Epidemiological studies of the Porton Down veterans
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Epidemiological studies of the Porton Down veterans: a ten-year update of mortality and cancer incidence
IRAS ID
192792
Contact name
Nicola Fear
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study is an update of an original study which investigated whether military veterans who were exposed to chemical agents as part of the ‘human volunteer programme’ at the UK government's research establishment at Porton Down, had unusual rates of cancer incidence or mortality compared to veterans who did not attend Porton Down, and the general population.
During 2002-07, the University of Oxford assembled a cohort of c20,000 Porton Down veterans who took part in the ‘human volunteer programme’ between 1941 and 1989. The veterans’ records were linked to routine data held by the Office for National Statistics to compare their pattern of deaths and cancer registrations up to 2004, with that of a comparison cohort of c20,000 non-Porton Down military veterans. The study established that, although there was a small (6%) excess of all-cause mortality, this could not be attributed to any specific exposure at Porton Down and might have been related to unmeasured factors such as smoking. There was no excess of cancers.
In the subsequent 10 years, chemical warfare agents have been used by rogue states and new questions have been posed about whether low-dose exposure to these agents might have a long-term effect on health.
This study will update mortality and cancer registration data by at least 10 years. This new data will allow us to repeat the analyses carried out previously, but with increased statistical power so we can examine more fully the impact of rare exposures and outcomes at a level of detail not possible in the original study.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1760
Date of REC Opinion
26 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion