Higher cancer rates found in U.S. military pilots, ground crews – CTV
March 19, 2023
WASHINGTON – A Pentagon study has found high rates of cancer among U.S. 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 per cent higher rate of melanoma and a 39 per cent higher rate of thyroid cancer, while men had a 16 per cent higher rate of prostate cancer and women a 16 per cent higher rate of breast cancer. Overall, the air crews had a 24 per cent higher rate of cancer of all types.
