Page 2 - ATD20MAR2023

A2 UP FRONT
Monday 20 March 2023
Higher cancer rates found in military pilots, ground crews

Continued from Front The Pentagon said the Fighter Pilots Association,
new study was one of the which had lobbied the
The study showed ground largest and most compre- Pentagon and Congress
crews had a 19% higher hensive to date. An earlier for help. Alcazar serves on
rate of brain and nervous study had looked at just the association’s medical
system cancers, a 15% Air Force pilots and had issues committee.
higher rate of thyroid can- found some higher rates The study was required by
cer and a 9% higher rate of cancer, while this one Congress in the 2021 de-
of kidney or renal cancers, looked across all services fense bill. Now, because
while women had a 7% and at both air and ground higher rates were found,
higher rate of breast can- crews. Even with the wider the Pentagon must con-
cer. The overall rate for approach, the Pentagon duct an even bigger re-
cancers of all types was 3% cautioned that the actual view to try to understand
higher. number of cancer cases why the crews are getting
There was some good was likely to be even high- sick.
news reported as well. Both er because of gaps in the Isolating potential causes is
ground and air crews had data, which it said it would difficult, and the Pentagon
far lower rates of lung can- work to remedy. was careful to note that
cer, and air crews also had The study “proves that it’s this study “does not imply
lower rates of bladder and well past time for leaders that military service in air
colon cancers. and policy makers to move crew or ground crew oc-
The data compared the from skepticism to belief cupations causes cancer,
service members with the and active assistance,” because there are multi-
general U.S. population af- said retired Air Force Col. ple potential confounding
ter adjusting for age, sex Vince Alcazar, a member factors that could not be
and race. of the Red River Valley controlled for in this analy-

This image provided by Betty Seaman shows Navy A-6 Intruder
pilot Jim Seaman. Navy Capt. Jim Seaman died of lung cancer
at the age of 61.
Associated Press
sis,” such as family histories, finally seeing in data what
smoking or alcohol use. they have suspected for
But aviation crews have years about the aviation
long asked for the Penta- cancers. But “it has the po-
gon to look closely at some tential to do a lot of good
of the environmental fac- as far as early communica-
tors they are exposed to, tion, early detection,” she
such as jet fuels and sol- said.
vents used to clean and The study found that when
maintain jet parts, sensors crew members were di-
and their power sources in agnosed with cancer,
aircraft nose cones, and they were more likely to
the massive radar systems survive than members of
on the decks of the ships the general population,
they land on. which the study suggested
When Navy Capt. Jim Sea- was because they were
man would come home diagnosed earlier due to
from a deployment aboard regular required medical
an aircraft carrier, his gear checkups and were more
would reek of jet fuel, his likely to be in better health
widow Betty Seaman said. because of their military fit-
The A-6 Intruder pilot died ness requirements.
in 2018 at age 61 of lung The Pentagon acknowl-
cancer. edged that the study had
Betty Seaman still has his gaps that likely led to an
gear stored and it still smells undercount of cancer cas-
of fuel, “which I love,” she es.
said. The military heath system
She and others wonder database used in the study
if there’s a link. She said did not have reliable can-
crews would talk about cer data until 1990, so it
how even the ship’s water may not have included
systems would smell of fuel. pilots who flew early-gen-
She said she and others eration jets in the prior
have mixed feelings about decades.q