The Racist Porton Down Experiments
Nation Involved: United Kingdom
Time Period: 1916 to 1989
Porton Down was referenced above briefly, but we feel it is important to bring them up again. The Sarin Tests were just the tip of the iceberg for those people. The Porton Down facility is obviously owned and run by the UK’s Armed Forces. They brought in several servicemen over the years to take part in their chemical warfare testing. This included exposing them to mustard gas among many more toxic substances. Several died or had lifelong illnesses due to these chemical warfare trials. Porton Down conducted experiments for most of the 20th Century, beginning in 1916 and closing by 1989.
Roughly 20,000 British servicemen were put through this. However, one of the most racist trials involved Indian servicemen. It was conducted in Rawalpindi, British India from the 1930s to 1940s. Several were hospitalized from these trials, and it is said that very few volunteered for the trials. Meaning they forced them to take part, which is now said to be a massively racist action. There was a wide assumption that those with darker skin would not have as many problems with chemicals like mustard gas, which is horribly wrong.