Mortality from Diseases Other Than Cancer Following Low Doses of Ionizing Radiation: Results from the 15-Country Study of Nuclear Industry Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ashmore P ; Auvinen A ; Bae JM ; Cardis E ; Engels H ; Gilbert E ; Gulis G ; Habib R ; Howe G ; Kurtinaitis J ; Malker H ; Muirhead C ; Richardson D ; Rodriguez-Artalejo F ; Rogel A ; Schubauer-Berigan, Mary K. ; Tardy H ; Telle-Lamberton M ; Usel M ; Veress K ; Vrijheid M
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: Ionizing radiation at very high (radio-therapeutic) dose levels can cause diseases other than cancer, particularly heart diseases. There is increasing evidence that doses of the order of a few sievert (Sv) may also increase the risk of non-cancer diseases. It is not known, however, whether such effects also occur following the lower doses and dose rates of public health concern. METHODS: We used data from an international (15-country) nuclear workers cohort study to evaluate whether mortality from diseases other than cancer is related to low doses of external ionizing radiation. Analyses included 275 312 workers with adequate information on socioeconomic status, over 4 million person-years of follow-up and an average cumulative radiation dose of 20.7 mSv; 11 255 workers had died of non-cancer diseases. RESULTS: The excess relative risk (ERR) per Sv was 0.24 [95% CI (confidence intervals) -0.23, 0.78] for mortality from all non-cancer diseases and 0.09 (95% CI -0.43, 0.70) for circulatory diseases. Higher risk estimates were observed for mortality from respiratory and digestive diseases, but confidence intervals included zero. Increased risks were observed among the younger workers (attained age <50 years, identified post hoc) for all groupings of non-cancer causes of death, including external causes. It is unclear therefore whether these findings reflect real effects of radiation, random variation or residual confounding. CONCLUSIONS: The most informative low-dose radiation study to date provides little evidence for a relationship between mortality from non-malignant diseases and radiation dose. However, we cannot rule out risks per unit dose of the same order of magnitude as found in studies at higher doses. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Environmental Pollution Neoplasms Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Radiation Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Cancer-rates Employee-health Environmental-contamination Occupational-exposure Occupational-health Radiation-contamination Radiation-effects Radiation-exposure Radiation-measurement Radiation-properties Radiation-sources Radiation-tolerance Radioactive-fallout Radioactive-measurement Work-environment Worker-health Workplace-monitoring Workplace-studies

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• ISSN:
  0300-5771
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; New York ; North Carolina ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  36
• Issue:
  5
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20032504
• Citation:
  Int J Epidemiol 2007 Oct; 36(5):1126-1135
• Contact Point Address:
  International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150, Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France
• Email:
  vrijheid@iarc.fr
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Epidemiology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4cd7e14685b7c25361472879b2665357be9eba06afc0e0038f99883636dd8de84f7bb4af86a1ea4ec5f170d0c886a4b7b926ce6e9ef062f7a8145c0dd75f544e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/186446/cdc_186446_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 132.46 KB ]