Cancer mortality among French Atomic Energy Commission workers.
BACKGROUND
All causes and cancer mortality of 58,320 workers employed at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) between 1946 and 1994 were compared with that of the general population in a retrospective cohort study.


METHODS
Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR) were computed with reference to the French national population.


RESULTS
Between 1968 and 1994, 4,809 deaths occurred. A healthy worker effect is observed for men (SMR = 0.57, CI(90%) = [0.56;0.59]) and for women (SMR = 0.72, CI(90%) = [0.67;0.77]). Nine sites of cancer death were found to be in statistically significant deficit among men, none among women. An excess of pleural cancers is observed among men (SMR = 1.79, CI(90%) = [1.27;2.45]) and of malignant melanoma (SMR = 1.50, CI(90%) = [1.04;2.11]). An excess of breast cancer is observed among women on the borderline of significance (SMR = 1.14, CI(90%) = [0.94;1.37]).


CONCLUSIONS
Excesses observed will have to be related to occupational exposures in the on-going cohort study on French nuclear workers which includes a retrospective exposures assessment.
Telle-Lamberton
M
M
Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire/DPHD/SEGR/BP17/, F92265 Fontenay-aux-roses, France. maylis.telle-lamberton@isrn.fr
Bergot
D
D
Gagneau
M
M
Samson
E
E
Giraud
J M
JM
Néron
M O
MO
Hubert
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D009678:Nuclear Energy; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011210:Power Plants; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012307:Risk Factors; D000078329:Workforce