The Air Force is looking into a possible link between cancer and missile crew duty
“Missileers are very proud of what we’ve done to serve our nation … so let’s get it right and be able to do this mission safely going forward.”
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED JAN 24, 2023 12:45 PM
The Air Force is looking into a possible association between cancer and missile combat crew member service at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana after a Space Force lieutenant colonel discovered that some former Malmstrom missileers developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) after serving at the base between the late 1990s and the late 2000s.
About 1 in 80 missileers who served at Malmstrom between 2004 and 2007 developed NHL, said Space Force Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck, himself a former missileer diagnosed with NHL, in a briefing he made on the issue for Air Force and Space Force leaders that was shared on the popular Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page on Saturday.
The 1-in-80 rate is much higher than the general population incidence rate of 1 for every 9,091 people, according to a figure Sebeck said came from the New York Health Department. Although Task & Purpose could not verify the New York Health Department estimate, the National Institutes of Health found that the rate of new cases of NHL was 19 per 100,000 men and women per year.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-minuteman-missile-duty-cancer-risk/
