O7.1 EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES TO EXPLORE THE HEALTH OF PORTON DOWN VETERANS: STUDY DESIGN AND RESULTS FROM THE PILOT PHASE

K. M. Venables, L. M. Carpenter, T. Keegan, S. Allender, C. Brooks, V. Beral, M. J. Nieuwenhuijsen¹, P. Doyle², N. Maconochie², T. Fletcher².Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Imperial College¹, London, UK; London School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene², UK

Introduction: The UK has carried out trials relating to chemical warfare (CW) defence (the “human volunteer programme”) since the First World War at a facility at Porton Down. A wide variety of CW agents was used, including nerve agents and vesicants. Most participants were servicemen, and recently veterans have raised concerns about potential longterm health effects. Two studies have been commissioned by the UK Medical Research Council: (a) a cohort study of mortality and cancer incidence and (b) a symptoms survey of a group of veterans. We report their design, and also results from an initial 12 month pilot phase. The approach to detailed exposure assessment is reported separately.

Methods and Results: (a) The Porton Down cohort consists of all those participating in the “human volunteer programme” during 1939–89 and is believed to total 19 492. Of these, 35% were exposed in the 1940s, 33% in the 1950s, 12% in the 1960s, 12% in the 1970s, and 8% in the 1980s. Personal identifiers, such as date of birth and military service number, are currently being assembled from military personnel files. The pilot phase assessed the feasibility of assembling a control cohort using the neighbouring service number to the Porton Down cohort members. This gave comparability in age, sex, branch of the military, and military rank. Both cohorts are being submitted to the UK Office for National Statistics. The pilot phase suggests that a trace rate of at least 80% will be achieved. Progress to …