Operation Sea-Spray

Starting on September 20, 1950, and continuing until September 27, the U.S. Navy released the two types of bacteria from a ship off the shore of San Francisco. Based on results from monitoring equipment at 43 locations around the city, the Army determined that San Francisco had received enough of a dose for nearly all of the city's 800,000 residents to inhale at least 5,000 of the particles.{{sfn|Cole|1988|pp=78-81}}{{cite web | first1 = Zachary | last1 = Crockett | url = https://priceonomics.com/how-the-us-government-tested-biological-warfare-on/ | access-date = 2022-09-04 | title =How the U.S. Government Tested Biological Warfare on America | work = Priceonomics | date = 2014-10-30 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220807011442/https://priceonomics.com/how-the-us-government-tested-biological-warfare-on/ | archive-date = 2022-08-07 | url-status = live | df = dmy-all }}{{Cite news | last1 = Loria | first1 = Kevin | date = 2015-07-15 | title = 'One of the largest human experiments in history' was conducted on unsuspecting residents of San Francisco | url = https://www.businessinsider.com/the-military-tested-bacterial-weapons-in-san-francisco-2015-7 | access-date = 2022-09-04 | work = Business Insider | language = en-US | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220314074545/https://www.businessinsider.com/the-military-tested-bacterial-weapons-in-san-francisco-2015-7 | archive-date = 2022-03-14 | url-status = live | oclc = 1076392313 | df = dmy-all}} This is within the range of infectivity for anthrax.{{Cite journal |last1=Coleman |first1=Margaret E. |last2=Thran |first2=Brandolyn |last3=Morse |first3=Stephen S. |last4=Hugh-Jones |first4=Martin |last5=Massulik |first5=Stacey |date=6 June 2008 |title=Inhalation Anthrax: Dose Response and Risk Analysis |journal=Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=147–159 |doi=10.1089/bsp.2007.0066 |pmid=18582166 |pmc=2996252 }}

On October 11, 1950, eleven residents checked into Stanford Hospital near San Francisco with very rare, serious urinary tract infections. Although ten recovered, Edward J. Nevin, who had had recent prostate surgery, died three weeks later from a heart valve infection. The urinary tract outbreak was so unusual that the Stanford doctors wrote it up for a medical journal.{{r|Price}}{{r|Chron}} None of the other hospitals in the city reported similar spikes in cases, and all 11 victims had urinary-tract infections following medical procedures, suggesting that the source of their infections was inside the hospital. Cases of pneumonia in San Francisco also increased after Serratia marcescens was released, though a causal relation has not been conclusively established.{{sfn|Cole|1988|p=81}}{{cite book | last1 = Regis | first1 = Ed | title = The Biology of Doom : America's Secret Germ Warfare Project | date = April 1999 | publisher = Diane Publishing Company | isbn = 0-7567-5686-3 }} The bacterium was also combined with phenol and an anthrax simulant and sprayed across south Dorset by US and UK military scientists as part of the DICE trials that ran from 1971 to 1975.{{cite news | first1 = Jim | last1 = Carlton | url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1003703226697496080 | url-access = subscription | title = Of Microbes and Mock Attacks: Years Ago, The Military Sprayed Germs on U.S. Cities | website = The Wall Street Journal | date = 2001-10-22 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211120204231/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1003703226697496080 | archive-date = 2021-11-20 | access-date = 2022-09-03 | issn = 0099-9660 | eissn = 1042-9840 | oclc = 781541372 | df = dmy-all}}{{cite news |title=Millions were in germ war tests |first=Antony |last=Barnett |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalscience |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2002-04-21 |access-date=27 October 2012}}

There was no evidence that the Army had alerted health authorities before it blanketed the region with bacteria. Doctors later wondered whether the experiment might be responsible for heart valve infections around the same time as well as serious infections seen among intravenous drug users in the 1960s and 1970s.{{r|Chron}}

In 1977, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research held a series of hearings at which the U.S. Army disclosed the existence of the tests.{{Cite book|title= Biological testing involving human subjects by the Department of Defense, 1977: hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session| url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015005321081&view=1up&seq=7 | date=March 8, 1977 | publisher=U.S. Govt. Print. Off. }} Army officials noted the pneumonia outbreak in their testimony but said any link to their experiments was totally coincidental. The Army pointed out that no other hospitals reported similar outbreaks and all 11 victims had urinary-tract infections following medical procedures, suggesting that the source of their infections lay inside the hospital.

