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At least 180 [Sea King, et al] aircrew pursuing Ministry of Defence after cancer diagnoses
bbc ^ | 07/01/2025 | Nicola Bryan

Posted on 07/01/2025 9:58:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin

At least 180 current and former armed forces aircrew with cancer they claim was caused by exposure to toxic fumes in helicopters are pursuing the Ministry of Defence for compensation.

RAF flight sergeant Zach Stubbings, who died aged 47 in January, is one of at least six people who have received an out-of-court settlement from the MoD although the MoD has not admitted liability.

A group that represents veterans has urged the MoD to take swift action to protect those still serving and also raise awareness among former servicemen and women.

The MoD said it believed engine exhaust emissions were of no risk to health but it was conducting monitoring to demonstrate this.

...

Hugh James solicitors told the BBC it was pursuing claims relating to four military aircraft - the Sea King, the Westland Wessex, the Puma and the CH-47 Chinook.

The Sea King was used in British military operations between 1969 and 2018 and has in the past been flown by both King Charles and the Prince of Wales.

The Westland Wessex was retired in 2003 while the Puma and the CH-47 Chinook are both still in use.

Diseases contracted by some of the crew who flew the helicopters include lung cancer, throat cancer, testicular cancer and some rare forms of blood cancer.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: ch47chinook; puma; seaking; westlandwessex

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1 posted on 07/01/2025 9:58:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Jet fuel must contain aromatics due to their importance in freeze point and seal swelling ability....aromatics such as benzene, toluene, xylene aka BTX are known to be hideously carcinogenic for humans. This is the reason it has been removed from gasoline and kerosene only JP8, and JETA still have it by design.

Anyone who has ever flown on a 47 or King can attest to the eye watering fumes that the turbines spew directly into the rotorwaah which gets pushed down into the cabin at hover and low and slow ops. You either have smelled it or not, it’s like the NYC subway it’s a singular smell. Same smell as the flight deck of an LPD or LPH in the fleet.


2 posted on 07/01/2025 10:13:31 PM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: BenLurkin

Asbestos was used in electronics. That would certainly explain any lung conditions.


3 posted on 07/01/2025 10:17:19 PM PDT by Jonty30 (He was so fat that it took a year for his memory foam mattress to forget him. )
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To: Jonty30

Can you name the four main types of asbestos, their applications, and their level of toxicity?

Then, can you explain exactly where in electronics these materials would be applied?

This is about EXHAUST FUMES. Something tells me you’ve not been in many military helos if you think this is in any way asbestos related, FRiend.


4 posted on 07/01/2025 10:24:19 PM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn)
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To: Don W

You are correct that I have never been in a military helicopter. However, I am also correct in that asbestos was used in the electronics of military aircraft, in times past.

https://mesotheliomahelp.center/military-aircraft-asbestos-exposure/


5 posted on 07/01/2025 10:44:30 PM PDT by Jonty30 (He was so fat that it took a year for his memory foam mattress to forget him. )
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To: Don W

Yup, you either know the smell of half burnt JP5 or you don’t. It’s like the NYC subway it’s a singular smell not duplicated.

All jet fuels by necessity have aromatics in them at 25% or more depending on flash point limits. Aromatics are wicked carcinogenic. My grand father was a B52 guy he died of lung cancer from jet fuel exposure my grand mother was compensated for 20+ years before she passed.


6 posted on 07/02/2025 1:00:56 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: GenXPolymath

Not all aromatic compounds are carcinogens. Benzene has been shown to damage bone marrow cells in the lab, but toluene and xylene are not known to be carcinogenic.

Care to use a little less hyperbole?


7 posted on 07/02/2025 2:13:16 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Jonty30

To be clear, your post is a site run by lawyers cashing in on asbestos.


8 posted on 07/02/2025 3:07:14 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Kamala defines herself in just 4 words..."Nothing comes to mind.")
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To: Fresh Wind

I can find others. Asbestos is a good electrical insulator.


9 posted on 07/02/2025 3:34:09 AM PDT by Jonty30 (He was so fat that it took a year for his memory foam mattress to forget him. )
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To: BenLurkin

Everything just sucks about this. Everyone knew the fumes no officers did anything about it.

No one will test. Testing after the fact helps little.

Soldiers cannot complain, officers cannot complain. Design engineers cannot correct for non-lethality improvements, though vost overruns plague everything else.

The money these soldiers need now should have been spent while they were gagging, not a decade or two later while trying to breath on a ventillator at 100x the cost and 3,000,000x the misery.

So spend it now on them. They earned it. Immigrants haven’t earned ANYTHING yet.

Pay for these guys first in the budget. Then fund domestic violence studies of alcholic lesbians immediately afterward, of course.


10 posted on 07/02/2025 4:43:13 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: BenLurkin

My brother in laws brother was a P3 pilot and P3 instructor in the Navy. Never smoked a day in his life. Got some really weird lung cancer in his mid forties. The results from the Mayo clinic lab said “A cancer of unknown origin”.


11 posted on 07/02/2025 6:34:49 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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