High lung cancer rates in naval veterans linked to asbestos
A University of ÑÇÖÞÉ«°É and Oxford University study has discovered asbestos exposure led to a higher incidence of asbestos-related lung cancers in British and Australian naval personnel than in other armed forces.
HMAS Culgoa, which acted as a weather ship for the first British nuclear test, at Newcastle, New South Wales on 23 April 1951. Image courtesy Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners Advocate and National Library Australia.
The data were collected from 30,085 United Kingdom and Australian personnel who served in the ’50s and ’60s, a time when asbestos-containing materials were present in British and Australian naval vessels.