“235 babies in five states were injected with radioactive iodine” The radioactive-iodine experiments on American infants

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originated in reporting published during the national human-radiation controversy of December 1993. It refers to a collection of pediatric thyroid studies conducted primarily during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The central allegation is substantially grounded in documented research, but its wording is imprecise:

• The
  historical reports grouped together newborns, older infants, and possibly
  some older children.
• Not
  all 235 subjects were “injected.” Some received iodine-131 intravenously
  or intramuscularly, while others swallowed it or received it through a
  stomach tube.
• The
  surviving federal summaries document fewer than 235 newborn subjects with
  complete details. The larger figure evidently incorporated additional
  infant studies, particularly work in Arkansas, that were not individually
  described in the later Department of Energy summary.
• These
  were tracer studies intended to measure thyroid function, not attempts to
  treat the infants’ illnesses or deliberately cause disease.
• That
  scientific purpose does not resolve the ethical problem: healthy babies
  and premature infants were exposed to ionizing radiation without any
  direct medical benefit to them.

1. Origin of the “235 babies” figure

On December 23, 1993, The Washington Post reported that researchers had confirmed that “at least 235 newborns” were administered iodine-131 in Tennessee, Arkansas, Nebraska, Michigan, and Iowa. The article broadly described them as having been “injected.”

The experiments were said to have been designed to learn how a normal infant’s thyroid gland absorbs and eliminates iodine. University of Tennessee scientist Lester Van Middlesworth told reporters that the studies had been published in medical journals during the 1950s and 1960s and were known among thyroid researchers. Read the December 1993 Washington Post report.

A contemporary profile of reporter Eileen Welsome repeated the figure, saying that she and other journalists had uncovered experiments involving “235 babies in five states.” Read the High Country News profile of Welsome.

This disclosure followed Welsome’s November 1993 series for The Albuquerque Tribune, which identified people secretly injected with plutonium between 1945 and 1947. The public reaction prompted Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary to begin releasing records, and President Bill Clinton subsequently created the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, or ACHRE, in January 1994.

2. What iodine-131 is

Iodine-131, written I-131 or ^131I, is a radioactive isotope of iodine. It has a physical half-life of approximately eight days.

The thyroid normally removes iodine from the blood to produce thyroid hormones. When radioactive iodine enters the body, the thyroid similarly concentrates it. Researchers can place a radiation detector over the neck and measure how much radioiodine the thyroid has absorbed.

I-131 presents a special concern because it emits:

• Beta
  particles, which deposit energy in nearby thyroid tissue.
• Gamma
  radiation, which can pass out of the body and be detected externally.

After approximately eight days, half of the original radioactivity remains; after sixteen days, one-quarter remains. The activity continues declining through radioactive decay and biological elimination. Although the isotope largely disappears within weeks or months, any radiation-induced cellular damage occurs at the time of exposure and does not disappear merely because the isotope has decayed.

Infants are especially vulnerable because their thyroid glands are small, physiologically active, and still developing. A given amount of radioiodine can therefore deliver a much larger absorbed dose to an infant thyroid than to an adult thyroid.

3. The five states

Tennessee: John Gaston Hospital, Memphis

Between approximately 1952 and 1954, Lester Van Middlesworth of the University of Tennessee studied seven newborn boys at John Gaston Hospital in Memphis.

The documented details are:

• Seven
  male infants participated.
• Six
  were Black and one was white.
• They
  were between two and three days old.
• Each
  received approximately 1.0 to 1.5 microcuries of I-131.
• Administration
  was by intravenous injection.
• Researchers
  measured radioactivity over the thyroid about 24 hours later.
• The
  estimated absorbed dose to each infant’s thyroid was approximately 60
  rads.
• The
  Atomic Energy Commission funded the project.

Researchers reported that the newborn thyroids absorbed iodine at rates comparable to those seen in hyperthyroid adults. The original publication was:

Lester Van Middlesworth, “Radioactive Iodide Uptake of Normal Newborn Infants,” AMA American Journal of Diseases of Children, volume 88, 1954, pages 439–442. View the article’s PubMed record.

