Judging by history, and more recently, various governments using the population as lab rabs, it would be naive to believe this practice has ceased.

Furthermore, there is a petition circulating around, as to why the UK government has sealed documents relating to ME/CFS, not to be made available to the public until 2072. See this petition:


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/264/--if-gte-mso-9xml-wworddocument-wviewnormalwview-wzoom0wzoom-wpunctuationkerning/

See this article in The Observer:

Millions were in germ war tests

Much of Britain was exposed to bacteria sprayed in secret trials

* The Observer, Sunday 21 April 2002 10.23 BST
* Article history

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public.

A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.

Many of these tests involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swaths of the population without the public being told.

While details of some secret trials have emerged in recent years, the 60-page report reveals new information about more than 100 covert experiments.

The report reveals that military personnel were briefed to tell any 'inquisitive inquirer' the trials were part of research projects into weather and air pollution.

The tests, carried out by government scientists at Porton Down, were designed to help the MoD assess Britain's vulnerability if the Russians were to have released clouds of deadly germs over the country.

In most cases, the trials did not use biological weapons but alternatives which scientists believed would mimic germ warfare and which the MoD claimed were harmless. But families in certain areas of the country who have children with birth defects are demanding a public inquiry.

Cont/...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2002/apr/21/uk.medicalscience