In 1981, Nevin's surviving family members filed suit against the federal government, alleging negligence and responsibility for the death of Edward J. Nevin, as well as financial and emotional harm caused to Nevin's wife from the medical costs.

The lower court ruled against them primarily because the bacteria used in the test was unproven to be responsible for Nevin's death. The Nevin family appealed the suit all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to overturn lower court judgments.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/weapon-secret-testing/ Secret Testing in the United States], The American Experience "In the event, the courts ruled against them, the main reason being that the plaintiffs could not prove that the bacteria used in the test were the same as those that killed Mr. Nevin."[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/15/us/judge-s-decision-expected-soon-in-california-germ-warfre-case.html Judge's Decision Expected Soon in California Germ Warfre [sic] Case], New York Times, (April 15, 1981){{Cite journal|last=LaFreniere|first=David|date=2019-08-01|title=Forgiveness or Permission: How May the United States Government Conduct Experiments on the Public or in Public?|url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jbbbl-2019-0001/html|journal=Journal of Biosecurity, Biosafety, and Biodefense Law|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|doi=10.1515/jbbbl-2019-0001|s2cid=201060892 |issn=2154-3186}}

{{Main|United States biological weapons program}}

In the Senate subcommittee hearings in 1977, the Army revealed:

• Between 1949 and 1969, open-air tests of biological agents were conducted 239 times. In 80 of those experiments, the Army said it used live bacteria that its researchers at the time thought were harmless. In the others, it used inert chemicals to simulate bacteria.
• In the 1950s, army researchers dispersed Serratia on Panama City and Key West Florida with no known illnesses resulting.
• In the 1950s, army researchers dispersed zinc cadmium sulfide, a known cancer-causing agent, over Minnesota and other Midwestern states to see how far they would spread in the atmosphere. The particles were detected more than {{Convert|1000|mi}} away in New York state.
• Bacillus globigii, never shown to be harmful to people, was released in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, among other places.
• In New York, military researchers in 1966 spread Bacillus subtilis variant Niger, also believed to be harmless, in the subway system by dropping lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto tracks in stations in midtown Manhattan. The bacteria were carried for miles throughout the subway system. Army officials concluded in a January 1968 report that: "Similar covert attacks with a pathogenic disease-causing agent during peak traffic periods could be expected to expose large numbers of people to infection and subsequent illness or death."{{Cite news |last=Carlton |first=Jim |date=Oct 22, 2001 |title=Of Microbes and Mock Attacks: Years Ago, The Military Sprayed Germs on U.S. Cities |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1003703226697496080 |archive-url=https://archive.ph/tNc41 |archive-date=March 7, 2015 |access-date=May 12, 2025 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}
• In a May 1965 secret release of Bacillus globigii at Washington's National Airport and its Greyhound Lines bus terminal, more than 130 passengers were exposed to the bacteria and traveled to 39 cities in seven states in the two weeks following the mock attack.

{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}

• Unethical human experimentation in the United States
• 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning
• Operation Northwoods

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{Cite book |last=Cole |first=Leonard A. |url=https://archive.org/details/cloudsofsecrecya00cole/page/75/mode/2up |title=Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests Over Populated Areas |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=1988 |isbn=9780847675791 |pages=75–84 |oclc=15791698 |url-access=registration}}

{{U.S. biological weapons}}

Category:United States biological weapons program

Category:History of the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Military in the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:United States Navy in the 20th century

Category:1950s in California