Tell NASA to Stop Radiating Monkeys
- by: Mel Weinstein
- recipient: Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary, Department of Energy The.Secretary@HQ.DOE.gov
The following information came from the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Last year, NASA announced a $1.75 million grant to Dr. Jack Bergman of McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA to study the effects of deep-space radiation on human astronauts by dosing squirrel monkeys with heavy-ionizing radiation. The experiments would be conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a Department of Energy facility.
Biological, anatomical, and physiological differences between nonhuman primates and humans render this type of research ineffective. Squirrel monkeys, in particular, are a poor substitute for the human anatomy, given that these small animals weigh on average only one to two pounds.
Please request Secretary Steven Chu, Department of Energy, to cancel these experiments immediately.
We the Undersigned request that NASA discontinue radiation experiments involving live monkeys. It is our understanding that tentative plans were made by Brookhaven National Laboratory director Samuel Aronson, Ph.D., and the Department of Energy to expose live squirrel monkeys with heavy-ionizing radiation to evaluate the effects of deep-space radiation on humans.
From past experiments by NASA and the U.S. Air Force conducted prior to 1990, it was learned that radiation experiments on monkeys was not able to achieve the most basic goal: to advance the safety of space travel.
Biological, anatomical, and physiological differences between nonhuman primates and humans render this type of research ineffective. Squirrel monkeys, in particular, are a poor substitute for the human anatomy, given that these small animals weigh on average only one to two pounds.
Thank you for reading this letter and taking the time to consider ending the needless irradiation of monkeys in space travel studies.
