Unethical human experimentation in the United States
In 1953, the AEC ran several studies at the University of Iowa on the health effects of radioactive iodine in newborns and pregnant women. In one study, researchers gave pregnant women from of iodine-131, in order to study the women's aborted embryos in an attempt to discover at what stage, and to what extent, radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In another study, they gave 25 newborn babies (who were under 36 hours old and weighed from ) iodine-131, either by oral administration or through an injection, so that they could measure the amount of iodine in their thyroid glands, as iodine would go to that gland.
Iodoacetic acid
Iodide is a naturally occurring ion that can be found in many source waters and it is easily oxidized by wastewater disinfectants. One of the products of iodide oxidation is hypoiodous acid (HOI or OI) which is capable of reacting with background organic materials to generate iodinated disinfection by-products (DBPs) including iodoacetic acid. In a study performed by Plewa, et al., IAA was determined to be one of the most cytotoxic of those studied, with a median lethal dose on the order of magnitude of 10 M. It was the most genotoxic of more than 60 DBPs studied and is the most genotoxic DBP identified thus far. Iodoacetic acid has exhibited traits indicating it as a potential carcinogen, however, it has not been proven to be carcinogenic. The trend continues in teratogenicity, with iodoacetic acid’s potency surpassing that of its brominated and chlorinated analogs. Its toxicity correlates to its ability as an alkylating agent, which will modify cysteine residues in proteins. Monohaloacetic acids are the most toxic, with toxicity increasing with halogen size. Iodoacetic acid is more toxic than bromoacetic acid and much more toxic than chloroacetic acid.