 People are calling for a group of Punjabi women who were experimented on with radioactive chapatis in the 1960s to finally be checked on. The story of a 1969 study which saw 21 women from Coventry given daily chapatis laced with the radioactive substance Iron-69 has resurfaced. Most of the group had gone to their GPs for help with minor complaints, migraines for example, and this caused worries about widespread anaemia in the Asian community. Medical professionals suspected that this was caused by traditional South Asian diets and decided to deliver the laced flatbreads to participants' homes. After some time, the women were invited to have their radiation levels assessed in Oxfordshire, with the study proving that 'Asian women should take extra iron because the iron in the flour was insoluble'. But there have long been concerns over these women not being given enough information to adequately consent to the project. These issues came to light in a 1995 Channel 4 documentary which sparked an independent inquiry into the experiment funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC). The report was published in 1998 and it 'recognised that research practice, ethics and regulation had moved on significantly since the experiments were originally undertaken'. 'The inquiry directly resulted in new guidance and additional improvements have been made since then,' the MRC said in a statement on Wednesday. A University of Warwickshire researcher has revived public interest, after her X thread on what happened garnered more than 6.6 million views. She said no one had followed up with the women who were experimented on to see if they had become sick. Coventry North West MP Taiwo Owatemi said the discussion 'deeply concerned' her and promised to call for a debate about it when Parliament returns in September. She wrote: 'My foremost concern is for the women and families of those who were ex){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
People are calling for a group of Punjabi women who were experimented on with radioactive chapatis in the 1960s to finally be checked on.
The story of a 1969 study which saw 21 women from Coventry given daily chapatis laced with the radioactive substance Iron-69 has resurfaced.
Most of the group had gone to their GPs for help with minor complaints, migraines for example, and this caused worries about widespread anaemia in the Asian community.
Medical professionals suspected that this was caused by traditional South Asian diets and decided to deliver the laced flatbreads to participants’ homes.