Cancer hits hundreds of officers from bomb squad

A ‘significant link’ between exposure to explosives and the often fatal disease has been found in research led by a former British Army chief.

A Royal Navy bomb disposal expert conducts confirmation drills during routine Counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Device) training. Picture: UK Ministry of Defence

When Brigadier General Gareth Collett was leading the Ministry of Defence’s bomb disposal unit more than a decade ago, he came across more and more instances of colleagues getting cancer.

He was concerned by what he heard and after retiring from the military in 2018, he set about trying to prove a link between bladder cancer and contact with explosives. As he did the research, Collett himself was diagnosed with the often-deadly disease.

Now his study has been published in the medical journal BJU International and at the European Association of Urology Annual Congress in Madrid.

The survey suggests that the incidence of bladder cancer among bomb disposal officers aged under 70 may be five times higher than among the general public.

Gareth Collett, former head of the Ministry of Defence’s bomb disposal unit, had bladder cancer diagnosed after 33 years of service. Picture: Supplied Picture: LinkedIn

Collett, 58, who was appointed a CBE in 2013, told The Times: “I don’t mind fighting the Taliban and dealing with bombs for all of my career. It’s the unknown risks you are not aware of that you don’t expect to creep up on you that are real shockers. I didn’t expect to get cancer doing bomb disposal, doing something for my country.” The study, which was conducted by a team from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), the University of Birmingham, King’s College London, the University of Glasgow and Swansea Bay University Health Board, found that of 2,300 veterans who had served in explosive ordnance disposal since 1970, 30 per cent had received a bladder cancer diagnosis.

Collett, who is an executive director at UWTSD’s Wales Institute of Science and Art, and was the study’s lead author, said the findings suggested a “significant link” between exposure to explosives encountered by ammunition technicians and bladder cancer. The exposure related to the disposal of munitions containing nitroexplosive compounds such as TNT and their combustion products.

Given the survey’s small sample size, Collett has called for a definitive study based on the findings because it could “lead to real change that saves lives”.

Professor Rik Bryan, director of the Bladder Cancer Research Centre at the University of Birmingham and a co-author of the study, said there was a “strong signal that there is a considerably increased risk of bladder cancer among members of the ammunition technician profession who are exposed to certain explosives on a regular basis”.

Homemade bombs can contain the human carcinogen nitrobenzene. Picture: Supplied

Captain Bob Clay, one of those involved in the study, served for 27 years in the British Army, 12 of which were as an ammunition technician. In this time, during three tours of Northern Ireland, he was exposed to homemade explosives containing nitrobenzene. The 78-year-old, from Yorkshire, left the military in 1994 and in 2023 was told he had bladder cancer.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified nitrobenzene as a probable human carcinogen - substances that may increase the risk of developing cancer.

In 2023, Collett revealed his own cancer diagnosis in a private social media group for retired and serving ammunition technicians. Within days, others members reported similar diagnoses, leading Collett and a team of urologists, epidemiologists and scientists to investigate.

Collett was 56 when he received his diagnosis in November 2023, and had been an ammunition technical officer for 33 years, touring Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I was fortunate to survive when many of my friends and colleagues did not,” he said. “However, I carry psychological scars and wasn’t expecting to deal with another unwanted consequence of military service. It affects your life and those around you.”

Collett is keen for the Ministry of Defence to change its military safety regulations regarding the disposal and handling of explosives.

Since the research began, two more veterans have had bladder cancer diagnosed.

The Ministry of Defence said: “We are committed to ensuring the safety of our people, whose health is a top priority, and will carefully review this new research.”

The Times