NEW SOLUTIONS, Vol. 9(2) 163-178, 1999 OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES AS HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION: THE URANIUM MINING EXPERIENCE IN THE NAVAJO NATION (1947-66) RAFAEL MOURE-ERASO ABSTRACT This article evaluates how an observational epidemiologic study of federal agencies in uranium miners became an experiment of opportunity for radiation effects. Navajo miners and communities suffered environmental exposures caused by the practices of uranium mining and milling in the Navajo reservation during the 1947 to 1966 period. A historical review of the state-of-the-art knowledge of the health effects of uranium mining and milling during the years prior to 1947 was conducted. Contemporary prevention and remediation practices also were assessed. An appraisal of the summary of findings of a comprehensive evaluation of radiation human experimentation conducted by the U.S. federal government in 1995-96 (ACHRE) demonstrates that uranium miners, including Navajo miners, were the single group that was put more seriously at risk of harm from radiation exposures, with inadequate disclosure and often with fatal consequences. Uranium miners were unwilling and unaware victims of human experimentation to evaluate the health effects of radiation. The failure of the State and U.S. Governments to issue regulations or demand installation of known mine-dust exposure control measures caused widespread environmental damage in the Navajo Nation. BACKGROUND Navajos and Uranium Mining In 1998 the Uranium Radiation victims Committee (URvC), an organization from the Navajo Nation, reported that in the period between 1947 and 1966, there were 2,450 registered Navajo uranium miners who worked at any time on reservation land. Of those, 412 have died of various causes, including lung cancer [1]. URvC assembled this data to provide information to former miners or their surviving 163 © 1999, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.