British Cold War biological-weapons trials

One of the stranger details from Britain's Cold War history involves a 60 page official account of biological weapons trials carried out between 1940 and 1979. More than 100 covert experiments were reportedly documented, covering tests that took place across different parts of the country and over several decades.

Among the details was the use of aircraft between 1955 and 1963 to release zinc cadmium sulphide along England's south and west coasts. The DICE trials in south Dorset followed between 1971 and 1975, involving Serratia marcescens, an anthrax simulant and phenol. None of this was happening on the scale of a single isolated experiment.

Then there's the reported exposure along the south coast between 1961 and 1968. More than one million people were exposed to bacteria including E. coli and Bacillus globigii as part of the testing. Seeing the dates, locations and sheer number of people involved makes Britain's Cold War biological testing program look considerably more extensive than most people would probably expect.