title: Uranium carcinogenicity in humans might depend on the physical and chemical nature of uranium and its isotopic composition: results from pilot epidemiological study of French nuclear workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the cancer risk related to protracted, low-dose exposure to different industrial uranium compounds, paying attention to their isotopic composition and solubility.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two thousand and ninety-seven workers employed at the AREVA NC uranium processing plant (France) were followed up for mortality from 1960 to 2006. Historical exposure to uranium and other carcinogenic chemical and physical pollutants was assessed on the basis of the plant-specific job-exposure matrix. For each type of uranium, Cox regression models stratified on sex and calendar period, and adjusted for socioeconomic status and potentially confounding co-exposures were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality from lung cancer (53 deaths) and lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue malignancies (21 deaths).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observed that exposure to reprocessed uranium entails increasing risks of mortality from lung cancer and lymphatic and hematopoietic malignancies (the most significant HR being respectively 1.14 (95% CI: 1.00-1.31) and 1.20 (95% CI: 1.01-1.43) per unit of a time-lagged log-transformed continuous exposure scores), and that the HRs tend to increase with decreasing solubility of the compounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that uranium carcinogenicity may depend on isotopic composition and solubility of uranium compounds. This study is the first to show the carcinogenic effect of slowly soluble reprocessed uranium on two uranium target organs. This finding is consistent with data from epidemiological and experimental studies on similar compounds but need to be confirmed in the more powerful dose-response analysis.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Service de Radiobiologie et d'Epidémiologie, Fontenay aux Roses, France. irina.canu@irsn.fr
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Guseva Canu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cardis
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caër
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Auriol
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Garsi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tirmarche
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Laurier
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D000077192:Adenocarcinoma of Lung; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017974:Uranium Compounds / Q000506:poisoning*
chemical_list: D017974:Uranium Compounds