UI studies munitions workers
Lauren Sieben - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 5/16/08 Section: Metro
When community members in the Burlington area near the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant voiced concerns about Army employees' exposure to health-threatening materials, the UI College of Public Health responded.
Under contract of the U.S. Department of Defense, researchers in the College of Public Health have spent two years working on the Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant Munitions Workers Study to determine whether munitions-related work at the plant increased mortality or cancer rates for former workers.
The study also seeks to determine if workers exposed to beryllium alloy tools have experienced an increase in beryllium sensitization, which has been proven to lead to chronic beryllium disease.
Laurence Fuortes, a UI professor of occupational and environmental health and the principal investigator of the study, said that the munitions-worker study came about after the College of Public Health began work on the U.S. Department of Energy's Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program around seven years ago.
The Former Workers Program offers medical screenings to Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant workers who specifically worked with nuclear and atomic weapons.
"People in the community said, 'What about the Army workers [who did not work with nuclear or atomic weapons] who had very similar exposures?' " Fuortes said. "They contacted Sen. [Tom] Harkin and us about this."
The community concern that led to the implementation of the munitions-worker study.
The study focuses on employees who worked at the plant between 1950 and 2000, when beryllium tools were used in weapon production. Beryllium is a spark-proof metal used in the high explosives industry to avoid explosions in plants; it has also been proven to lead to health complications among people who have inhaled fine grains of the metal. The plant stopped using beryllium in 2000, Fuortes said.
The College of Public Health has offered beryllium testing to workers for approximately two years. The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, located in Middletown, has produced conventional missile warheads, large caliber tank ammunitions, mines, mortars, artillery, demolition charges, and weapons' component parts since the 1940s.
Under contract of the U.S. Department of Defense, researchers in the College of Public Health have spent two years working on the Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant Munitions Workers Study to determine whether munitions-related work at the plant increased mortality or cancer rates for former workers.
The study also seeks to determine if workers exposed to beryllium alloy tools have experienced an increase in beryllium sensitization, which has been proven to lead to chronic beryllium disease.
Laurence Fuortes, a UI professor of occupational and environmental health and the principal investigator of the study, said that the munitions-worker study came about after the College of Public Health began work on the U.S. Department of Energy's Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program around seven years ago.
The Former Workers Program offers medical screenings to Iowa Army Ammunitions Plant workers who specifically worked with nuclear and atomic weapons.
"People in the community said, 'What about the Army workers [who did not work with nuclear or atomic weapons] who had very similar exposures?' " Fuortes said. "They contacted Sen. [Tom] Harkin and us about this."
The community concern that led to the implementation of the munitions-worker study.
The study focuses on employees who worked at the plant between 1950 and 2000, when beryllium tools were used in weapon production. Beryllium is a spark-proof metal used in the high explosives industry to avoid explosions in plants; it has also been proven to lead to health complications among people who have inhaled fine grains of the metal. The plant stopped using beryllium in 2000, Fuortes said.
The College of Public Health has offered beryllium testing to workers for approximately two years. The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, located in Middletown, has produced conventional missile warheads, large caliber tank ammunitions, mines, mortars, artillery, demolition charges, and weapons' component parts since the 1940s.
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