IN 2019, SHAHNAZ AKHTER, a postdoctoral researcher at Warwick University, was chatting to her sister, who mentioned a Channel 4 documentary that had aired in the UK in the mid-1990s. It was about human radiation experiments, including one that had taken place in 1969 in Coventry. As part of an experiment on iron absorption, 21 Indian women had been fed chapatis baked with radioactive isotopes, apparently without their consent. Having grown up in Coventry’s tight-knit South Asian community, Akhter was shocked that she had never heard of the experiment. When she looked into it, she found an inquiry by the Coventry Health Authority in 1995 conducted soon after the documentary aired. The inquiry examined whether the experiment put the subjects’ health at risk and whether informed consent was obtained. But…
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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 21 February 2025