A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would study high cancer rates among American military pilots.
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, sponsored the Aviators Cancers Examination Study along with Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton.
It would direct the Veterans Administration to work with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to study prevalence of cancer and high death rates among air crew of fixed wing planes in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
Kelly, a former Navy pilot, has called for a greater understanding of unforeseen risk factors faced by pilots and others.
A bipartisan House companion bill was introduced last year.
According to a Defense Department study, aircrew members have a 24% higher chance of developing cancer than the overall U.S. population, including highly elevated rates of melanoma and thyroid cancer.