More than 100 engineers were left with life-long health issues due to the potent solvents
Scores of cancer-stricken RAF veterans who were exposed to a “toxic soup” of chemicals at Scots airbases are being denied justice, it was claimed yesterday.
"People are telling me their claims have been so drawn out over many years that the anticipation is that they will either die or give up before the claim is finished. That is the general consensus throughout the veteran community I deal with.” The teams used trichloroethylene – known as trike – which as well as causing cancer is linked to a sixfold increase in Parkinson’s in individuals exposed to it in the workplace. They also handled toluene – so toxic it is banned in glue and spray paint at concentrations above 0.1 per cent. Sustained exposure can lead to coma and death.
Steve Walker, from Thirsk, Yorkshire, worked as a squipper at RAF Kinloss and other bases for a total of nine years between the mid-80s and 2001. He died of throat cancer in 2016 – just over a year after being diagnosed – at the age of 58. “Although the medics in the case said there was an association between his type of cancer and tryke, it doesn’t mean its a cause. They say ‘an association’ isn’t good enough. The studies just aren’t there.”
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