[News] Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon

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Maximum pain is aim of new US weapon

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7077

    * 19:00 02 March 2005
    * Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
    * David Hambling

The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of 
excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against 
rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are 
furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a 
weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture.

"I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research," says 
Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster 
Hospital in London, UK. "Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be 
justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the 
long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown."

The research came to light in documents unearthed by the Sunshine Project, 
an organisation based in Texas and in Hamburg, Germany, that exposes 
biological weapons research. The papers were released under the US's 
Freedom of Information Act.

One document, a research contract between the Office of Naval Research and 
the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, is entitled "Sensory 
consequences of electromagnetic pulses emitted by laser induced plasmas".

It concerns so-called Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs), which fire a laser 
pulse that generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits something 
solid, like a person (New Scientist print edition, 12 October 2002). The 
weapon, destined for use in 2007, could literally knock rioters off their 
feet.


Pain trigger

According to a 2003 review of non-lethal weapons by the US Naval Studies 
Board, which advises the navy and marine corps, PEPs produced "pain and 
temporary paralysis" in tests on animals. This appears to be the result of 
an electromagnetic pulse produced by the expanding plasma which triggers 
impulses in nerve cells.

The new study, which runs until July and will be carried out with 
researchers at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, aims to 
optimise this effect. The idea is to work out how to generate a pulse which 
triggers pain neurons without damaging tissue.

The contract, heavily censored before release, asks researchers to look for 
"optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation" - in other 
words, cause the maximum pain possible. Studies on cells grown in the lab 
will identify how much pain can be inflicted on someone before causing 
injury or death.


Long-term risk

New Scientist contacted two researchers working on the project. Martin 
Richardson, a laser expert at the University of Central Florida, US, 
refused to comment. Brian Cooper, an expert in dental pain at the 
University of Florida, distanced himself from the work, saying "I don't 
have anything interesting to convey. I was just providing some background 
for the group." His name appears on a public list of the university's 
research projects next to the $500,000-plus grant.

John Wood of University College London, UK, an expert in how the brain 
perceives pain, says the researchers involved in the project should face 
censure. "It could be used for torture," he says, "the [researchers] must 
be aware of this."

Amanda Williams, a clinical psychologist at University College London, 
fears that victims risk long-term harm. "Persistent pain can result from a 
range of supposedly non-destructive stimuli which nevertheless change the 
functioning of the nervous system," she says. She is concerned that studies 
of cultured cells will fall short of demonstrating a safe level for a 
plasma burst. "They cannot tell us about the pain and psychological 
consequences of such a painful experience."


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