WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The Air Force's review of cancers among its nuclear missile corps will include all personnel who worked on, guarded, supported or operated the nation鈥檚 ground-based warheads, Air Force Global Strike Command announced Wednesday.
Nine officers who had worked as missileers 鈥 the airmen who launch the warheads from underground silos and control centers 鈥 at Montana鈥檚 were diagnosed with with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck of reported last month in a briefing obtained by The Associated Press.
Since that briefing, more missileers and missile support crew have come forward to the AP and other media outlets to report they, too, have been diagnosed with either or other types of cancers.
The Air Force review will extend beyond Malmstrom to include in Wyoming and in North Dakota. Together the three bases operate 450 silos that house the nation鈥檚 arsenal of ground-based nuclear warheads carried by intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Malmstrom was one of the sensitive military locations over which a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it transited the United States earlier this month.
The 鈥淢issile Community Cancer Study,鈥 to be conducted by the , will look at all ICBM wings and all Air Force personnel who support the ICBM mission. It will review environmental factors at the missile bases and silos, and examine 鈥渢he possibility of clusters of non-Hodgkin鈥檚 lymphoma鈥 among missileers and those who maintained, guarded and supported the bases, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, said in a statement.
The review will look at active-duty medical data and the Department of Veterans Affairs' cancer registry data, mortality data and public cancer registries. Col. Lee Williams, the command's surgeon general, said there was not yet a timeline for the study.
The Air Force has also established a to address the missileer community concerns.