The Department of Energy’s historical experiment catalog provides the subject numbers, route of administration, dose, racial distribution, and AEC sponsorship. Read the DOE experiment catalog—see OT-9.

Was parental permission obtained?

Van Middlesworth told the press in 1993 that the infants’ mothers gave permission. However:

• He
  said his original records had been lost.
• He
  no longer knew the subjects’ names.
• The
  available account does not establish what the mothers were told about
  radiation, experimental purpose, possible future cancer risk, or the
  absence of direct benefit.
• A
  parent saying “yes” is not necessarily equivalent to modern informed
  consent.

John Gaston was a public hospital serving many low-income patients. The racial and economic circumstances raise an important issue of subject selection, especially because six of the seven babies were Black. That disparity is documented, although it does not by itself prove that researchers selected the infants specifically because of race. Read the 1993 account of Van Middlesworth’s statements.

Michigan: Harper Hospital, Detroit

In 1954, researchers in the Pediatric Division and Radioisotope Laboratory at Harper Hospital studied I-131 uptake in premature infants.

The DOE account reports:

• Sixty-five
  premature infants were studied.
• Their
  birth weights ranged from approximately 2.1 to 5.5 pounds.
• Seven
  full-term infants served as controls.
• The
  premature infants received five microcuries of I-131 orally.
• Researchers
  then measured radioiodine concentrations in their thyroid glands.
• The
  purpose was to determine whether premature infants absorbed iodine
  differently from full-term infants and adults.

The investigators concluded that uptake in the premature infants generally fell within ranges regarded as normal for full-term children and adults.

The research was published as E. E. Martmer and colleagues, “A Study of the Uptake of Iodine (I-131) by the Thyroid of Premature Infants,” AMA American Journal of Diseases of Children, 1955. Read the DOE description—see OT-20.

The DOE summary does not clearly establish whether the seven control infants also received I-131, although their function as uptake controls suggests some radioactive measurement was involved. The surviving summary also does not supply reliable evidence of the parents’ consent or the precise information given to them.

Nebraska: University of Nebraska and Omaha VA Hospital

In 1960, researchers from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Omaha studied 28 healthy newborns.

The documented details are:

• Sixteen
  boys and twelve girls participated.
• They
  were approximately 72 to 180 hours old.
• Each
  infant received five microcuries of I-131 through a gastric tube.
• Researchers
  measured the concentration in the thyroid approximately 24 hours later.
• The
  infants were described as normal and healthy.
• Researchers
  concluded that the newborn thyroid functioned in a manner generally
  similar to an adult thyroid.
• Sex
  and body weight reportedly did not significantly determine uptake.

The study was published as R. E. Ogborn, R. E. Waggener, and E. Van Hove, “Radioactive-Iodine Concentration in Thyroid Glands of Newborn Infants,” Pediatrics, volume 26, November 1960, pages 771–776. Read the DOE description—see OT-8.

These babies were not injected. The I-131 was placed directly into their stomachs through a tube. It was nevertheless an intentional internal administration of radioactive material.

Iowa: University of Iowa, Iowa City

In 1963, University of Iowa researchers studied 25 healthy newborns:

• Twelve
  were boys and thirteen were girls.
• All
  were less than 36 hours old.
• Their
  weights ranged from approximately 5.5 to 8.5 pounds.
• Each
  received less than one microcurie of I-131.
• Eight
  received it orally.
• Seventeen
  received it by intramuscular injection.
• Thyroid
  measurements were taken repeatedly over three or four days.
• The
  AEC and American Cancer Society supported the work.

Researchers found that injected iodine entered the thyroid more rapidly and produced higher measured uptake than orally administered iodine.

The study was published as R. T. Morrison and colleagues, “Radioiodine Uptake Studies in Newborn Infants,” Journal of Nuclear Medicine, volume 4, 1963, pages 162–166. Read the DOE description—see OT-7.

