Untimely* deaths of serving & former Irish Air Corps personnel
- 104 verified deaths have occurred in total since 1980
- 91 of these deaths have occurred since 2000
- 66 of these deaths have occurred since 2010
Either the rate of death is accelerating or we are missing many deaths from previous decades or possibly both.
3 most significant causes of death
- 41% of deaths are from cancer
- 5% of deaths are specifically pancreatic cancer
- 30% of deaths are from cardiac issues
- 6% of deaths are specifically cardiomyopathy related
- 14% of deaths are from suicide (at least 15 suicides)
*We record untimely as dying at or before age 66 (civilian pension age), average age of death is 53 years. We are counting deaths from medical reasons & suicide, we are not counting accidental deaths nor murder.
We are not stating that every single death is directly due to chemical exposure but many personnel who did not handle chemicals directly were unknowingly exposed due to close proximity to contaminated work locations.