A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among military pilots and for the first time has shown that ground crews who fuel, maintain and launch those aircraft are also getting sick. (Via AP)
This image provided by Betty Seaman shows Navy A-6 Intruder pilot Jim Seaman. Navy Capt. Jim Seaman died of lung cancer at the age of 61. His widow Betty Seaman has been part of a large group of aviators and their surviving spouses who have lobbied Congress and the Pentagon for years to look into the number of cancers aviators and ground crew face. In a new study the Pentagon has found alarmingly higher rates of cancer among aviators than in the U.S.
The study showed ground crews had a 19% higher rate of brain and nervous system cancers, a 15% higher rate of thyroid cancer and a 9% higher rate of kidney or renal cancers, while women had a 7% higher rate of breast cancer. The overall rate for cancers of all types was 3% higher. The Pentagon said the new study was one of the largest and most comprehensive to date. An earlier study had looked at just Air Force pilots and had found some higher rates of cancer, while this one looked across all services and at both air and ground crews. Even with the wider approach, the Pentagon cautioned that the actual number of cancer cases was likely to be even higher because of gaps in the data, which it said it would work to remedy.
But aviation crews have long asked for the Pentagon to look closely at some of the environmental factors they are exposed to, such as jet fuels and solvents used to clean and maintain jet parts, sensors and their power sources in aircraft nose cones, and the massive radar systems on the decks of the ships they land on.
She said she and others have mixed feelings about finally seeing in data what they have suspected for years about the aviation cancers. But “it has the potential to do a lot of good as far as early communication, early detection,” she said. “It is important to note that study results may have differed had additional older former service members been included,” it said.
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