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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 01, 2002

US Military Tested Sarin Agent: Pentagon Report

The US military conducted secret tests using the deadly sarin nerve agent in a Hawaiian forest preserve in 1967, the Pentagon said Thursday.


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The US military conducted secret tests using the deadly sarin nerve agent in a Hawaiian forest preserve in 1967, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The Defense Department released reports on five chemical and biological weapons tests in the latest disclosures about tests conducted in the 1960s and 70s, urging any troops involved who might have suffered ill-effects to contact the Pentagon.

The tests using sarin in Hawaii, named "Red Oak," were conducted in the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve on Hawaii in April and May 1967. Artillery shells filled with sarin were detonated to study how the nerve agent dispersed in a tropical jungle, according to the reports.

Sarin is a volatile, deadly nerve agent that can be inhaled or absorbed through the eyes and skin. It was used in the 1995 terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway that killed a dozen people.

The long-term effects of low-level exposure to sarin have not been determined, the Pentagon said.

The Pentagon also released details on four other tests, one in the Olaa Forest, also on Hawaii, in 1966, two in the Panama Canal Zone in 1963 and a fourth in an unspecified tropical jungle environment in 1966.

The Pentagon said no deadly chemical or biological agents were used in the four tests, but some of the tests used germ related to the bacteria that cause anthrax. Although at the time officials believed that they were harmless, more recent information has indicated that they can cause life-threatening infections in people with weakened immune systems.

The tests were all part of a major US military program in the 1960s and 1970s to test chemical and biological weapons and defenses against them. The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time earlier this year that some of the tests used real chemical and biological weapons.

About 5,000 members of the US armed forces were involved in tests at sea and an additional 2,100 involved in the tests on land. More than 50 veterans have filed health claims related to symptoms associated with exposure during the tests, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.


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