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In reply to the discussion: Saturated fat causes heart disease, eh? I wonder who told us that? [View all]suffragette
(12,232 posts)Yes, that really happened and shows how callous corporations can be when they regard a group of people as poor and/or unwanted.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/01/us/settlement-reached-in-suit-over-radioactive-oatmeal-experiment.html?_r=0
A group of former students who ate radioactive oatmeal as unwitting participants in a food experiment will share a $1.85 million settlement from Quaker Oats and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
More than 100 boys at the Fernald School in Waltham, Mass., were fed cereal containing radioactive iron and calcium in the 1940's and 1950's. The diet was part of an experiment to prove that the nutrients in Quaker oatmeal travel throughout the body.
Quaker and M.I.T. agreed last week to pay to settle the class-action lawsuit, which covers about 30 people. A hearing is scheduled for April 6 to make the settlement final.
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The boys, many of whom were wards of the state and inaccurately classified as mentally retarded, joined the Fernald Science Club in the late 1940's and early 1950's.