Military Minute 14 Mar 24

I’m Papa Penguin and this is your Military Minute.

The Air Force is once again looking at the missileer and missileer adjacent communities for cancer.

They are evaluating DoD medical records for 84,000 airmen but have not looked at the VA or private medical records. Why would anyone want a complete data set when conducting research?

The service says it has started clean up of a number of facilities that tested positive for PCBs and that clean up is ongoing.

I know there are at least of couple of you missileers that listen, so this piece of information is for you:

Go check out the EPAs guidance on cleaning PCB spills. The link is in the description.
Verify the cleaning method they are using matches the EPA guidance.
Random sampling patterns can tell you if they are gaming the system. If they’re avoiding known areas of contamination, that’s a big indicator.
Lastly, make sure you get this exposure in recorded in your medical record. If you can get that exposure on command letterhead so much the better.

Good luck Airmen. Let’s hope the brass does the right thing here. .

EPA PCB guidance
https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/policy-guidance-manuals-cleanups-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs-spills

https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/policy-and-guidance-polychlorinated-biphenyl

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/03/13/air-force-finds-elevated-cancer-rates-initial-results-of-study-looking-health-risks-missile-bases.html