American involved in human radiation experiments during Cold War-era dies at 90

Eugene L. Saenger, an American physician who led controversial Cold War-era human radiation experiments, has died. He was 90.

Weil Funeral Home in Cincinnati confirmed Saenger's Sept. 30 death. No cause of death was available.

Some 90 late-stage cancer patients were treated with high doses of radiation from 1960 to 1971 without being told that a study of their responses would be used to help the military assess the effects of a nuclear attack on soldiers. In 1994, Saenger was sued by families of the cancer patients who said their relatives were unwitting guinea pigs in a military-sponsored experiment.

The lawsuit was settled in 1999 for $3.6 million.

Saenger was considered a pioneer in nuclear medicine and radiology. He graduated from Harvard University and earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati.

In 1958, he established the radioisotope laboratory at University Hospital in Cincinnati and served as its director until 1987. Its lab was named in his honor in 1978.

He became vice chairman of the University of Cincinnati's radiology department in 1975, retired in 1987 and was named a professor emeritus.

Saenger also was a longtime consultant to the U.S. military and helped develop safety and medical treatment guidelines for radiation exposure.