WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
The data had long been sought by retired military aviators who have raised alarms for years about the number of air and ground crew members they knew who had cancer. They were told that earlier military studies had found they were not at greater risk than the general U.S. population.
In its yearlong study of almost 900,000 service members who flew on or worked on military aircraft between 1992 and 2017, the Pentagon found that air crew members had an 87% higher rate of melanoma and a 39% higher rate of thyroid cancer, while men had a 16% higher rate of prostate cancer and women a 16% higher rate of breast cancer. Overall, the air crews had a 24% higher rate of cancer of all types.
According to the study, 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.
Women were found to have a 7% higher rate of breast cancer.
Overall, the rate for cancers of all types was 3% higher.
In its yearlong study of almost 900,000 service members who flew on or worked on military aircraft between 1992 and 2017, the Pentagon found that air crew members had an 87% higher rate of melanoma and a 39% higher rate of thyroid cancer.https://t.co/6KcRFt5lPc
— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) March 19, 2023
To get more information about this article, please visit APNEWS.COM. To weigh in, leave a comment below.
The post REPORT: Higher cancer rates found in military pilots, ground crews appeared first on Dennis Michael Lynch.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Katrina Lusteck
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://dennismichaellynch.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
