Air Force finds carcinogenic PCBs at two missile launch sites in Montana amid cancer cluster

The U.S. Air Force said Monday it had found unsafe levels of a carcinogen in Montana missile launch sites, amid a cluster of cancer cases that had prompted a months-long investigation.

The carcinogens were detected at two underground launch control centers at a Montana nuclear missile base, U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command said.

The review was undertaken in January after a rash of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases were diagnosed among troops assigned to the launch sites. It started with nine cases at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base, and by May more than 30 cases had been identified there and at several other nuclear missile facilities.

Missile Maintenance Squadron technicians connect a re-entry system to a spacer on an intercontinental ballistic missile during a Simulated Electronic Launch-Minuteman near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Mont.

Missile Maintenance Squadron technicians connect a re-entry system to a spacer on an intercontinental ballistic missile during a Simulated Electronic Launch-Minuteman near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Mont. (Senior Airman Daniel Brosam/AP)

The Air Force’s overarching Missile Community Cancer Study initially found that “overall, there were no factors identified that would be considered immediate concerns for acute cancer risks,” the Air Force’s 711th Human Performance Wing said.

On Monday that changed, as Air Force Global Strike Command said the new discovery “is the first from an extensive sampling of active U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile bases to address specific cancer concerns raised by missile community members.”

Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, said cleanup would begin immediately, and promised transparency throughout the process.

“Based on the initial results from the survey team, which discovered PCB levels above the cleanup threshold designated by law in two of our facilities, I directed Twentieth Air Force to take immediate measures to begin the cleanup process for the affected facilities and mitigate exposure by our Airmen and Guardians to potentially hazardous conditions,” Bussiere said in a statement. “These measures will stay in place until I am satisfied that we are providing our missile community with a safe and clean work environment.”

Two launch facilities at Malmstrom showed PCB levels higher than what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems harmful. Results are pending for several other bases.

PCBs, short for polychlorinated biphenyls, are manmade organic chemicals comprised of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms, according to the EPA. Their consistency is oily, a waxy solid, and anything in between. The compounds were made in the U.S. from 1929 until they were banned in 1979, but not before they made their way into hundreds of industrial and commercial products.
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