Radiation doses and cause-specific mortality among workers at a nuclear materials fabrication plant
A historical cohort mortality study was conducted among 6781 white male employees from a nuclear weapons materials fabrication plant for the years 1947-1979. Exposures of greatest concern are alpha and gamma radiation emanating primarily from insoluble uranium compounds. Among monitored workers, the mean cumulative alpha radiation dose to the lung was 8.21 rem, and the mean cumulative external whole body penetrating dose from gamma radiation was 0.96 rem. Relative to US white males, the cohort experienced mortality deficits from all causes combined, cardiovascular diseases, and from most site-specific cancers. Mortality excesses of lung and brain and central nervous system cancers were seen from comparisons with national and state rates. Dose-response trends were detected for lung cancer mortality with respect to cumulative alpha and gamma radiation, with the most pronounced trend occurring for gamma radiation among workers who received greater than or equal to 5 rem of alpha radiation. These trends diminished in magnitude when a 10-year latency assumption was applied. Under a zero-year latency assumption, the rate ratio for lung cancer mortality associated with joint exposure of greater than or equal to 5 versus less than 1 rem of both types of radiation is 4.60 (95% confidence limits (CL) 0.91, 23.35), while the corresponding result, assuming a 10-year latency, is 3.05 (95% CL 0.37, 24.83). While these rate ratios, which are based on three and one death, respectively, lack statistical precision, the observed dose-response trends indicate potential carcinogenic effects to the lung of relatively low-dose radiation. There are no dose-response trends for mortality from brain and central nervous system cancers.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- OSTI ID:
- 5479053
- Journal Information:
- Am. J. Epidemiol.; (United States), Vol. 127:2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Mortality through 1990 among white male workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory: Considering exposures to plutonium and external ionizing radiation
Brain tumor risk among United States nuclear workers
Related Subjects
BRAIN
NEOPLASMS
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
LUNGS
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOINDUCTION
ALPHA PARTICLES
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
GAMMA RADIATION
MORTALITY
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES
PERSONNEL
TENNESSEE
BODY
CHARGED PARTICLES
DISEASES
DOSES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FEDERAL REGION IV
IONIZING RADIATIONS
NERVOUS SYSTEM
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANS
RADIATIONS
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
USA
WEAPONS
560151* - Radiation Effects on Animals- Man