| Porton Down |
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HISTORY Porton Down originally opened in 1916 as the Royal Engineers Experimental Station as a site for testing chemical weapons. The Laboratory 's remit was to conduct research and development regarding chemical weapons agents such as Chlorine , Phosgene and Mustard Gas by the British armed forces in the First World War . The CCU is sometimes confused with the Health Protection Agency Porton Down at nearby Porton Down, with which it occasionally collaborated but was not officially connected. During the Second World War, research concentrated on chemical weapons such as Nitrogen Mustard , plus biological weapons including Anthrax and Botulinum Toxin . In 1942 , highly successful tests of an anthrax bio-weapon developed at Porton Down were held at Gruinard Island . When the war ended, the advanced state of German technology regarding nerve agents such as Tabun , Sarin and Soman surprised the allies and they were eager to capitalise on it. Subsequent research took the newly discovered German Nerve Agent s as a starting point, and eventually VX nerve agent was developed at Porton Down in 1952 . Tests were carried out on servicemen to determine the effects of nerve agents on human subjects, with one recorded death due to a nerve gas experiment. There have been persistent allegations of unethical Human Experimentation at Porton Down, such as those relating to the death of Leading Aircraftman Ronald Maddison , aged 20, in 1953 . Maddison believed that he was taking part in trials to cure the common cold. In reality he was taking part in Sarin nerve agent toxicity tests. Sarin was dripped on to his arm and he died shortly afterwards as a result. All of these allegations have been denied by the Ministry of Defence. As of 2004 , Wiltshire Police are carrying out an investigation, Operation Antler , into these allegations; no prosecutions have yet followed from the investigations. Most of the work carried out at Porton Down has to date remained secret, and the UK Government have been criticised for not revealing the true extent of the research that was carried out on unwitting servicemen. It is known that amongst current research at Porton is the study of MRSA and Anthrax . The facility produces a high efficacy anthrax vaccine which is sold throughout the world. A second inquest on Ronald Maddison commenced in May 2004, after many years of lobbying by his relatives and their supporters. It later found the death of Ronald Maddison to have been unlawful however this has since been challenged by the Ministry of Defence. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/4459217.stm Until 2001 Porton Down was part of the UK government's Defence Evaluation And Research Agency . DERA was spilt into QinetiQ , initially a fully government owned company, and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory ( Dstl ). Dstl incorporates all of DERA's activities deemed unsuitable for the privatisation planned for QinetiQ, particularly Porton Down. In February 2006 three ex-servicemen were awarded compensation in an out of court settlement after claims they were given LSD without their consent during the 1950s. {Link without Title} USE OF ANIMALS Dstl Porton Down is also involved in animal-testing, where the "three Rs" of Reduce (the number of animals used), '''Refine ''' (animal procedures) and '''Replace ''' (animal tests with non-animal tests) are used as the basic code of practice. Dstl’s Biomedical Sciences department is involved in the following activities:
The Physical Sciences department also uses animals in its ‘Armour Physics’ research. DEFENCE CBRN CENTRE The Defence CBRN Centre is based at Winterbourne Gunner , south of Porton Down. It is a tri-service location, with the RAF being the lead service. There is also a Police training presence at the site. It is responsible for all matters relating to CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons) warfare for the UK Armed Forces . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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