Cohort Profile: The Porton Down Veterans cohort study

Abstract: The Porton Down Veterans cohort was established to address concerns raised by former service personnel that their long-term health may have been affected due to their involvement in chemical experiments as part of the ‘Service Volunteer Programme’ at Porton Down, Wiltshire, UK, between 1941 and 1989.1 In 2001, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and UK Ministry of Defence funded an independent epidemiological study led by researchers at the University of Oxford to examine whether service personnel who attended Porton Down had different rates of mortality or cancer incidence compared with service personnel who did not attend Porton Down. In 2018, the MRC awarded further funding for a second phase led by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, King’s College London, UK. The primary aim was to re-examine the original research questions with 15 years of additional cancer and mortality registration data, and the secondary aim was to explore additional uses of the cohort.