ARMY DOCUMENTS REVEAL WARFARE TESTS IN ST. LOUIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201000010-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: June 1, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201000010-7
ARTICLE LPP7-LUZ
ON PAGE ""/
By Chris Szechenyi Y yjaj. Lee DeLorme in Wasti- "Minor. difficulti es' with the Park
ofth&h4ko-- mencaCaf+ ington confirmed that the Army Commission were ironed out with the
p 19& Ths Kansas C Y Trme$ `Chemical corps, which no longer ex - completion of the change in city ad-
The Army Chemical Corps, working ists, performed the experiments in St. minitration,,, says one- of the 70
with the Central Intelligence Agency, Louis. pales of documents reviewed by The
conducted open-air;chemical warfare A CIA spokesman, Cathy Pherson Tunes.: ? i
tests 35 times. in'the streets of St--A said that "back in the 1950s, there was The documents also say various in-1
Louis in the spring of 1953, according a lot of cooperation between the dustries gave the Army permission to
to declassified federal documents. % Chemical Corps and the CIA" , use their property as field sites for the
The documents-.reveal that zinc: The Chemical Corps conducted the tests.-.,The Monsanto Co.;:=a major
cadmium sulfide was sprayed in. 20 aerosol tests with zinc 'cadmium sul- chaaiical firm in St. Louis, the Soc'a-
residential areas. 13 downtown.loca-.: fide from a second-floor garage at ny-Vacuum refinery in East St. Louis,.
lions and two larger, 5 square-mile ,. 5589 Pershing Ave. in St. Louis, ac- Ill., andGranite City Steel Co., which
sections of the city- - 7 cording to the recently released docu- is in an L'lirois suburb of St. Louis, are
The documents were obtained by _ meats. About 12,000 pounds of testin$t among those mentioned as having co-
the Carts ot.~icientoiogy, and the in- - equ`ipinent was setup at me garage,! operated in the effort. ? - -
formation was confirmed by an Army. which was in the western part of the! The'cheiuical released in St. Louis
official. r t:y ` ,;' city, for use in the experiments. apparently was traced to some resi-
No adverse health effects have been - dential dwellings. The documents
recorded as a result of the tests, ac An undetermined amount. of the state that some residents "were found
released mechanically
cording to Dr. Helen Bruce, the city's, chemical was rele . , to be extremely cooperative"-.when
health commissioner. $" in powder form during the morning. asked to allow air samples to betaken
But she and numerous other long- j afternoon and early evening at Forest their homes. t::.
term city officials said they were un- Park, the city's largest, and from two - .'Penetration of downtown buildings ,
aware of the chemical warfare testing !rooftops in the city. The other test by the aerosol cloud was observed, '
until they were called by The Kansas sites were not identified.-1:. the documents also note.
^..
City Times 1 in St. Louis, civilians were hired
Officials of the Church of Scientolo- After the chemical was released. by the Chemical Corps to work part,
gy say they are asking toxicologists to the fallout was measured on clean. time or full time'on the program. At
study the potential effect the chemical glass plates at five Places up to 1.500 least 17,591 man-hours were spent on
feet downwind of the release point:
could have had on the health of St. &~fore the tests were made. Army the protect, the documents show.
Louis residents in the 1950s. officials met with city officials who However. -The tight labor market
The tests apparently were designed for the most part cooperated fully in St. Louis made it difficult to obtain
to study the offensive capabilities of with the project, the documents say. -adequate. personnel,-particularly re-
chemical warfare and to gauge the However, many of the leading city of-. spoasible personnel.,, the documents
vulnerability of U.S. cities to Soviet facials at the time of the tests, includ- say ` t.
chemical attacks. police chief and the mayor, ??T'he scope of several of the tests
Zinc cadmium. sulfide, a yellow mg
crystalline substance. is got known to have diedsince then .was limited by failure of employees to
. For' several years. the Scientolo- report for! duty. It was necessary to
have any adverse effect on living or- gists have been trying piecetogeth_. :discard some data because of poor
ganisms because it is rather insoluble ;of censored documents quality and-incompleteness," the doc--
and enters the system very. slowly.
pertaining ' to CIA-sponsored germ
chemical OnxpertS say.
"warfare experiments. in the United
To become. toxic. the substance States. TbeScieutalogistswant topro-
would have to release its cadmium, mote a moratorium on' all chemical..
component, which. would require a, warare; including its reported use by
prolonged chemical change.. If the
cadmium were released, however. the , the SovietUnion in Afghanistan-
toxic metal could concentrate in liv- "We're planning;to sponsor an in-
leg organisms, according to a L575re-. ternational? conference to discuss an
port on environmental pollutants by accord on this." said Jim Thompson.
the Congressional Research Service..: a Scientology spokesman.:
Continuous exposure to very low The documents pertaining to St.
levels of cadmium could cause chron-. f Loin were obtained through the Free
dom of Information Act. They indi- :
ic 1rdney damage, in people, the report z
says. Extended exposure to high cony='sate that tbs-- Parks Commission of= .
to the testing.
cadmium can eontrib ,Jfered some. resistance
centratioos of ca
ute to cancer.-hypertension and car- projec
diovascular disease.:the congr'essio-'
nki retortsays-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/23: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201000010-7
KANSAS CITY TIMES (MO)
JUTE 1980
STAT