This is just chilling to know that it happened in America. I had a strong emotional reaction to this. Like many on this thread, I wondered about who the “volunteers” were for this horrific, Nazi-like experiment. Prayers for the victims.
One thing that I'd like to point out to everyone on this thread, is that what happened in Germany in the 30s and 40s is not an abberation. The people around who will assist in this kind of evil are all around you. Think about how many people had to participate to carry this out, the carpenters, nurses, technicians, doctors and bureaucrats... We're never as far away from this kind of thing as most people would assume.
The study being conducted was vetted and approved by an independent review board. No study with human subjects can be conducted without that review. The people participating in the study were "consented" beforehand--that is, they were counseled on the purpose and potential risks of the study, and had to sign consent forms indicating that they understand the risks before they were allowed to participate. The risks of this study actually were quite low; this woman's medical problem was minor and resolved within a couple of hours by itself. It's possible that the problem wouldn't even have been noticed had she not been continuously monitored during the test.
It's obvious to me that Steve Milloy's motivation is purely political here, and meant to strike a blow against the EPA. If he were really concerned about the safety of medical research, he could just start picking victims out of adverse event registries and suing on their behalf. People volunteer for studies all the time in which they can be seriously injured or even die; there is no perfectly safe medical study. The purpose of the IRB is to make sure that the risk to patients is outweighed by the potential benefit of the study.
BTW, you are perfectly welcome to volunteer to serve on an IRB. They always have a citizen member to help oversee the process.