Anyone else ever read about the experiments the US Government carried out over Minnesota in the 50's? (Operation Large Area Coverage...formerly classified)
It's scary reading, I've read 5-6 articles on it over the years, a book, and saw a film of it released thru the freedom of info act, which has somehow disappeared and is no longer available....
....here's some condensed stuff to read. I've highlighted some areas of concern.....dropping bacteria...cripes!
Documents
(Excerpt)
From Minneapolis to St. Louis
~Picture~
(A C-119 Flying Boxcar, one type of plane used to release chemicals. Official USAF photo)
The military tested how a biological or chemical weapon would spread throughout the country by spraying bacteria as well as various chemical powders — including an especially controversial one called zinc cadmium sulfide. Low flying airplanes would take off, sometimes near the Canadian border, "and they would fly down through the Midwest, as far south as past Minneapolis" dropping their payloads over cities, says Cole.
These sprays were tested on the ground too, with machines that would release clouds from city rooftops or intersections to see how they spread.
In the book, Cole cites official documented military reports that documented various Minneapolis tests, including one where chemicals spread through an entire school. The clouds were clearly visible.
To prevent suspicion, the military pretended that they were testing a way to mask the whole city in order to protect it. They told city officials that "the tests involved efforts to measure ability to lay smoke screens about the city" to "hide" it in case of nuclear attack, according to Cole's account.
The potential toxicity of that controversial compound zinc cadmium sulfide is debated. One component, cadmium, is highly toxic and can cause cancer. Some reports
suggest a high possibility that the zinc cadmium sulfide could perhaps degrade into cadmium, but a 1997 report from the National Research Council concluded that the Army's secret tests "did not expose residents of the United States and Canada to chemical levels considered harmful." However, the same report noted that research on the chemical used was sparse, mostly based on very limited animal studies, and no human studies.
These air tests were conducted around the country as part of
Operation Large Area Coverage. (1953 thru mid 60's....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_LAC )
"There was evidence that the powder after it was released would be then located a day or two later as far away as 1,200 miles," Cole says. "There was a sense that you could really blanket the country with a similar agent."
St. Louis. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
City tests were conducted in St. Louis, too.
In 2012, Lisa Martino-Taylor, a sociology professor at St. Louis Community College-Meramec, released a report theorizing that the army's experiments could be connected to
high cancer rates in a low-income, mostly black neighborhood in the city where the zinc cadmium sulfide had been tested. (my italics) She said she was concerned that there could have also been a radioactive tracing component to some testing, though she did not have direct evidence for that possibility.
Her report, however, prompted both senators from Missouri to write to the Army secretary, "demanding answers," the Associated Press noted at the time.
While Martino-Taylor's suggestion remains purely hypothetical, "the human dimension is never mentioned" in most Army documents, Cole writes in the book. Instead there's just a discussion of how well the particulates spread and what they learned about the possibility of biological attacks from them.