Health Risks of Ionizing Radiation: - Clark University

88 Radiation Workers
Table 6-1. Leukemia in nuclear workers and atomic bomb survivors. Number of cases or deaths
(%) and ERR estimate from each study where available 1 .
Three-country mortality
(Cardis et al. 1995)
Total 146 deaths
1.6/Sv
ALL 11 (8%)
-0.9/Sv
AML 32 (22%)
3.4/Sv
CML 28 (19%)
11/Sv
CLL 27 (18%)
0/Sv 2
concluded that the association cannot be ruled out.
Multiple myeloma has been significantly
associated with radiation at Hanford, Oak Ridge,
Rocketdyne, Sellafield, and in pooled cohorts. The
mortality ERR estimate from the three-country
study was 4.2/Sv (90% CI 0.3-14.4), very close to
the estimate of the NRPB (4.1/Sv, 90% CI 0.03-14.8;
Muirhead et al. 1999). This estimate is almost 4 times
higher than the atomic bomb survivors estimate
(1.15/Sv, 90% CI 0.30-2.7; Preston et al. 2003). In a
separate analysis of workers at four US sites Wing et
al. (2000) found a significant multiple myeloma risk
among workers exposed to radiation after age 45,
and the estimated ERR for these workers was ~7/Sv
assuming a 5-year lag time 37 .
Solid cancer. The estimated ERR for solid cancer
in the three-country workers study was negative
and the upper confidence limit was lower than the
estimate from the atomic bomb survivors. There is
probably some explanation for this difference, and
it might include a number of factors. First, there
were no children among the workers, and children
are often more sensitive to the effects of radiation.
Canadian workers
incidence (Sont et al. 2001)
98 cases
5.4/Sv
Atomic bomb survivors
incidence (Preston et al. 1994)
231 cases
3.9/Sv
- 32 (14%)
10.3/Sv
26 (27%)
5.2/Sv
25 (26%)
-
103 (45%)
3.3/Sv
57 (25%)
6.2/Sv
- 4 (2%)
-
1 Although this table is comparing mortality to incidence data, the proportions of subtypes should be
relatively similar. There is some overlap between the Canadian cohort and the three-country study.
2 The estimated ERR for CLL was –0.95/Sv (90% CI