Cancer – Page 10 – Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors

Profile of patients with chemical injury and sensitivity

Patients reporting sensitivity to multiple chemicals at levels usually tolerated by the healthy population were administered standardised questionnaires to evaluate their symptoms and the exposures that aggravated these symptoms. Many patients were referred for medical tests.

It is thought that patients with chemical sensitivity have organ abnormalities involving the liver, nervous system (brain, including limbic, peripheral, autonomic), immune system, and porphyrin metabolism, probably reflecting chemical injury to these systems. Laboratory results are not consistent with a psychological origin of chemical sensitivity.

Substantial overlap between chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome exists: the latter two conditions often involve chemical sensitivity and may even be the same disorder. Other disorders commonly seen in chemical sensitivity patients include headache (often migraine), chronic fatigue, musculoskeletal aching, chronic respiratory inflammation (rhinitis, sinusitis, laryngitis, asthma), attention deficit, and hyperactivity (affected younger children). Less common disorders include tremor, seizures, and mitral valve prolapse. Patients with these overlapping disorders should be evaluated for chemical sensitivity and excluded from control groups in future research.

Agents whose exposures are associated with symptoms and suspected of causing onset of chemical sensitivity with chronic illness include gasoline, kerosene, natural gas, pesticides (especially chlordane and chlorpyrifos), solvents, new carpet and other renovation materials, adhesives/glues, fiberglass, carbonless copy paper, fabric softener, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, carpet shampoos (lauryl sulfate) and other cleaning agents, isocyanates, combustion products (poorly vented gas heaters, overheated batteries), and medications (dinitrochlorobenzene for warts, intranasally packed neosynephrine, prolonged antibiotics, and general anesthesia with petrochemicals).

Multiple mechanisms of chemical injury that magnify response to exposures in chemically sensitive patients can include neurogenic inflammation (respiratory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary), kindling and time-dependent sensitisation (neurologic), impaired porphyrin metabolism (multiple organs), and immune activation.

Please download the full report from US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health.

Profile of patients with chemical injury and sensitivity.

The other whistleblowers: Looking at the human cost of the #IrishAirCorps chemical scandal

AN AIR CORPS whistle-blower who claims he was exposed to harmful chemicals whilst in the force believes there could be more than 1,000 people affected by what he has described as “a scandal of the highest order”.

In an interview with TheJournal.ie, the man – who we are not naming as he has made a protected disclosure – detailed the trouble he experiences with daily life which he alleges traces back to his exposure to chemicals over a nine-year period at Baldonnel Airfield in west Dublin.

A 2016 inspection by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) identified a number of shortcomings at Baldonnel with corrective actions then taken by the Defence Forces in relation to how it handles such chemicals.

According to the HSA report seen by TheJournal.ie, the Air Corps was warned it could face prosecution if it did not “comply with advice and relevant legal requirements” about how hazardous substances were managed, among other safety matters.

No probe of Irish Army Air Corps chemical exposure

The Government says it has no plans to establish a review to determine if the chronic illnesses suffered by former Air Corps staff were as a result of exposure to chemicals while working at Casement Aerodrome.

This is despite similar studies and investigations in Australia and the Netherlands.

The State is currently facing six legal actions from former Air Corps staff, who claim their chronic illnesses were caused by their working conditions at the military airfield in south-west Dublin.

Meanwhile, an official has been appointed to investigate claims by three whistleblowers, who made a number of allegations around the current health and safety measures within the Air Corps.

Last October, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) issued a report calling on the Air Corps to implement a number of improvements on the management of staff exposure to hazardous chemicals.

However, responding to a question from Sinn Féin defence spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh, junior defence minister Paul Kehoe said the Government did not intend to commission any specific study to investigate whether working conditions at Casement Aerodrome had an adverse effect on workers’ health.

“There are a number of processes already in train relating to reviewing health-and-safety procedures in the Air Corps,” said Mr Kehoe of the review of the whistleblowers’ claims and the Defence Forces’ response to the HSA report.

“In the circumstances and pending the completion of the ongoing processes, I have no plans to commission another review on this matter.”

Irish Army Air Corps: Concerns over scope of review of allegations made by whistleblowers

Concerns have been raised about the scope of the ongoing review of allegations made by Air Corps whistle-blowers. They claimed that staff were unnecessarily exposed to cancer-causing chemicals.

Last month, this newspaper revealed that the Health and Safety Authority threatened legal action against the Air Corps, unless it improved its management of technicians’ exposure to toxic substances.

The report came in October 2016, almost a year after three whistle-blowers made protected disclosures to the Government about Air Corps technicians’ exposure to harmful substances.

The Irish Examiner can now reveal that the independent third party appointed to review the protected disclosures, which were made between November 2015 and January 2016, has met with all three of the whistle-blowers.

