Impact of occupational exposures on distress among former nuclear weapons workers

BACKGROUND: From 1949 to mid-1975, Line 1 former workers from the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown, Iowa assembled, disassembled, modified, and tested nuclear weapons and also conducted research on high explosives. This work exposed them to many toxic substances, including ionizing radiation, high explosives, solvents, beryllium, and asbestos, which can lead to occupational lung diseases and cancers. Former workers learning about their past exposures 50-60 years later can elicit specific stressors such as chronic worry, uncertainty, anger, shock, betrayal, and fear, which increase the risk for developing non-clinical stress reactions such as generalized anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress.

METHODS: From 2001-2010, the self-administered Health and Occupational History Questionnaires were given to 1,376 Line 1 former workers. Prevalence of distress symptoms and correlations by age, gender, occupational exposures, and type and duration of work of the ‘distress in relation to work scale' are presented.

RESULTS: With respect to work on Line 1, former workers report having trouble concentrating (28%) and feeling irritable and angry (31%) and downhearted and blue (32%) ‘a little of the time.' They have trouble falling asleep (16%), staying asleep (19%) and trouble concentrating (11%) ‘most of the time.'

CONCLUSION: Line 1 former workers experience symptoms of distress, anxiety and depression, which may be in part a sequela of anxieties regarding unknown health risks and working in an environment of maximal security and secrecy. Effective health risk communication and supportive counseling will help diminish stress, calm anxieties, and reduce non-compliance and alienation from health care providers.