A UK Opposition Labour Party member of Parliament has called for a statutory inquiry into medical research dating back to the 1960s that led to Indian-origin women being given chapatis containing radioactive isotopes to combat iron deficiency.
Taiwo Owatemi, the MP for Coventry in the West Midlands region of England, said in a recent post on X, formerly Twitter, that she is “deeply concerned” for the women and families impacted by the study.
Around 21 Indian-origin women were given the bread containing Iron-59, an iron isotope, as part of a research trial in 1969 into iron deficiency in the city's South Asian population. The women were involved in the experiment after seeking medical help from a city GP for minor ailments, according to a BBC report.
The study was carried out because concerns of widespread anaemia among South Asian women and researchers suspected traditional South Asian diets were to blame.
Chapatis containing Iron-59, an iron isotope with a gamma-beta emitter, were delivered to participants' homes. They would later be invited to a research facility in Oxfordshire to have their radiation levels assessed.
“My foremost concern is for the women and the families of those who were experimented on in this study,” said Owatemi, the shadow minister for women and equalities.
“I will be call for a debate on this as soon as possible after Parliament returns in September followed by a full statutory inquiry into how this was allowed to happen, and why the recommendation of the Medical Research Council (MRC) report to identify the women was never followed up so that they can share their stories, receive any support needed, and so that lessons are learnt,” she said.
An MRC spokesperson said an independent inquiry, commissioned following a documentary on Channel 4 in 1995, had examined questions raised.
The MRC said it remained committed to the highest standards, including “commitment to engagement, openness and transparency”. “The issues were considered following the broadcast of the documentary in 1995 and an independent inquiry was established at that time to examine the questions raised,” it said.
