After months of pushback from Chinatown community leaders, a compromise has been reached on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s proposed bus service cuts. The revised plan will allow the 30S bus route to run slightly south of Market Street.
Exposed
Cold War Scientists Pushed Ethical Boundaries With Radiation Experiments
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 4, we examine the ethical implications of the lab’s use of radioactive substances on humans, when neither scientists nor study participants knew enough about the risks to offer informed consent — and how taking such gambles may have seemed more excusable in an atomic-age context than today.
Human Radiation Studies Included Mock Combat, Skin Tests and a Plan to Inject 49ers
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 3, we show how the lab’s scientific agenda expanded from monitoring workers’ occupational exposures to using radioactive substances in mock atomic combat and clinical experiments that included topical, oral and intravenous administration of potentially harmful isotopes.
After Atomic Test Blunder, Government Authorized Study of Radiation in Humans
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
In part 2, we examine public records that prove that exposing humans to radiation was part of the known cost of the lab’s research program, a toll accepted by top military and civilian brass at every level of the chain of command, from Washington down to the docks.
Health
A Community of Color Contends With the Navy’s Toxic Legacy
In the first of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe traces the soil contamination plaguing a Navy shipyard back to its origins — 20th century nuclear bomb tests in the Pacific.
Environmental justice advocates, scholars and military officials describe their experiences battling over land redevelopment, and reckoning with the legacy of a radiation laboratory that sometimes used human subjects.
How a San Francisco Navy Lab Became a Hub for Human Radiation Experiments
Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War.
Part 1, the series overview, was co-published by the Guardian. Listen to the two-episode “Exposed” podcast, which will be broadcast on KALW Public Radio. See also: Parts 2-6, laying out the origins, methodologies, ethics, documentation and public health legacy of the lab.
Exposed
Why the Navy Conducted Radiation Experiments on Humans
In the second of two podcast episodes of “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point,” reporter Rebecca Bowe lays out what we know from scattered documents and a few remaining eyewitnesses about a Cold War research program that pushed ethical boundaries in the name of national defense.
Bowe speaks with veterans who describe their experiences as guinea pigs in field decontamination exercises that yielded little useful data, and talks with colleague Chris Roberts about what the surviving record say about tests involving injection and ingestion of radioactive substances.
Elections
Analysis: What Would Really Happen to Traffic if SF’s Great Highway Closed?
Perhaps no local issue in this election is more contentious than Proposition K, which would close the Upper Great Highway to cars and move it closer to becoming a park.
Supporters and opponents have sparred over how the measure’s passage would affect traffic in San Francisco. To find out what’s true, we examined multiple studies, and spoke with their authors and experts not affiliated with the city.
Community
Cannabis Dispensary and Lounge to Open in SF Bayview, Despite Residents’ Objections
The dispensary will be on one of the Bayview’s less developed streets, near low-income and senior housing. Over a dozen cannabis facilities already operate in the neighborhood, nearly all of which are used only to grow the plant.
Many residents, especially Chinese Americans, have opposed the new facility, which will sell cannabis products, out of fear that it will encourage drug use and make the area less safe. Despite their objections, the city’s Planning Commission approved the project Thursday because it did not violate city laws.
Community
In SF’s Chinatown, Conflict Over Outdoor Events Resolved — for Now
A dispute among Chinatown businesses appears to be temporarily quelled, following a decision by San Francisco’s Board of Appeals to limit amplified sound at outdoor events along a major tourist artery for the next two months.
Merchants had objected after a local dance company obtained the amplified-sound permit. It was the latest point of friction resulting from a gradual uptick in events, which have disrupted some businesses in the neighborhood.
Homepage Featured
Chinatown Merchants Frustrated as Outdoor Events Disrupt Business
Since the start of the pandemic, Chinatown groups have closed pockets of the neighborhood to vehicle traffic, making space for events that might draw people. As the closures increased over time, local merchants began to bristle. Those frustrations have boiled over in response to the latest attempt, by a dance company, to potentially expand events.