Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Defence Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has today reiterated his call for the Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe to establish a formal investigation into the health effects of years of exposure to toxic chemicals on Irish Air Corps personnel
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of current and former members of the Irish Air Corps (both civilian & military) were exposed to a vast cocktail of highly dangerous workplace chemicals including carcinogens, mutagens, reproductive toxicants and immune sensitisers.
Teachta Ó Snodaigh said;
“The failure of the Air Corps management to implement even the most basic chemical safety provisions possibly resulted in considerable physical and mental health injury to exposed personnel.
“The exposure to toxic chemicals for decades appears from figures collated by former Air Corps personnel to have contributed to a very high number of fatalities from a variety of rare and complex cancers, cardiovascular disease and suicides, and also high rates of miscarriage of partners.
“For 20 years, military authorities ignored recommendations from safety reports and only acted when their failure to act was highlighted by whistleblowers.
Read full press release on Sinn Féin website below…
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Please view the honourable & fair demands of
Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors here.
- 77 verified deaths have occurred in total since 1980
- 64 of these deaths have occurred since 2000
- 40 of these deaths have occurred since 2010
- 25 of these deaths have occured since the Minister for Defence was notified by Protected Disclosure in 2015
3 most significant causes of death
- Approximately a third of deaths are from cancer
- Approximately a third of deaths are cardiac related
- Approximately a fifth of deaths are from suicide (15)