An information resource for serving & former members of the Irish Army Air Corps suffering illness due to unprotected toxic chemical exposure in the workplace.
The State’s response to decade-old Air Corps chemical exposure scandal is clearly one of ‘deny, delay, die’
Gavin Tobin beside Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel Co. Dublin. it has been over a decade since he, one of the whistle-blowers, first took legal action against the State Photo: Gareth Chaney
I have a personal yardstick by which to measure how long it has been since the Irish Examiner broke news of the scandal of the chemical exposures suffered by Air Corps personnel.
I will always know my first story on this was published in January 2017.
I remember because a couple of weeks or so after a series of revelations in this newspaper, I was coming out of a maternity ward buzzing from the high of becoming a father for the first time.
Leaving the hospital, I checked my voicemail, assuming the missed call from a private number was a well-wisher leaving a quick note of congratulations.
The curt tone that greeted me made it apparent this was not the case. Instead, a senior member of the government of the day was letting me know, in a very diplomatic “I’m not angry, just disappointed” manner, what he thought of our coverage of the Air Corps scandal.
For obvious reasons I can’t recall verbatim a voicemail from over nine years ago, but the word that stood out then and still does now was “unfair”.
We had revealed that Air Corps personnel were not properly protected from the dangerous, carcinogenic, chemicals with which they worked in Casement Aerodrome.
We highlighted how whistle-blowers raising the alarm felt they were not being heard by the Defence Forces, the State, or senior politicians.
After public pronouncements from one minister to say they were not aware of any issues whistle-blowers had with contacting them, we published a series of messages between whistle-blowers and politicians that showed they had unsuccessfully tried to speak with the cabinet member on the matter.
State can act swiftly in certain matters
When RTÉ broke the Women of Honour story in 2021, detailing abuse suffered by female members of the Defence Forces, an official investigation and tribunal of inquiry swiftly followed.
The Air Corps allegations were added to the terms of reference of this tribunal — but jaded campaigners understandably believe they were only thrown in as an afterthought, benefitting from the larger outcry over a different scandal.
Even then, the tribunal is tasked with probing the handling of complaints about toxic exposure, not the exposure itself.
What is most unforgiveable about the State’s inaction on this issue is that a blueprint was there for them to follow.
The Australian Air Force had similar complaints from its mechanics, and established investigations, health screening, and supports for those affected.
“A precedent has been set by Australia where, in the early 2000s, the issue was identified and acted on by the Australian government,” Micheál Martin told the Dáil in 2017.
“Why was the State so slow to respond to the whistle-blowers and to investigate the health conditions at Baldonnel?” the man who is now Taoiseach asked.
Read full article by Joe Leogue at the Irish Examiner website below.
Years of exposure to toxic chemicals while serving in the Air Corps have left Mick Murphy practically bed-ridden.
After serving in the army and then the air corps before distinguished service in the gardaí, Mick Murphy has much to be proud of.
As well as a successful battle against cancer in his 20s, the 53-year-old also brims with pride when he thinks about his three daughters and his son.
But there is also sadness. Years of exposure to toxic chemicals while serving in the air corps have taken their toll. They have left him practically bed-ridden amid decades of constantly battling one illness after the other.
When Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, then in opposition, labelled the air corps toxic chemical exposure scandal a “horror story” in the Dáil in 2017, Mr Murphy knew exactly what he was talking about.
The previous year, there were only two months when he wasn’t in a hospital. Then, that December, he got hit by double pneumonia and pulmonary sepsis. As a result, he now has to use a nebuliser four times a day as well as an inhaler. He had to have an oxygen-compression machine fitted in his bedroom and oxygen tanks installed downstairs.
Mr Murphy’s horror story began just a few years after he completed his Leaving Certificate in 1989.
About four years after he started in the air corps, he started getting tired more often and experienced chest pain, night sweats, and a persistent cough.
A year after daughter Aoife was born, he got news he didn’t expect: He had the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was only 23.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I was just floored by the news. I was never told any cause for my cancer and I suppose I just thought I had been a bit unlucky in life. It was only later in life that I heard about friends I had served with either died or ended up being really sick.
Unbeknown to him at the time, the disease is one of the cancers linked to exposure to certain industrial chemical solvents like TCE.
Other consequences of exposure to toxic chemicals include an increased risk of developing depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders.
There was no history of cancer in his family so the diagnosis came as a massive shock.
Read full article by Neil Michael at the Irish Examiner website below.
Dangers in the Air – Part 1: Documents show Keesler workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Some maintenance workers at the 403rd Air Wing at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi said they have become seriously ill from exposure to hazardous materials because of poor safety practices. The workers, and documents from Keesler, indicate base management was aware of the problems as far back as 2009, and either ignored them or was hampered by military bureaucracy to solve them quickly.
Larry McDonald, left, Joshua Powell, center, and Sean Delcambre all worked for the 403rd Maintenance Wing at Keesler Air Force Base. They are among at least six workers that have fallen ill because of what they believe is workplace exposure to hexavalent chromium.
WLOX News Now spoke to six of these employees; three didn’t want their names used for fear of retribution from superiors at the 403rd. One of the employees said he was threatened with demotion if his complaints continued. Instead of backing down, he and others filed requests for a Congressional Investigation through Sen. Roger Wicker’s office.
