Re: Vanderbilt Apology

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

This was from the AP yesterday:

Monday July 27 6:29 PM EDT 

Radioactive Study Lawsuit Settled

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A judge Monday approved a $10.3 
million settlement of a lawsuit brought by women who were
given radioactive iron as part of a 1940s nutrition study at 
Vanderbilt University. 

Vanderbilt issued an apology to the women who unknowingly 
ingested the radioactive ``tracer'' as part of the study of why so
many pregnant women were iron deficient. The tracer measured the 
rate of absorption of nutritional iron. 

``I forgive them. I am sure they will never do another experiment like 
that again,'' said a tearful Emma Craft, who sued
Vanderbilt 4{ years ago when word of the tracer surfaced. 

Her 11-year-old daughter Carolyn died from cancer in 1957 and she 
wonders if the radiation was responsible. 

There were 1,600 women in the 1945-47 study and 829 were given 
the tracer. A follow-up study in the 1960s found four of
their children had died of childhood cancers. 

The settlement calls for Vanderbilt to pay $9.1 million and the 
Rockefeller Foundation, which funded part of the study, to pay
$900,000. 

``It is right and timely for Vanderbilt to apologize to those who 
unknowingly received radioactive iron,'' Vanderbilt vice
chancellor Jeff Carr said in a statement. 

The tracer was the most accurate tool available at the time to 
measure the absorption of nutritional iron, Carr said. 

Other sponsors of the study - the Tennessee Health Department 
and the Washington-based Nutrition Foundation and
Monsanto, a St. Louis company that makes farm products and 
drugs - earlier agreed to pay $325,000 to settle claims. 

Attorneys for the women will get $3 million. 


------------------
Sandy Perle
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