Veterans Health Administration Update: Military Exposures

Servicemembers who were stationed at Fort McClellan between 1929 and 1971 may have been exposed to low levels of radioactive compounds, chemical warfare agents, and airborne hazards. Learn more about Fort McClellan. 

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/fort-mcclellan/
Fort McClellan was an Army installation in Alabama that opened in 1917.
Some members of the U.S. Army Chemical Corp School, Army Combat Development Command Chemical/Biological/Radiological Agency, Army Military Police School and Women's Army Corps, among others, may have been exposed to one or more of several hazardous materials, likely at low levels, during their service at Fort McClellan. Potential exposures could have included, but are not limited to, the following:

• Radioactive compounds (cesium-137 and cobalt-60) used in decontamination training activities in isolated locations on base.
• Chemical warfare agents (mustard gas and nerve agents) used in decontamination testing activities in isolated locations on base.
• Airborne polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the Monsanto plant in the neighboring town.

Although exposures to high levels of these compounds have been shown to cause a variety of adverse health effects in humans and laboratory animals, there is no evidence of exposures of this magnitude having occurred at Fort McClellan.