Ebb Cade (17 March 1890 – 13 April 1953) was a construction worker at Clinton Engineer Works in

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's po ...

, and was the first person subjected to injection with

plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

as an experiment.

Life

Cade was born on 17 March 1890 in

Macon County, Georgia Macon County is a County (United States), county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 12,082. The county seat is Oglethorpe ...

, the son of Evens and Carrie Cade. Ebb Cade was married to Ida Cade. At age 63, Cade died as a result of ventricular fibrillation followed by heart failure on 13 April 1953 in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

Plutonium injection

On 23 March 1945 Cade was on his way to work at a construction site for the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

when he was involved in a traffic accident at

. He was an African-American cement worker for the J.A. Jones Construction Company. Cade presented at the Oak Ridge Hospital with fractures of right

patella The patella (: patellae or patellas), also known as the kneecap, is a flat, rounded triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in m ...

, right

radius In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...

and

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

and left

femur The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The Femo ...

. Dr. Hymer Friedell, deputy medical director of the Manhattan Engineer District, determined that as Cade was, as he characterized, a "well developed..well nourished" "colored male", he was suitable for "experimentation" with plutonium injection. Doctors left his fractures untreated for 20 days until after plutonium injections began on 10 April 1945. Cade received the injections at the Oak Ridge Hospital on the Clinton Engineer Works reservation without his consent or knowledge. He became known as HP-12 (Human Product-12) and was the first person to be injected with

Plutonium-239 Plutonium-239 ( or Pu-239) is an isotope of plutonium. Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main iso ...

. In order to test the migration of plutonium through his body, subsequently 15 of Cade's teeth were extracted and bone samples taken. According to one account, Cade departed suddenly from the hospital on his own initiative; one morning the nurse opened his door, and he was gone. Later it was learned that he moved out of state and died of heart failure in Greensboro. From 1945 to 1947, 18 people were part of a series of studies that involved the

injection Injection or injected may refer to: Science and technology * Injective function, a mathematical function mapping distinct arguments to distinct values * Injection (medicine), insertion of liquid into the body with a syringe * Injection, in broadca ...

of plutonium. In

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

at Strong Memorial Hospital 11 people were injected. In Chicago, three individuals received injections at Billings Hospital of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, three people were injected at the University Hospital of the University of California, San Francisco. The first person injected in California was Albert Stevens. Urine and feces samples were collected from the test subjects and forwarded to

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

for plutonium analysis. The studies were utilized to formulate mathematical equations necessary to establish plutonium excretion rates.Openness, DOE. (June 1998). Human Radiation Experiments: ACHRE Report. Chapter 5: The Manhattan district Experiments; the first injection. Washington, DC. Superintendent of Documents. US Government Printing Office.

References

External links

Record Group 326 (Box descriptions)
This is the box cited by Denise Kiernan as containing relevant correspondence * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cade, Ebb Nuclear power Plutonium Oak Ridge National Laboratory 1890 births 1953 deaths People from Macon County, Georgia Heart diseases Manhattan Project people Human subject research in the United States Deaths by acute radiation syndrome