Iowa was also the site of a separate, particularly disturbing 1953 AEC-supported experiment involving pregnant women scheduled for therapeutic abortions. The women received 100 to 200 microcuries of I-131; researchers subsequently examined the aborted embryos to determine when the fetal thyroid began absorbing iodine. The number of women was not preserved in the DOE summary. That study should not be counted as part of the 25 newborns but forms part of the broader history of Iowa radioiodine research.

Arkansas: University of Arkansas School of Medicine, Little Rock

The Arkansas portion is the least clearly reconstructed in the surviving public summaries.

A principal publication was:

D. A. Fisher, T. H. Oddie, and J. C. Burroughs, “Thyroidal Radioiodine Uptake Rate Measurement in Infants,” American Journal of Diseases of Children, volume 103, 1962, pages 738–749. View the PubMed record or the JAMA archive entry.

The Arkansas researchers were studying dramatic changes in thyroid activity during the first days and weeks of life. Their work attempted to develop reliable measurements of:

• The
  rate at which an infant thyroid removed iodine from the blood.
• Changes
  in neonatal thyroid activity after birth.
• The
  relationship between radioactive-iodine uptake and thyroid-hormone
  production.
• Possible
  tests for congenital hypothyroidism.

The Department of Energy catalog also records related Arkansas pediatric work during the 1950s:

• Thirty
  children, ranging from nine months to fifteen years, were studied.
• Twenty-five
  had normal thyroid function.
• Five
  had absent or almost nonfunctioning thyroid glands.
• Children
  up to age six received five microcuries of I-131 orally.
• Older
  children received ten microcuries.
• Thyroid
  readings and urine samples were collected for as long as 96 hours.

These subjects were children rather than exclusively newborn babies. Read the DOE Arkansas description—see OT-23.

This distinction probably helps explain the 235 figure: the contemporary press appears to have combined newborns with “older infants” and possibly other young pediatric subjects under the shorthand term “babies.”

4. The numbers do not neatly reconcile

The well-documented newborn and premature-infant studies in the DOE catalog account for approximately:

That leaves a gap of about 103 between the clearly itemized subtotal and the 235 reported in December 1993.

The Arkansas research and potentially additional cohorts appear to account for much of that difference, but the accessible federal catalog does not provide a clean subject-by-subject accounting sufficient to prove exactly how the original reporters reached 235. Therefore, the most defensible formulation is:

Contemporary investigators and reporters estimated that at least 235 newborns and older infants in five states participated in related I-131 studies. Surviving federal descriptions conclusively document several major cohorts, but they do not support saying that all 235 were newborns or that all 235 were injected.

5. Medical purpose of the experiments

Congenital hypothyroidism can cause permanent intellectual and developmental disability if it is not detected and treated promptly. During the 1950s, modern newborn blood-spot screening and sensitive hormone assays did not exist.

Researchers hoped radioiodine studies would help them:

• Determine
  normal thyroid activity during the first days of life.
• Distinguish
  normal babies from those born without a working thyroid.
• Understand
  whether prematurity affected thyroid function.
• Develop
  diagnostic standards for congenital hypothyroidism.
• Determine
  the best time after birth to test thyroid function.

This was genuine medical research. It contributed to scientific knowledge about neonatal thyroid physiology. Nevertheless, giving radioactivity to healthy infants was nontherapeutic: the individual infant generally did not need I-131 treatment and did not receive a direct medical benefit from participating.

6. Estimated risks and possible health effects

The principal theoretical long-term consequence was radiation-induced thyroid cancer. Other possible effects of sufficient thyroid irradiation include:

• Destruction
  or impairment of thyroid tissue.
• Hypothyroidism.
• Benign
  thyroid nodules.
• Alterations
  in thyroid growth or function.
• A
  small increase in lifetime cancer risk.

The actual risk depended on:

• Amount
  administered.
• Route
  of administration.
• Percentage
  taken up by the thyroid.
• Infant’s
  age, weight, and thyroid size.
• Biological
  elimination.
• Whether
  stable iodine was also present.
• Accuracy
  of the original dose records.

The Presidential Advisory Committee emphasized that thyroid risk is highly age-dependent and that the smallest children can receive comparatively high thyroid doses. It found that the highest risks among the pediatric experiments it examined occurred in infants given I-131.

