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Evidence of Radiation Effects in Follow-up Through 1984

Steve Wing, PhD; Carl M. Shy, MD; Joy L. Wood, MS; Susanne Wolf, MPH; Donna L. Cragle, PhD; E. L. Frome, PhD

JAMA. 1991;265(11):1397-1402.

Abstract
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.

(JAMA. 1991;265:1397-1402)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Drs Wing and Shy and Mss Wood and Wolf); Center for Epidemiologic Research, Oak Ridge (Tenn) Associated Universities (Dr Cragle); and Mathematical Sciences Section, Oak Ridge (Tenn) National Laboratory (Dr Frome).

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Epidemiology, CB 7400, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400 (Dr Wing).

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