Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.

We examined associations between low-level exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality among 14,095 workers hired at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1943 and 1972. Workers at the facility were individually monitored for external exposure to ionizing radiation and have been followed throug...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Richardson, D B, Wing, S
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: 1999
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566496/
id pubmed-1566496
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-15664962006-09-19 Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages. Richardson, D B Wing, S Research Article We examined associations between low-level exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality among 14,095 workers hired at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1943 and 1972. Workers at the facility were individually monitored for external exposure to ionizing radiation and have been followed through 1990 to ascertain cause of death information. Positive associations were observed between low-level exposure to external ionizing radiation and mortality. These associations were larger for doses received after 45 years of age, larger under longer lag assumptions, and primarily due to cancer causes of death. All cancer mortality was estimated to increase 4.98% [standard error (SE) = 1.5] per 10-mSv cumulative dose received after age 45 under a 10-year lag, and 7.31% (SE = 2.2) per 10-mSv cumulative dose received after age 45 under a 20-year lag. Associations between radiation dose and lung cancer were of similar magnitude to associations between radiation dose and all cancers except lung cancer. Nonmalignant respiratory disease exhibited a positive association with cumulative radiation dose received after age 45, whereas ischemic heart disease exhibited no association with radiation dose. These findings suggest increases in cancer mortality associated with low-level external exposure to ionizing radiation and potentially greater sensitivity to the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation with older ages at exposure. 1999-08 /pmc/articles/PMC1566496/ /pubmed/10417363 Text en
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Richardson, D B
Wing, S
spellingShingle Richardson, D B
Wing, S
Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
author_facet Richardson, D B
Wing, S
author_sort Richardson, D B
title Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
title_short Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
title_full Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
title_fullStr Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
title_full_unstemmed Radiation and mortality of workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
title_sort radiation and mortality of workers at oak ridge national laboratory: positive associations for doses received at older ages.
description We examined associations between low-level exposure to ionizing radiation and mortality among 14,095 workers hired at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1943 and 1972. Workers at the facility were individually monitored for external exposure to ionizing radiation and have been followed through 1990 to ascertain cause of death information. Positive associations were observed between low-level exposure to external ionizing radiation and mortality. These associations were larger for doses received after 45 years of age, larger under longer lag assumptions, and primarily due to cancer causes of death. All cancer mortality was estimated to increase 4.98% [standard error (SE) = 1.5] per 10-mSv cumulative dose received after age 45 under a 10-year lag, and 7.31% (SE = 2.2) per 10-mSv cumulative dose received after age 45 under a 20-year lag. Associations between radiation dose and lung cancer were of similar magnitude to associations between radiation dose and all cancers except lung cancer. Nonmalignant respiratory disease exhibited a positive association with cumulative radiation dose received after age 45, whereas ischemic heart disease exhibited no association with radiation dose. These findings suggest increases in cancer mortality associated with low-level external exposure to ionizing radiation and potentially greater sensitivity to the carcinogenic effects of ionizing radiation with older ages at exposure.
publishDate 1999
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566496/
_version_ 1611387695302443008