For the 21 pediatric radiation projects analyzed in detail, involving approximately 792 children, the committee estimated roughly 1.4 excess cancers across the entire group. It stressed that the calculation was uncertain: the true result could have been no excess cases, and there was little long-term follow-up data. The committee also concluded that some of the studies would probably exceed modern standards for minimal-risk research in children. Read ACHRE’s pediatric risk analysis.

This does not mean that 1.4 cancers were proven to have occurred among the 235 infants. It was a statistical estimate for a broader group of 792 pediatric research subjects.

No dependable long-term epidemiological study appears to have tracked every infant in these five-state cohorts. Consequently:

• Claims
  that none of the babies was harmed cannot be proved by the absence of
  reported injuries.
• Claims
  that the experiments definitely caused cancers or deaths also cannot be
  proved from the surviving evidence.
• Loss
  of records and lack of follow-up made definitive answers extremely
  difficult.

7. Ethical problems

No direct benefit to healthy babies

Most of the infants were reportedly healthy. They were exposed primarily to generate knowledge useful to researchers and future patients.

Questionable informed consent

The evidence concerning parental permission varies and is often incomplete. Van Middlesworth said the Memphis mothers gave permission, but his records had been lost. Permission alone would not establish that the mothers understood:

• That
  the substance was radioactive.
• That
  the procedure was experimental.
• That
  it was not necessary for their babies’ care.
• That
  radiation could produce delayed harm.
• That
  refusing would not affect their treatment at the hospital.

For the other locations, the accessible federal summaries do not consistently document meaningful parental informed consent.

Vulnerable subjects

The subjects included newborns, premature babies, sick or institutionalized children, low-income hospital patients, and disproportionate numbers of racial minorities in at least some studies. None could personally consent.

Inadequate understanding of pediatric radiation doses

Researchers sometimes calculated doses using an adult “standard man” model. Because an infant’s organs are much smaller, this could substantially underestimate the dose delivered to the infant thyroid.

Inadequate follow-up

A delayed cancer risk cannot be evaluated by observing babies for only several days. Meaningful safety assessment would have required decades of thyroid examinations and reliable identification of every subject. Such follow-up was generally absent.

8. What the federal investigation ultimately concluded

ACHRE did not conclude that every Cold War radiation researcher acted maliciously. It found a more complicated record:

• Many
  scientists believed small tracer doses were harmless.
• The
  danger of radiation-induced childhood thyroid cancer was not fully
  appreciated during the earliest studies.
• Evidence
  of radiation-related thyroid tumors became progressively stronger during
  the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Researchers
  systematically underestimated some pediatric organ doses.
• Several
  nontherapeutic pediatric studies involved risks that would not be
  acceptable under modern standards.
• Government
  and medical institutions frequently failed to preserve records, notify
  subjects, or perform adequate long-term follow-up.

The committee stated that no radiation exposure can be regarded as absolutely harmless and that several of the pediatric experiments would clearly be unacceptable under contemporary research protections.

Bottom line

The underlying history is real: American researchers deliberately administered iodine-131 to newborns, premature infants, and older children to study thyroid physiology. The work occurred in Tennessee, Arkansas, Nebraska, Michigan, and Iowa and was frequently supported or approved by the Atomic Energy Commission.

But historical precision matters. “235 babies were injected” is an oversimplification. Some were injected, while others swallowed I-131 or received it through gastric tubes. The group included newborns and older infants, and possibly older pediatric subjects. The surviving documentation clearly accounts for approximately 132 newborn and premature-infant participants, while the precise composition of the remaining subjects behind the contemporary total of 235 is not fully recoverable from the available federal summaries.

There is no sound evidence that all these children were injured, but neither is there adequate follow-up proving that none suffered delayed effects. The enduring scandal is therefore not simply that radioactivity was used. It is that highly vulnerable children were enrolled in nontherapeutic research, parental understanding was often poorly documented, radiation risks were underestimated, and many subjects were never systematically followed through adulthood.