Significance of Radiation Exposure from Work-Related Chest X-Rays for Epidemiological Studies of Radiation Workers

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• Personal Author:
  Buncher R ; Cardarelli, John J. II ; Elson H ; Rice C ; Spitz, Henry ; Succop P
• Description:
  Previous epidemiologic studies of workers at nuclear weapons facilities have not included X-ray exposures as part of the occupational radiation exposure. The research objective was to determine the contribution of work-related chest X-ray (WRX) exposure relative to the cumulative occupational radiation exposure. Cases and controls were identified from a cohort of workers whose employment began as early as 1943. Medical records for 297 subjects were used to determine the bone marrow dose from their X-ray examinations. Individual dose data, however, were only available for 45 workers. Bone marrow dose estimates were calculated by converting the entrance-skin-exposure (from X-ray procedures) and occupational exposure (from monitoring data) to dose. Stereoscopic photofluorography delivered a bone marrow dose nearly 100 times that delivered by today's chest X-ray technique. Photofluorography was the predominant radiation source during the 1940s and 1950s. The cumulative WRX dose was, on average, 50 times their occupational doses. No correlation between occupational and WRX dose was found, but may be due to the small study size and incomplete dose data. These findings illustrate the importance of including WRX doses in retrospective epidemiological studies of radiation workers, especially if photofluorographic chest X-rays were performed and occupational exposure to ionizing radiation is low. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Musculoskeletal System Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Radiation Radiography Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: X-rays Bone-marrow Bone Marrow Chest-X-rays Dose Dose-response Employee-exposure Humans Ionizing-radiation Medical-examinations Medical Surveillance Nuclear-radiation Occupational-exposure Occupational Exposure Photofluorography Photofluoroscopy Radiation-exposure Radiation-measurement Stereoscopic X-rays X-ray-absorption

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; 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
• Pages in Document:
  490-501
• Volume:
  42
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022465
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2002 Dec; 42(6):490-501
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Exposure Assessment Methods
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f3d73c61df2f5b41d41adb55c20f9824ee7d7c9e7bed6129658e3a7cb74c9a334da0365c4c912201374b3b0244f9f429e9ed46f57062db31fa7a68b087530d5c
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199234/cdc_199234_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 252.04 KB ]