The Advertiser first reported in detail on the biological tests in a 1984 story that cited declassified documents.

The material was supposed to be harmless, but the government has acknowledged that people with weakened immune systems could have become sick.

The Defense Department also said that deadly chemical agents, including the nerve agents sarin and VX, were used in tests in Hawai'i but insisted no civilians were exposed.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawai'i, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the government should have made the information public sooner.

"Today's disclosures raise serious concerns about the possible health consequences for veterans and civilians who may have been put at risk by these tests and the subsequent decontamination procedures," Akaka said.

The Deseret Test Center in Fort Douglas, Utah, conducted numerous biological and chemical experiments in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and the United Kingdom in the 1960s and early 1970s. At the time, the government was concerned about a threat from the Soviet Union and wanted to evaluate its own burgeoning weapons program.

Project 112, as the biological and chemical review was called, involved experiments at sea and on land with about 5,500 military personnel. Initial information about the tests was first released to the U.S. Senate in 1977, and further details were released publicly in September 2001 and in January and May.

The government is in the process of notifying veterans about the tests, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will study whether any veterans have suffered related illnesses. More than 50 veterans who served at sea already have applied for government medical assistance.

William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said there is no formal process to contact civilians who may have been exposed. Winkenwerder said that most of the potential civilian exposures occurred on O'ahu and that while local officials may have been notified of the experiments, residents were most likely not informed.

"I would presume that they were not aware," he said.

The Defense Department provided background on a handful of sea and land-based tests in or near Hawai'i.

Winkenwerder said the tests were designed to measure biological and chemical warfare agents on land and aboard ships, not on military personnel or civilians.

Military health officials briefed the House Veterans' Affairs Committee today and will brief the Senate Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on personnel tomorrow.

"I expect to receive answers to the many questions I have about the dispersal of chemical and biological agents in the islands,'' Akaka said.

In an experiment known as "Big Tom," the government sprayed bacillus globigii on O'ahu and surrounding waters in May and June 1965 to test its spread in jungle and tropical terrain. The bacterium, intended to imitate a biological agent, is not considered dangerous to healthy people but could cause acute infections of the ear, brain lining, urinary tract, lung, heart valve and blood stream among those with weakened immune systems.

In "Green Mist," the government released sarin over Hawai'i in March and April 1967 to determine its spread in a rain-forest canopy. In "Pine Ridge," the government released sarin and ester of benzillic acid, which causes confusion and hallucinations, in the upper Waiakea Forest Reserve and the 'Ola'a Forest Preserve southwest of Hilo in May and June 1966.