The Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors (ACCAS) group was deeply saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Professor Anthony Staines.
Professor Staines was one of the few health professionals in Ireland who was prepared to listen to the concerns of former Air Corps personnel and to lend his professional expertise to the investigation of the health consequences of chemical exposure at Baldonnel.
Importantly, Professor Staines did not simply accept or repeat the concerns raised by ACCAS. In 2021, he undertook his own epidemiological analysis of the mortality information that had been gathered by the group. He compared the deaths recorded among former Air Corps personnel with mortality data from the Central Statistics Office and considered factors such as age and sex.
His conclusion was carefully expressed. He stated that, given that Air Corps personnel were generally in excellent health when recruited and that there had been substantial turnover as new apprentices were recruited, it was “likely but not certain” that the death rate recorded was excessively high.
Professor Staines did not claim that this analysis, on its own, proved the cause of the excess mortality. Instead, he recommended precisely what ACCAS had been calling for: a proper occupational cohort study comparing the health and survival of aircraft technicians with appropriate comparison groups. He pointed to similar studies carried out among aircraft maintenance personnel in Australia and the Netherlands.
There was, however, one fundamental obstacle to taking this work forward. As Professor Staines noted in his report:
“To do this, the co-operation of the Air Corps will be needed.”
That cooperation has never materialised in the manner required and indeed an offer by Professor Staines to assist with undertaking an investigation were rebuffed by the Air Corps.
ACCAS therefore remembers Professor Staines with gratitude, but his passing also serves as a painful reminder of a question that remains unanswered.
For years, ACCAS has been asking the State to properly investigate the premature deaths and serious illnesses experienced by former Air Corps personnel. Professor Staines, an experienced epidemiologist and public-health doctor, independently examined the information available to him and recommended that the matter be subjected to the kind of rigorous occupational study routinely undertaken in other countries.
Instead of following that recommendation, successive Governments have allowed the issue to remain unresolved. This failure cannot be attributed to a lack of warning. The warning was given. The expertise was available. A clear pathway for investigation was identified. What has been missing is the political will to follow it.
ACCAS therefore calls on the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Defence and the Defence Forces to finally acknowledge the legitimacy of the questions raised by Professor Staines and to ensure that the proper epidemiological investigation he recommended is undertaken.
Professor Staines did what a public-health professional should do: he examined the evidence, acknowledged its limitations, avoided making claims that the data could not support, and identified the appropriate next step. It is now for the State to do what it should have done years ago and follow the evidence.
We extend our sincere condolences to Professor Staines’s family, friends, colleagues and all those who knew and worked with him.
We in ACCAS will remember him not only as a distinguished public-health professional, but as one of the few people who was prepared to look seriously at the evidence presented by former Air Corps personnel and say this deserves to be properly investigated.
May he rest in peace.
https://www.dcu.ie/science-and-health/news/2026/aug/death-professor-anthony-staines
