Glass-based radon-exposure assessment and lung cancer risk.
Lung cancer risk estimation in relation to residential radon exposure remains uncertain, partly as a result of imprecision in air-based retrospective radon-exposure assessment in epidemiological studies. A recently developed methodology provides estimates for past radon concentrations and involves measurement of the surface activity of a glass object that has been in a subject's dwellings through the period for exposure assessment. Such glass measurements were performed for 110 lung cancer subjects, diagnosed 1985 to 1995, and for 231 control subjects, recruited in a case-control study of residential radon and lung cancer among never-smokers in Sweden. The relative risks (with 95% confidence intervals) of lung cancer in relation to categories of surface-based average domestic radon concentration during three decades, delimited by cutpoints at 50, 80, and 140 Bq m(-3), were 1.60 (0.8 to 3.4), 1.96 (0.9 to 4.2), and 2.20 (0.9 to 5.6), respectively, with average radon concentrations below 50 Bq m(-3) used as reference category, and with adjustment for other risk factors. These relative risks, and the excess relative risk (ERR) of 75% (-4% to 430%) per 100 Bq m(-3) obtained when using a continuous variable for surface-based average radon concentration estimates, were about twice the size of the corresponding relative risks obtained among these subjects when using air-based average radon concentration estimates. This suggests that surface-based estimates may provide a more relevant exposure proxy than air-based estimates for relating past radon exposure to lung cancer risk.
Lagarde
Frédéric
F
Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. frederic.lagarde@imm.ki.se
Falk
Rolf
R
Almrén
Katinka
K
Nyberg
Fredrik
F
Svensson
Helena
H
Pershagen
Göran
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005260:Female; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D006794:Household Articles; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011886:Radon / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
D002274:Carcinogens, Environmental; D011886:Radon