Patterns of lung cancer mortality among uranium miners in West Bohemia with varying rates of exposure to radon and its progeny
- National Institute of Public Health, Prague (Czech Republic)
- Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Oxford (United Kingdom)
- Univ. College London (United Kingdom)
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (United Kingdom)
- Health Institute of Uranium Industry, Pribram (Czech Republic)
Lung cancer mortality in a cohort of 4320 miners employed during 1948-1959 at the Jachymov and Horni Slavkov uranium mines in West Bohemia and followed until 1 January 1991 has been studied to gain a greater understanding of the consequences of exposure to radon and its progeny. Among men whose exposure rates never exceeded 10 working levels, excess relative risks per unit exposure were greater in younger men, and exposures received in the periods 15-24, 25-34 and 35+ years previously were found to have 47, 24 and 0% of the effect of exposures 5-14 years previously. Within this low-exposure-rate group excess relative risk increased linearly with time-weighted cumulative exposure and did not depend on exposure rate or duration of exposure. For men who spent less than 20% of their employment at the Jachymov mine the excess relative risk per working level month was 1.36% (95% confidence interval 0.52-3.54) in the baseline category (age group 55+ and exposure received 5-14 years previously). For men who spent more than 20% of their employment at Jachymov, the corresponding excess relative risk per working level month was higher by a factor of 1.80 (95% confidence interval 1.27-2.97). The difference may be due to the fact that men who spent more than 20% of their employment at Jachymov were exposed to the much higher levels of arsenic in the dust at the Jachymov mine than at other mines. When men with exposure rates above 10 working levels were included in the analysis, patterns of risk were complex and depended on both exposure rate and duration of exposure in addition to the factors mentioned above. If these findings are confirmed elsewhere, calculation of risk estimates for extrapolation to modern occupational or environmental exposures should be based on miners with exposure rates below about 10 working levels. Further investigation is desirable of the influence of dusts containing arsenic on lung cancer risk in miners exposed to radon. 19 refs., 4 figs., 5 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 6592615
- Journal Information:
- Radiation Research; (United States), Vol. 137:2; ISSN 0033-7587
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Risk of lung cancer mortality after expsosure to radon decay products in the Beaverlodge cohort based on revised exposure estimates
Quantitative evaluation of the radon and lung cancer association in a case control study of Chinese tin miners
Related Subjects
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
LUNGS
NEOPLASMS
MINERS
CUMULATIVE RADIATION EFFECTS
MORTALITY
RADON
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
ARSENIC
DUSTS
RISK ASSESSMENT
URANIUM MINES
ANIMALS
BODY
DISEASES
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
MAMMALS
MAN
MINES
NONMETALS
ORGANS
PERSONNEL
PRIMATES
RADIATION EFFECTS
RARE GASES
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
SEMIMETALS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
VERTEBRATES
560160* - Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology
550900 - Pathology