Mortality from cancers of major sites in female radium dial workers

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1984 · Am. J. Ind. Med.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.4700050604· OSTI ID:6668097

Stebbings, J H; Lucas, H F; Stehney, A F

The female radium dial workers have now experienced significant mortality from cancers other than the bone sarcomas and head carcinomas long known to be radium induced. The relationships of radium exposure to mortality from cancers of the stomach, pancreas, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast, cervix, and corpus uteri, and from leukemia were studied in 1,285 pre-1930 dial workers. Mortality was compared with that expected from rates for US white females, with and without adjustment for local area mortality rates, and with mortality in dial workers exposed from 1930 to 1949. For the 693 cases whose body content of radium has been measured since 1955, dose-response relationships of cancer to systemic intake of radium and duration of employment were examined. Liver, pancreatic, cervical, and uterine cancers were clearly unrelated to radium exposure. Other cancers of the digestive tract appeared to be indirectly, if at all, associated with work in radium facilities. Lung cancer requires further investigation; inhalation exposures of the dial workers were reviewed. Analyses of the breast cancer data uncovered several observations inconsistent with the previously suggested causal association with radium exposure. Multiple myeloma was also reviewed. A threefold excess risk of death due to multiple myeloma has occurred, but is more closely correlated with duration of employment (a surrogate for external gamma radiation) than with radium intake.

• Research Organization: Center for Human Radiobiology, Argonne National Laboratory, IL
• OSTI ID: 6668097
• Journal Information: Am. J. Ind. Med.; (United States), Vol. 5:6
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
DIAL PAINTERS
MORTALITY
RADIATION HAZARDS
NEOPLASMS
EPIDEMIOLOGY
MAMMARY GLANDS
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
RADIUM
SKELETON
WOMEN
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ANIMALS
BODY
DISEASES
ELEMENTS
FEMALES
GLANDS
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
MAMMALS
MAN
METALS
ORGANS
PERSONNEL
PRIMATES
VERTEBRATES
560161* - Radionuclide Effects
Kinetics
& Toxicology- Man