Dutch Department of Defence knew about toxic paint risks 25 years ago

Letters obtained from health and safety inspectors and minutes of meetings reveal that the Defence Ministry was aware of the health risks associated with carcinogenic paint since 1987, but did not take steps to protect staff until eleven years later, according to broadcaster NOS.

Nearly two hundred defence employees complained about chromium-6, a toxic substance in the paint and varnish used on tanks and fighter aircraft in a number of workshops. Earlier this month, a historical investigation was launched by the National Institute for Public Health and Environment to investigate all complaints.

Article originally published 2nd October 2014

Dutch Ministry of Defence pays out €2.1 million so far in Ex Gratia Chromium-6 Exposure Compensation Scheme.

So far the Ministry of Defense paid out more than 2.1 million euros to 309 employees and former employees who became ill after working with paint containing carcinogenic substance Chromium-6, a Defense spokesperson confirmed to NU.nl.

The Defense workers in question took advantage of a goodwill scheme the Ministry instituted two years ago for Chromium-6 victims. Employees and former employees who worked with the toxic paint for more than a year and are sick can claim between 3 thousand and 15 thousand from the scheme, without the Ministry of Defense acknowledging guilt for their illness. The compensation scheme will remain in place until public health institute RIVM finished its investigation into the risks and health effects of using Chromium-6.

According to the spokesperson, Defense employees from across the Netherlands applied to the scheme. The Ministry received a total of 719 applications, 255 of which were immediately approved. Another 54 were approved or partly approved after the employee objected.

The compensation scheme shall remain in force until the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) research into the risks and health effects of Chromium-6 has been completed

Dáil Éireann Written Answers 23/02/2017 – Department of Defence – Health and Safety Inspections

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if the Health and Safety Authority inspections of the Air Corps at Casement Aerodrome were by invitation or as a result of complaints, regarding ongoing and long-term health and safety violations, by serving and former personnel. [9393/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am advised by the military authorities that the three inspections conducted by the Health and Safety Authority at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel in 2016 were as a result of a complaint the Authority received in relation to chemical safety in the Air Corps.

The military authorities have further advised that they have no details regarding the source of this complaint.

Toxicant and Disease Database

Please find below a link to a very useful “Toxicant & Disease Database” hosted by the The Collaborative on Health and the Environment in the USA.

Enter a disease and see what evidence there is for known chemical causes. Enter a chemical and see what evidence there is for diseases caused by this chemical.

Human health effects of Trichloroethylene: key findings & scientific issues

BACKGROUND: In support of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a toxicological review of trichloroethylene (TCE) in September 2011, which was the result of an effort spanning > 20 years.

OBJECTIVES: We summarised the key findings and scientific issues regarding the human health effects of TCE in the U.S. EPA’s toxicological review.

METHODS: In this assessment we synthesised and characterised thousands of epidemiologic, experimental animal, and mechanistic studies, and addressed several key scientific issues through modelling of TCE toxicokinetics, meta-analyses of epidemiologic studies, and analyses of mechanistic data.

DISCUSSION: Toxicokinetic modeling aided in characterizing the toxicological role of the complex metabolism and multiple metabolites of TCE. Meta-analyses of the epidemiologic data strongly supported the conclusions that TCE causes kidney cancer in humans and that TCE may also cause liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Mechanistic analyses support a key role for mutagenicity in TCE-induced kidney carcinogenicity. Recent evidence from studies in both humans and experimental animals point to the involvement of TCE exposure in autoimmune disease and hypersensitivity. Recent avian and in vitro mechanistic studies provided biological plausibility that TCE plays a role in developmental cardiac toxicity, the subject of substantial debate due to mixed results from epidemiologic and rodent studies.

CONCLUSIONS: TCE is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure and poses a potential human health hazard for non-cancer toxicity to the central nervous system, kidney, liver, immune system, male reproductive system, and the developing embryo/fetus.

Read full article on US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621199/

Please note that the tower to the left of the hangar is the exhaust stack for the original Trike bath and is as old as the main ERF building (built 1915-1918).

Recent internal reports by the Air Corps suggest that Trike degreasing was only introduced to the Air Corps in the 1980s but this information is clearly incorrect possibly by 50-60 years.

26 victims of RAF cancer: Scots veterans launch legal fight against MoD for years of deadly chemical exposure after cancers ravage their squippers group

Scottish RAF workers are set to launch a multi-million-pound legal fight after being exposed to deadly chemicals which they claim caused cancer.

The Ministry of Defence have been accused of failing to accept responsibility for the horrific illnesses and deaths of 26 former servicemen who were regularly exposed to toxic substances at Scottish air bases.

The airmen and women were part of a specialist branch called “squippers”, who repaired aircrew survival equipment at UK bases including Lossiemouth, Leuchars and Kinloss in the 80s and 90s.

They claim deadly illnesses were caused by daily exposure over years of service to carcinogenic chemicals in poorly ventilated rooms with little or no protective clothing.

Many of the specialist engineers now have various cancers including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, throat cancer and blood cancer.