Cohort profile: the International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS)

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cardis E ; Daniels, Robert D. ; Gillies M ; Hamra GB ; Haylock R ; Kesminiene A ; Laurier D ; Leuraud K ; Moissonnier M ; O'Hagan JA ; Richardson DB ; Schubauer-Berigan, Mary K. ; Thierry-Chef I
• Description:
  The effects of exposure to ionizing radiation have been studied for decades. The health effects of moderate to high exposure are well characterized, but the effects of lowlevel, chronic exposure remain a subject of continued debate. Moreover, repeated or protracted low-dose rate exposures to ionizing radiation have become increasingly common over the past quarter-century. The largest contributor to this trend has been medical radiation exposure. Since the 1980s, studies of nuclear industry workers have been conducted to provide direct information about these effects. These cohorts are well suited for this purpose: they include large number of workers, with individual (person-specific) monitoring of external doses and many years of follow-up. Estimates from early, cohortspecific studies, were, however, compatible with a wide range of possibilities, from a reduction of risk at low doses to risks higher than those on which current radiation protection recommendations are based. To further improve the precision of estimates of radiation- induced cancer risk following protracted low doses of ionizing radiation and to strengthen the scientific basis of radiation protection standards, an International Collaborative Study of Cancer Risk among Radiation Workers in the Nuclear Industry, the '15-Country Study', was carried out using a common core protocol in 15 countries. Information was collected on nearly 600,000 workers and a thorough study of errors in recorded doses was carried out to evaluate the comparability of recorded dose estimates across facilities and time, and to identify and quantify sources of bias and uncertainties in dose estimates, which were taken into account in the statistical analyses of the results. Within the 15-country study, the cohorts of nuclear workers from France, the UK and the USA provided the vast majority of the information available on early nuclear workers. They provided 62% of the person-years of follow-up and 67% of cancer and leukaemia deaths. In recent years, the cohorts from France, the UK and the USA have been updated. The International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS) was therefore established to provide a basis for deriving more precise quantitative estimates of the risk of chronic, low-level exposure to ionizing radiation, through an improved understanding of the association between protracted low-dose exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality due to solid and haematological cancers, and circulatory diseases. Specifically, the INWORKS consortium builds upon the work conducted for the 15-country study by taking advantage of data from the most informative cohorts involved in that study. INWORKS has the potential to improve on estimates obtained from the 15-country study and the knowledge derived from the information on workers exposed to chronic, low-dose exposures will contribute to the understanding of risks to members of the public exposed to background (low-level, chronic) radiation. INWORKS is organized by, and data are housed at, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). INWORKS is a retrospective cohort study of workers employed by: the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), AREVANuclear Cycle (formerly COGEMA) and the National Electricity Company (EDF) in France; the Departments of Energy and Defense in the USA; and, in the UK, by nuclear industry employers included in the National Registry for Radiation Workers (NRRW). [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Men Occupational Health Radiation Radiation Dosimeters Safety Women Workplace
• Keywords:
  Dose-response Dosimetry Exposure-levels Humans Monitoring-systems Neutron-radiation Nuclear-fuels Nuclear-radiation Radiation-effects Radiation-exposure Radiation-hazards Radiation-properties Statistical-analysis Work-environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  0300-5771
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• 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:
  45
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046500
• Citation:
  Int J Epidemiol 2015 Jun; 45(3):693-699
• Contact Point Address:
  Ghassan B Hamra, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health, 3215 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
• Email:
  ghassan.b.hamra@drexel.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20110901
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Epidemiology
• End Date:
  20140630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ffa5dc1e692f979c85d78ff4701988eed424c8b48e29e8dcbfdcc34eec04dc1ba0c9f088fbeb45c0ea9f854e07c0fddff17d194f41af05a27b52662e245c9afc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201546/cdc_201546_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 313.26 KB ]