter indicating that I had in fact not identified any
participant.  This letter was placed in the files of the US Transuranium and
Uranium Registries, of which I was the Director at the time of the interview
with Ms. Welsome.  I was pleased to find that neither I nor the US
Transuranium and Uranium Registries were mentioned in her book, "The
Plutonium Files".

The point of all this is that Ms. Welsome received a Pulitzer Prize for her
articles in which participants in the Pu injection experiments were publicly
identified by name.  Had I, a researcher, identified the participants in the
experiment publicly or even privately to Ms. Welsome, I would have been
guilty at the least of an ethical transgression, and quite likely a
violation of Washington State law.  Apparently journalists and scientists
have very different ethical and legal standards applicable to them.

Ron Kathren
Professor Emeritus and
(Retired) Director, US Transuranium and Uranium Registries
Washington State University


-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Dapra <sjd@iolnm.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 6:59 PM
Subject: Re: "The Plutonium Files"-Question


>Jan. 4
>
> Eileen Welsome's articles on the human plutonium experiments were printed
>in the Albuquerque Tribune, Nov. 15-17, 1993.  They were available in a
>tabloid-size reprint at one time, but I checked with the Tribune library
>yesterday and they are no longer available.  I have a copy of the reprint
>in my records.
>
> Part One of the series has a sidebar "What is Plutonium?".  Welsome quotes
>John Gofman, who she describes as "one of the world's leading experts on
>the dangers of low-level radiation".  She notes his book "Radiation and
>Human Health" wherein Gofman says (according to Welsome), "thousands of
>pounds of plutonium radionuclides" have returned to earth; and she says
>that Gofman "estimates that the plutonium fallout will cause an estimated
>950,000 lung-cancer deaths worldwide."  According to Gofman, because of
>genetic damage the plutonium fallout will cause cancer, heart disease, and
>schizophrenia in future generations.  (That's what she said he said --
>schizophrenia.)
>
> Welsome was interviewed about her book in October 1999 in the Weekly
>Alibi, a local florid and iconoclastic tabloid.  The link to the interview
is
>
><http://www.alibi.com/alibi/1999-10-14/feat.html>.
>
> Her book was reviewed in the same issue of the Alibi.  The link to the
>review is
>
><http://www.alibi.com/alibi/1999-10-14/bookreview.html>
>
>Steven Dapra
>sjd@iolnm.net
>
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