Revealed

They were carried out by scientists from Wiltshire's Porton Down chemical and biological warfare centre.

The revelations, which will be released in a new book tomorrow (Thurs 9th Nov), give details of tests involving a lorry carrying boxes of micro-organisms which drove around the streets of Swindon.

The scientists, who were preparing for a possible biological or germ warfare attack on Britain, wanted to see whether the organisms would decay when exposed to the air.

South Swindon MP Julia Drown today expressed concern that the tests were carried out without the knowledge of those who could have been placed at risk.

An independent inquiry backed by the Government several years after the experiments were carried out in the mid-1960s, said a small number of people could have been in danger.

In the book Gassed, investigative journalist Rob Evans says the Swindon tests took place in the mid-1960's at the height of the Cold War when there was a perceived threat from the former Soviet Union.

Porton Down is currently at the centre of an inquiry into the death of a serviceman who worked there.

Wiltshire police are investigating claims that the former airman from County Durham died and several other people suffered ill health when they took part in lethal tests with nerve gas.

The secret germ tests carried out in Swindon were far from hi-tech.

They involved driving a lorry around the town carrying boxes which contained micro-organisms.

The idea was to study how the organisms would decay after being exposed to the air.

Scientists involved maintain the tests were safe and the man making the revelations, author Rob Evans, says he is sure no-one in the town would have suffered.

But a Government inquiry, carried out several years after the experiments had finished, said that a small number of people in areas where they took place could have been put at risk.

And today concerns were raised about how important experiments were allowed to carry on secretly under the noses of a whole population.

Mr Evans says the tests were run by scientists from the clandestine chemical and biological warfare establishment at Porton Down on Salisbury Plain.

In his book Gassed, Evans says the trials took place in the mid-1960s and Swindon was one of several towns and cities throughout the country chosen for the large scale but secret public tests.

The experiments involved using micro-organisms but instead of dangerous pathogens, Porton relied on stimulants which scientists said were harmless but would mimic genuine biological weapons.

Porton maintained that their experiments were essential to meet a perceived threat from the former Soviet Union.

The tests had long finished when news that they had taken place leaked out.

And since then a Government inquiry which looked at the safety of experiments with micro-organisms decided that while the trials were unlikely to have harmed the overwhelming majority of healthy citizens, a small number of individuals had been put at risk.

These would have included vulnerable people who had lung diseases or who were particularly susceptible to infection.

Evans said the Swindon trials which took place between 1963 and 1967 and involved the exposure of the simulants to the open air in boxes.

"The bacteria were held on tiny spider's threads in the boxes to see how the organisms would survive in different environments such as built -up or rural areas," he said.

"The boxes would have been driven through the streets of Swindon, but my investigations reveal there is no question of any of the bacteria escaping."

South Swindon MP Julia Drown said: "This is the first I have heard about this, and as far as I know it has not been confirmed by any other agency.

"If it is true, it seems wrong to have happened in secret and particularly if there was potential to cause damage to even one individual in the town."

Gassed also tells how the former RAF base at Hullavington near Chippenham took part in a series of earlier secret Porton Down open-air trials over large swathes of Britain.

Gassed is published tomorrow by the House of Stratus and has a cover price of £20.

Do you have any knowledge of these experiments taking place in Swindon? Call the newsdesk on 01793 528144 ext 266 or e-mail mdrew@newswilts.co.uk

"Not all the experiments were static and boxes full of organisms were driven on top of vehicles known as 'mobile sampling stations'. The scientists wanted to transport the bacteria in the same parcel of air to measure how they would decay.

"This shows the need for more openness which the Government's new Freedom of Information Act will provide for the public."

These tests involved the spraying of a chemical marker zinc cadmium sulphide to simulate the path of a germ warfare cloud.

In the first tests in 1953 the chemical was sprayed in a 50 mile arc which covered parts of Wiltshire close to Devizes.

Sampling stations were set up on the ground to monitor the cloud,

A second inquiry into the safety of zinc cadmium sulphide decided that no-one had been harmed by that particular set of experiments.