Workers said they turned to the senator and a veterans’ organisation for help after they felt their problems were being ignored.
“It just kind of feels like they’re waiting for us to die to make it go away,” said Joshua Powell, one of the affected workers.
One of the workers, Sean Delcambre, died on Aug. 5 after his cancer spread so fast, doctors could not stop it.
SAFETY HAZARDS
Larry McDonald of Gulfport, like many of the maintenance workers at the 403rd, is both a full-time civilian employee and a member of the unit as a reservist. McDonald, 40, has been stationed at Keesler since 2010, working as a sheet metal mechanic in a cluster of buildings that documents show have been plagued with safety hazards in violation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA), Department of Defense and Air Force rules. Those violations are detailed in a series of base Work Request forms filed since 2009, and reports filed by the base’s Bioenvironmental and Occupational Health departments and the 81st Medical Group.
The documents show workers in these buildings are exposed to hexavalent chromium, lead, strontium chromate, and methylene chloride, all dangerous substances. Some are known carcinogens.
Hexavalent chromium is the highly toxic chemical that was at the center of environmental controversy depicted in the 2000 movie Erin Brockovich, featuring Julia Roberts.
HEALTH ISSUES
McDonald said he began to have health issues in 2012. By 2014, those symptoms became much worse, and a doctor told him he had several masses in his sinuses and a deviated septum.
The OSHA fact sheet on hexavalent chromium states that “repeated or prolonged exposure can damage the mucus membranes of the nasal passages and result in ulcers. In severe cases, exposure causes perforation of the septum.”
At least one of McDonald’s coworkers we talked with has similar symptoms.
The exposure to the chemicals happens when workers sand paint off of C-130Js and airplane parts and repaint them. 1,500 people work for the 403rd, including 450 in the Maintenance Group.
OSHA rules define what safety equipment must be worn and what levels of exposure are acceptable.
“TURNED THEIR BACK”
Another worker who has become sick said the unit “turned their back” on members of the 403rd.
Joshua Powell was transferred to the 403rd in June 2015 from Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. Powell worked in the ISO hangar, away from the buildings where McDonald worked. However, Powell said he had to go to that cluster of buildings on a regular basis and ate in the break room there.
Sean Delcambre’s brother, Michael, helps him drink water at USA Mitchell Cancer Institute in Mobile on June 18, 2019. Delcambre died on Aug. 5. (Source: Amy Delcambre)
Sean Delcambre, who also worked in building 4301, was diagnosed with stage 3-B Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December 2018. In June, he was diagnosed with 30-CD positive anaplastic lymphoma. Delcambre died in August.
Delcambre, who joined the Air Force on 2005, said in April that he never had any reason to think that proper safety procedures were not being followed. Years later, he started to hear about exposure issues at other bases. Then his son was stillborn in December 2014.
Delcambre had passed all the physicals to become a pilot or navigator, but cancer put that dream on hold.
“It certainly was a shock to have a disease (ulcerative colitis in 2016) come up like that at 31 years old, and a year later get sick again and to find out I had cancer at 33. Before that I was otherwise healthy,” he said.
ABOVE THE LIMITS
Records of a September 2015 inspection show airborne levels of hexavalent chromium in Building 4301 were almost three times above Occupational Environmental Exposure Limits.
Those levels could have existed for at least four years, McDonald said, because sanding and priming were being done in open areas of the complex or just inside open bay doors with little or no containment of materials. That practice was cited in the October 2015 reports that described toxic dust escaping into other parts of building 4301, including the break room where workers gathered for lunch.
Keesler documents show that in September 2009 until at least June 2012, the walk-in blast booth, Building 4302, could not be used because of electrical problems, moving the work into open areas of the complex.
The 403rd Maintenance Wing complex at Keesler Air Force Base. Workers there say they were exposed to hexavalent chromium when sanding and painting was done outside the paint booth, located inside building 4301.
The 403rd Maintenance Wing complex at Keesler Air Force Base. Workers there say they were exposed to hexavalent chromium when sanding and painting was done outside the paint booth, located inside building 4301. (Source: Google Earth)
Powell and McDonald said supervisors didn’t follow the proper OSHA and Air Force procedures after that 2015 inspection, which include giving exposed workers medical exams to test for contamination. OSHA regulation states “The employer shall make medical surveillance available at no cost to the employee, and at a reasonable time and place, for all employees… whenever an employee shows signs or symptoms of the adverse health effects associated with (hexavalent) chromium VI exposure.”
OSHA rules also say that workers exposed to hexavalent chromium should be given an medical evaluation within 30 days of initial assignment. That test would create a baseline for future health tests. Delcambre, Powell and McDonald said that was never done.
A response from Keesler in July stated that they began blood tests on workers exposed to the chemical in December 2017, but exposure levels at the maintenance facility have never required additional testing.
Read full article and watch videos on WLOX website
We have just added some links to information on the constituent chemicals for Mastinox 6856k from PubChem the Open Chemistry Database. Please have a look at green links on our chemical info page here. We will add more on a regular basis.
Mastinox 6856k is a corrosion inhibitor and contains the following
