Mortality among workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Evidence of radiation effects in follow-up through 1984

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 265; no. 11; p. 1397
• Main Authors: Wing, S, Shy, C M, Wood, J L, Wolf, S, Cragle, D L, Frome, E L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 20.03.1991
• Subjects: Cause of Death; Cohort Studies; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Leukemia, Radiation-Induced - mortality; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Male; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced - mortality; Nuclear Energy; Occupational Diseases - mortality; Occupational Exposure; Radiation Dosage; Radiation Injuries - mortality; Radiation Monitoring; Radiation, Ionizing; Tennessee - epidemiology; Tennessee
• ISSN: 0098-7484
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.1991.03460110063025

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.