Mortality among workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Evidence of radiation effects in follow-up through 1984.
White men hired at the Oak Ridge (Tenn) National Laboratory between 1943 and 1972 were followed up for vital status through 1984 (N = 8318, 1524 deaths). Relatively low mortality compared with that in US white men was observed for most causes of death, but leukemia mortality was elevated in the total cohort (63% higher, 28 deaths) and in workers who had at some time been monitored for internal radionuclide contamination (123% higher, 16 deaths). Median cumulative dose of external penetrating radiation was 1.4 mSv; 638 workers had cumulative doses above 50 mSv (5 rem). After accounting for age, birth cohort, a measure of socioeconomic status, and active worker status, external radiation with a 20-year exposure lag was related to all causes of death (2.68% increase per 10 mSv) primarily due to an association with cancer mortality (4.94% per 10 mSv). Studies of this population through 1977 did not find radiation-cancer mortality associations, and identical analyses using the shorter follow-up showed that associations with radiation did not appear until after 1977. The radiation-cancer dose response is 10 times higher than estimates from the follow-up of survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, but similar to one previous occupational study. Dose-response estimates are subject to uncertainties due to potential problems, including measurement of radiation doses and cancer outcomes. Longer-term follow-up of this and other populations with good measurement of protracted low-level exposures will be critical to evaluating the generalizability of the results reported herein.
Wing
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Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-7400.
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Wood
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Wolf
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Cragle
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Frome
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D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007953:Leukemia, Radiation-Induced / Q000401:mortality; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000401:mortality*; D009678:Nuclear Energy; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000401:mortality*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011839:Radiation, Ionizing; D013714:Tennessee / Q000453:epidemiology