In a 1969 study, 21 women of Indian descent were fed rotis containing an iron isotope (representative)
London:
A UK Opposition Labor MP and Shadow Minister for Women and Equality has called for a legal inquiry into medical research dating back to the 1960s that led to women of Indian descent being given chapatis containing radioactive isotopes to combat iron deficiency.
Taiwo Owatemi, MP for Coventry in England’s West Midlands region, recently said in a post on X – formerly Twitter – that she is “deeply concerned” about the women and families affected by the investigation.
About 21 women of Indian descent, identified through a general practitioner in the city, were fed the bread containing Iron-59, an iron isotope, as part of a 1969 study of iron deficiency among the city’s South Asian population.
“My greatest concern is for the wives and families of those who were experimented on in this study,” Owatemi said.
“I will be calling for a debate on this as soon as possible after Parliament returns in September, followed by a full legal inquiry into how this could have happened and why the MRC’s recommendation [Medical Research Council] There has never been any follow-up to the report to identify the women so that they can share their stories, receive the necessary support and learn lessons,” she said.
A spokesperson for the MRC said an independent inquiry, following a documentary on Channel 4 in 1995, had looked into the questions raised.
According to a BBC report at the time, it was found that about 21 women were involved in the experiment after seeking medical help from a town doctor for minor ailments. The study was conducted because of concerns about widespread anemia among South Asian women and researchers suspected that traditional South Asian diets were to blame. Chapatis containing Iron-59, an iron isotope with a gamma-beta emitter, were delivered to participants’ homes. They would later be invited to a research facility in Oxfordshire to have their radiation levels assessed.
It was reported that the MRC said the study proved that “Asian women should take extra iron because the iron in the flour was insoluble”. The MRC said in a statement that it remains committed to the highest standards, including “commitment to involvement, openness and transparency”.
“The issues were investigated after the broadcast of the documentary in 1995 and an independent inquiry was launched at the time to investigate the questions raised,” the statement said.
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