Britain’s Cold War Human Chemical Warfare Experiments (234)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ian Foulkes was exposed to the deadly nerve agent Sarin in 1983 at the Porton Down Chemical & Biological Defence Establishment., one of the UK's most secretive and controversial military research facilities. Ian describes in detail the process and the ill effects this caused him and shares details of a little-known fatality where 20-year-old Ronald Maddison died 45 minutes after what scientists thought was 200mg of liquid Sarin dripped onto his arm. We also talk about the development of chemical weapons during the Cold War and the history of the Porton Down Chemical & Biological Defence Establishment. Up to 20,000 people took part in various trials at Porton Down from 1949 up to 1989. In 2004 Maddison’s death was ruled to have been Corporate Manslaughter. The MoD withdrew a challenge to this ruling minutes before the hearing. In 2008 the MoD paid 600 veterans of the tests £8k each without admitting liability. Now if you think there is a vast army of research assistants, audio engineers and producers putting together this podcast you’d be wrong. This podcast relies on your support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible stories and make them available to everyone for free. If you’d like to help to preserve Cold War history and enable me to continue to produce this podcast you can via one-off or monthly donations. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ for more details. 0:00 Introduction and background of the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students 2:21 Interview with Greg Elma: The History and Politics of the Youth Festivals 9:15 Economic implications of North Korea's festival expenditures 12:06 The Canadian Delegation: Composition and Journey to Pyongyang 21:19 Festival Atmosphere and Experiences in North Korea 27:18 Delegates' Realizations and Long-Term Impact of the Festival 36:44 The Canadian Delegation's Response to Tiananmen Square 45:20 Reaction to the Film "The Canadian Delegation" 53:19 How to Access the Film on Vimeo and Future Plans 54:07 Ian Sanders' Closing Remarks and Cold War Conversations' Call to Action Table of contents powered by PodcastAI✨ Do join our Facebook discussion group where the cold war conversation continues between episodes. Just search Cold War Conversations in Facebook. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.9	They describe it in the training manuals as a tightness of chest.
0:11.7	That's being overly nice.
0:15.7	To me, it felt like my windpipe had constricted to the size of a straw.
0:24.4	This is Cold War Conversations.
0:30.0	If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:36.4	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app so that you don't miss out on future episodes.
0:42.5	Ian Fulks was exposed to the deadly nerve agent Siren in 1983 at the Port and Down
0:47.9	Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment.
0:51.5	Port and Down is one of the UK's most secretive and controversial military research
0:56.3	facilities. Ian describes in details the process and the ill effects this caused him and shares
1:03.4	details of a little-known fatality where 20-year-old Ronald Madison died 45 minutes after what
1:10.4	scientists thought was 200 milligrams of liquid
1:13.5	siren dripped onto his arm. We also talk about the development of chemical weapons during the
1:19.0	Cold War and the history of Port and Down. Up to 20,000 people took part in various trials at
1:25.5	Port and Down from 1949 up to 1989.
1:29.5	In 2004, Madison's death was ruled to have been corporate manslaughter.
1:35.1	The Ministry of Defence withdrew a challenge to this ruling minutes before the hearing.
1:40.1	And in 2008, the Ministry of Defence paid 600 veterans of the tests £8,000 each without admitting liability.
1:50.2	Now, if you think there's a vast army of research assistants, audio engineers and producers putting together this podcast, you'd be wrong.
2:00.8	The podcast relies on your support to enable me to continue to capture these incredible
2:06.1	stories and make them available to everyone for free.
	...

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