Airmen who watched over America’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cold War-era facilities faced marginally higher risk of cancer due to contaminants found there and more workplace oversight is needed, according to the latest findings of an Air Force health study.
Air Force Global Strike Command, during a town hall event Wednesday, released the latest data showing the slightly elevated cancer risk as part of its ongoing probe into health concerns for America’s missileers, maintainers and other support roles at several bases in the Midwest and Western U.S.
The lifetime cancer risk for all Americans is around 39%, and the Air Force’s Health Risk Assessment found rates of 39.9% to 40.13% for men and women if they would have served anywhere from eight to 70 years in those jobs. Service officials said consistent workplace inspections and monitoring would likely be necessary to address the risks, which are caused by the presence of chemicals and toxins.
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Contaminants linked to cancer were found during a series of environmental studies at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.
“In summary, this health risk assessment characterizes the health risk as low but not zero,” Col. Ric Speakman, the commander of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, said during the town hall presentation. “Therefore, the appropriate action is to include missile alert facility workers in an occupational surveillance.”
Air Force Global Strike Command is still in the process of an ongoing epidemiological study and is gathering more data from states as well as national cancer registries before more definitive cancer and health conclusions can be made.
Last year, Military.com reported in an investigative series that past probes by the Air Force into cancer concerns roughly two decades ago went ignored, and past and current missileers and nuclear missile maintainers raised alarms about the environmental conditions, toxins and chemical dangers they faced while in uniform. They believe the conditions made them sick.
In the wake of Military.com’s reporting, the service announced changes that included new workplace inspections and health record tracking, and the spouse of a missileer who died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma was able to secure Department of Veterans Affairs benefits related to his death.
While polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were one of the known outlawed carcinogenes that the Air Force’s remediation efforts focused on, research shown during Wednesday’s town hall showed there were other toxins detected as well that were factored into the service’s health risk assessment.
“Although only PCBs were detected at levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for cleanup and remediation, the environmental sampling was sensitive enough to detect chemicals such as benzene and chloroform at levels well below standards for remediation,” a Thursday news release from Air Force Global Strike Command following the town hall said.
The Torchlight Initiative, a grassroots organization that began shortly after a Space Force officer and former Air Force missileer raised concerns about non-Hodgkin lymphoma rates at Malmstrom, released its own independent study in April examining the rates of blood cancer reported in its online health registry.
That study found that service members were diagnosed at younger ages compared to the wider population.
Air Force Global Strike Command officials briefly mentioned that study at the town hall, stating that, “while this study is separate from the missile community cancer study, it does add to the work advocacy and the well-being of the missile community.”
Representatives from the Torchlight Initiative were on Capitol Hill in early April alongside other advocacy groups, and made a plea to lawmakers in hopes of expanding the PACT Act — a 2022 law that mostly covered veterans sickened by toxic exposure in war zones — to cover those who experienced health issues stateside as well.
“The Torchlight Initiative is happy to hear that Global Strike and U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine are still working on their long-term study and research,” the organization said in a statement to Military.com on Thursday. “However, our focus and energy remains with the families who are disproportionately affected by these cancers and illnesses.”
The remaining data in the ongoing health study is slated to be released in late 2025. Gen. Thomas Bussiere, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said during the town hall he would advocate for a registry, if the VA also supported such a move, based on the study’s findings.
“The level of interest and oversight with the Department of the Air Force and Congress has not waned, and I’m very thankful and happy with the interest and actions on the part of the VA,” Bussiere said in a news release after the town hall. “They’ve been great partners, and I anticipate they will continue to be great partners.”
Related: Independent Study Raises Alarm About Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma at Malmstrom Air Force Base