Warbird Information Exchange

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News in Australia just released is that C-130 Hercules maintainers from the past, at Richmond Air base have suffered massive and serious cancer problems in cleaning the wings and fuel tanks it seems.

This is very akin to the RAAF long drawn out saga with the F-111 fuel tank problems wing etc where many men died and suffered from the toxins.

The same has now come to news tonight regarding the C130 toxic cleaning.. many men have died and others are potentially nearing death.

It raises issues are all other C-130 world wide maintainers been exposed to the nasty chemicals if so how many have died or etc?

This is a down side to warbirds.. maybe one reason why C-130s and F-111 may never be seen in private hands?

Michael McKenna | November 12, 2008
Article from: The Australian
RUGBY league great Tommy Raudonikis, regarded as one of the hardmen of football, is facing his toughest ever opponent as he takes on the Defence Department to prove his RAAF service gave him cancer.

The former NSW and Australia halfback is preparing legal action, claiming a cancerous testicle he had removed in the mid-1980s was linked to his years of work inside the fuel tanks of the air force's main transport plane, the C-130 Hercules.

Raudonikis is among a growing number of former RAAF maintenance crew fighting the Defence and Veterans Affairs departments over exposure to toxic chemicals amid deplorable working conditions as they tried to fix fuel tank leaks on aircraft, including Hercules and F-111s.

Many of Raudonikis's former colleagues have died from rare cancers or are engaged in expensive legal battles for compensation and recognition that their illnesses are linked to their daily exposure to a cocktail of chemicals, earning them the "goop troop" tag at the time.

"We worked in these tanks for hours at a time, inhaling the fuel and chemical fumes, with just gloves and overalls," Raudonikis told The Australian.

"There were no warnings about the health hazards, and you have got all these blokes, me included, getting these rare cancers and illnesses.

"There needs to be an investigation and the Government has to look after people like me who have served their country and done the right thing. They would compensate us if we were sent to war, but they don't seem to want to help blokes who trusted the RAAF but are now suffering. "Itisa battle worth fighting."

In 2004, a health study found there was a 40 to 50 per cent higher incidence of cancer among maintenance units involved in the F-111 "deseal/reseal" program, set up in 1977.

The Howard government announced a $20million scheme giving automatic ex-gratia payments of between $10,000 and $40,000 to those involved in the program. The scheme included medical care and allowed for more substantive compensation claims to be pursued through the courts. But the compensation program excluded maintenance workers, who did the same work on the F-111s, between 1973 and 1976, as well as airmen carrying out ad hoc fuel tank repairs on the aircraft until 2000.

Hundreds of these workers are suffering illness or depression, but are having their compensation claims rejected.Queensland solicitor John Cockburn, who is representing several former servicemen, including Raudonikis, said the treatment of the former airmen was a national disgrace.

"There are hundreds who have worked on these aircraft in terrible conditions and who are now suffering, but the Government has turned their back on them," he said.